Dubai’s Sheikh’s new Filipina wife caught with lover – ends in double honor killing
A 19-year-old Filipina was found dead in the desert along with her friend just weeks after marrying an influential sheikh from Dubai. Both were killed by a gunshot to the head. Liana Raymond grew up in the small town of San Miguel on the island of Luzon, a province where most families live on just a few dollars a day.
His father worked in the rice fields and his mother sold vegetables at the local market. The family had five children and Liana was the oldest. The house was a simple hut with bamboo walls and a palm leaf roof. The electricity was intermittent and there was no running water. The young woman finished the local school at age 16 and began helping her mother at the market.
I earned about $20 a week [from music]. That money was barely enough to feed the family. His younger brothers and sisters were unable to continue their studies due to a lack of money to buy school supplies and uniforms. Liana’s father suffered from chronic back pain after a work accident, but the family did not have the money to pay for his treatment.
In the village there was a small agency that helped local girls find work abroad. Many went to the Persian Gulf countries as domestic workers or nannies. They earned dozens of times more there than in the Philippines. Families receiving remittances from their daughters working [in music] in Dubai or Abu Dhabi could afford to renovate their house, buy a motorcycle, or pay for the education of their younger children.
Maria Santos was Liana’s friend since childhood. They grew up on neighboring streets. They went to school together and spent all their free time together. Maria’s family was even poorer. The young woman’s father died of malaria when she was 12 years old [music] and her mother was left alone with four children.
Maria was forced to drop out of school at age 14 to help her family. She worked as a cleaner at a local hotel, earning about $1 a week. [music] When Maria turned 18, she went to the same agency and went to Dubai to work as a domestic worker. The contract was for 2 years and the salary was $400 per month.
He sent most of the money to his mother. Maria’s employer was a wealthy family from the Jumeira neighborhood. [music] The house had eight bedrooms, a swimming pool and a large garden. Maria was in charge of cleaning and working in the kitchen. The workday lasted from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and he had practically no days off. Liana stayed in the Philippines and continued working in the market.
The girls kept in touch through messengers. Maria told him about life in Dubai, about the wealth of the local families, about how much money was spent on things that in the Philippines would be considered an incredible luxury. He described cars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, jewelry, international designer clothes, and houses the size of an entire city block in his town.
A year after Maria left, Liana’s family’s financial situation worsened. The father permanently lost the ability to work due to progressive back problems. The family’s income fell to a critical level. Liana’s mother began asking neighbors for small loans to buy food. The debts were growing.
The youngest children were going hungry. Liana understood that the situation required drastic measures. He went to an agency to find him a job in Dubai. The agency employee, a middle-aged man in a white shirt, was sitting behind an old wooden table and looking through a folder of documents. He explained that the demand for Filipina domestic workers had decreased and that competition was high.
Wages had dropped to $350 a month. But there are other options, he said, options that can bring in much more money. The agency sometimes received offers from wealthy Arab men looking for wives in Southeast Asia. These marriages were legal under Islamic law, which allowed men to have up to four wives at the same time.
The Philippines were highly sought after for their youth, their mission, and their willingness to convert to Islam. The brides’ families were paid the mahar, the wedding ransom, which could range from [music] 50 to 150,000 depending on the age and appearance of the young woman. An employee of the agency took a photograph out of a folder.
The photo showed an older man dressed in traditional white clothing with a red and white headscarf. Barbacanosa, dark eyes, wrinkles on the face. The man was 65 years old. His name was Khalid Almansuri. He was a member of an influential family clan that owned several construction companies and large tracts of land in Dubai.
His fortune was estimated at tens of millions of dollars. Chalid already had three wives. The first was his cousin, whom he had married more than 40 years ago. He had five adult children with her. His second wife had given him three children. The third, much younger, was originally from Syria and had joined the family 10 years ago.
Chalid had no children with his third wife and was now looking for a fourth, the last wife according to Islamic law. The agency sent Chalid several profiles of young Filipina women willing to consider a marriage proposal. Among them was Liana’s profile with several photos. In the photos, the young woman appeared shy, with long, dark hair and large brown eyes.
Chalid chose her. He told the agency representative that the young woman seemed modest and polite, just as the wife of a pious Muslim should be . The agency contacted Liana’s family. An employee went to her town and presented the proposal to the young woman’s father. The delicacy would amount to $100,000.
Half of the sum would be paid immediately after signing the contract and the other half would be transferred after the wedding. Liana would have to convert to Islam, learn the basic prayers and the rules of conduct of a Muslim wife. The agency would take care of all the necessary documents, the visa, and the flight.
Liana’s father was Catholic, like most of the inhabitants of her town. The idea of his daughter embracing another religion and marrying an older foreigner with three wives was alien to him, but he looked at his hungry young children, at his wife, who cried at night because of debts, at his own hands. that they could no longer work.
$50,000 would solve all of the family’s problems for many years. He called Liana and explained the situation. The young woman listened in silence. He understood that he had no other option. The family was starving. The younger brothers and sisters went to school without shoes because there was no money to buy them new ones.
The mother sold all the jewelry she owned. The neighbors refused to grant them new loans because they had not repaid their old debts. If Liana refused, the family would be homeless in a few months. Liana agreed. She told her father that she was willing to do it for them. That same night he wrote a long message to Maria. She told him about the proposal, that she had accepted it, and how terrified she was of the idea of marrying an unknown old man .
