Gymnast married an Arab sheikh, but the fairy tale turned into a nightmare (video)

 

There is hardly a girl who doesn't dream of marrying a prince. Azerbaijani gymnast Zeynab Javadli from Baku was lucky (or so she thought) - a modern-day Cinderella story happened to her.

Zeynab was born into an ordinary family in Baku, Azerbaijan. Her parents were not rich. She worked hard on herself and became a famous gymnast.

Zeynab has competed in European and world competitions for her native Azerbaijan. She was predicted to have a great future in sports, but in 2012 she had to end her sports career due to an injury.

The athlete first worked as a coach in Turkey, and then returned to Baku, where she opened a gymnastics section for children.

In 2015, her life would change completely. Then Dubai's Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum al-Maktoum flew to Azerbaijan for a sports competition and took a great liking to Zeynab. Saeed's father was once the Emir of Dubai, and his uncle currently holds that position.

Zeinab and Said had something in common - a love of sports. The wealthy sheikh is a former Olympic archery champion.

Zeynab was impressed by his athletic qualities. However, it turned out that at that time the sheikh was already married and had two wives and nine children. His first wife was his cousin, the second was an “ordinary” waitress from Minsk.

Their romance was short-lived, and Zeinab didn't have time to get to know her husband. So she didn't know that her husband quickly lost interest in his wives, and soon the girls found themselves locked in a golden cage.

This happened to her too. After the wedding, her life changed radically. The trainer moved to a luxurious palace in the UAE and gave birth to three daughters to Said. She lived with her children in a separate palace and no one knew what kind of relationship she had with the sheikh's other two wives.

After the birth of his third daughter, Said distanced himself: he stopped paying attention to his wife and saw her less and less often. Quarrels began, which very soon led to divorce.

The shocking video

No one knew what her days were like, how she lived. Judging by the photos she posted on social media, everything seemed "normal."

Until one day she posts a video calling for help. It turns out her life wasn't a fairy tale at all.

"I can't give my children to strangers. This is how they treat me. 'There is no law,'" the girl says in the video from years ago, which shows several people whom Zainab reveals are connected to the sheikh.

"We were left without water, without food, without anything. This has been going on for 9 months. 'I'm afraid they'll break down the door and take my children,'" says Zeinab in the video, who had to lock herself in with her children to prevent the sheikh's men from taking them.

She added that her mobile phone, which contained evidence of the harassment she had suffered, was also taken away.

In the heartbreaking video, a little girl can also be heard screaming, "You're not taking us anywhere."

Zeinab wanted to leave the Emirates with her children to live freely, she even contacted the embassy of her home country, but they couldn't help her. They told her there was nothing they could do about the situation.

Zeinab today

When their case was not resolved by local courts (and how could it be otherwise, after such a high-ranking Dubai sheikh was being tried), the woman's lawyers took the dispute to the United Nations. The Emirati lawyers claimed that she was a bad mother, and the Azerbaijani woman expressed concerns for her safety.

Eventually, her representatives stopped showing up at the trial. Zeinab deleted her Instagram account, where she had previously complained about her difficult life. But a few years later, she reactivated it.

Today she is uploading photos again, seemingly looking happy.

In her latest photos, you can see that she is with her children, but she is now living in a new place – not in a palace, but in a more modest building.

That is, she did not manage to escape from the UAE, her living conditions simply changed. Apparently, either the parties came to an agreement and restored family relations, or the former spouses agreed in another way. At least on social networks there are no more scary videos in which the woman complains.

We can add that Zeinab should have imagined what she was getting into and understood how the Eastern fairy tale could end. On top of that, she is a Muslim and clearly knew whose side the Sharia would take in this case.

However, no one deserves such a fate. As a foreigner, she should have the right to leave the country, and as a mother, the right, if not to raise, then at least to see her children.