Maria responded a few hours later. He wrote to her that he understood, that she would have done the same in his place if she had received such an offer. He then added that the bosses he worked for knew the Almansuri family. They were very rich and influential people in Dubai.
They spent the next two weeks preparing. The agency representative visited Liana every day, taught her basic phrases in Arabic, explained the rules of behavior in a Muslim family, talked to her about how she should dress, how to speak to her elders, and how to behave with her husband. Liana was supposed to be submissive, quiet, and obedient.
She was not to contradict her husband, raise her voice, or leave the house without permission. Her task was to serve her husband, give birth to her children, and maintain order in the house. Liana also had to go through a formal conversion ceremony to Islam. The agency arranged a meeting with the local imam, a Filipino who had converted to Islam 20 years earlier.
The imam explained the fundamentals of the faith to the young woman and taught her how to pronounce the shahada, the declaration of conversion to Islam. Liana repeated the words in Arabic without fully understanding their meaning. The imam gave her the certificate of conversion to Islam necessary to get married.
The agency transferred the first half of the [music] dowry to Liana’s father’s account . 50,000. A sum that the family had never seen in their entire lives. The father paid off all the debts, bought back medicine, paid for the education of his younger children for a year, and repaired the roof of the house.
He deposited the remaining money in a local bank. Liana’s mother cried tears of relief and guilt at the same time. She understood that her daughter was sacrificing herself for the family. The day before leaving, Liana met with Maria, who had flown expressly to the Philippines for a short vacation.
They would stroll through the village, sit by the riverbank, where they spent their childhood. Maria took Liana’s hand and told her that they would soon be together again in Dubai, that it wouldn’t be for long, that everything would be alright. Liana asked him what exactly would go well. Maria replied that she had a plan. Chalid is very rich.
His family owns real estate, bank accounts, and businesses. If Liana became his wife, she would have access to those resources as well. Maria worked in the house of some acquaintances of the Almansuri family and knew what life was like for rich Arabs. The wives had their own money, their own jewelry, their own accounts.
Chalid would give Liana money for her expenses. In time, she will be able to save enough for both of them to return to the Philippines and start a new life, a life in which they will not have to hide. Liana listened and nodded. [music] He asked how long it would take. Maria said that for a year, maybe two, one would have to behave cautiously, not raise suspicions, and save money discreetly.
Chalid shouldn’t have suspected anything. Liana was supposed to be the perfect wife: quiet, submissive, grateful, and then, when they had saved enough money, they would disappear. They would fly back to the Philippines, to another province where nobody knew them. They would buy a small house, open a shop or a cafe.
They would live together as they had always dreamed. Liana [musician] asked if it was dangerous. Maria answered yes. but they had no other option. In the Philippines they could not be together. Their families, their town, their church would never accept their relationship. Not in Dubai either, but there was money there. Money that would give them freedom.
They just had to be patient and cautious. The last night before leaving, Liana hardly slept. She was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. He could hear his father snoring in the next room , and his little brothers and sisters tossing and turning in bed. I thought that I would never see that house, that town, those people again.
That tomorrow she would fly to another country with a stranger who would become her husband. A man three times her age, [music] a man who already had three wives and eight children. a man I had only seen in a photograph. In the morning, the whole family accompanied Liana to the airport.
His mother wouldn’t stop crying. The younger children clung to their sister’s hands. The father stood apart with an impassive face. Liana hugged each of them and told them that everything would be alright, that she would write to them every week and that they would see each other again soon. I didn’t believe in those words, [music] but I kept repeating them.
The agency representative accompanied Liana to Dubai. On the plane, the young woman sat by the window and watched as the Philippine islands disappeared beneath her . Rice fields, villages, rivers. everything he knew, everything that was his life. The plane rose above the clouds, leaving only the sea below.
The flight lasted about 8 hours. Liana couldn’t eat because of her nerves. The agency representative tried to reassure her. He told her that the Almansuri family was highly respected, that they would treat her well, that she was lucky. [music] Liana nodded silently. When the plane landed in Dubai, it was early in the morning.
[music] Liana went through passport control and her luggage was checked at customs. At the airport exit, a driver dressed in a black suit was waiting for them [music]. He took Liana’s suitcase and accompanied them to the car. It was a large black SUV with tinted windows and leather seats. They drove along a wide highway.
Through the window, skyscrapers, shopping malls, and hotels could be seen. Liana had never seen anything like it. The buildings were enormous, gleaming, they seemed unreal. The roads were perfectly clean, the cars were expensive. Everything looked like the set of a movie about the future. The driver veered off the main road into a residential area.
There were villas surrounded by high walls, palm trees, well- kept lawns, and flowering bushes. The car stopped in front of a huge wrought iron gate . [music] The driver pressed a button and the door slowly opened. Behind the doors was a large courtyard paved with light-colored stone. In the center there was a fountain surrounded by palm trees in large ceramic pots.
The house was two stories, light beige in color , with large windows and columns at the entrance. It was a villa that could house 20 houses from the village of Liana. At the entrance there was an older woman dressed in a black dress with gold embroidery. His face was covered with a mask. [music] Only his eyes were visible.
She was Chalid’s first wife. She looked Liana up and down silently and then gestured for her to follow her. [music] Inside the house it was cool thanks to the air conditioning. The floors were made of white marble. [music] On the walls there was Arabic calligraphy in gilded frames and the furniture was made of dark wood with carvings.
The first wife led Liana through the hall and then up the stairs to the second floor. They walked down a long corridor and stopped in front of the door. Finally, the woman opened the door and showed her the room. It was a spacious bedroom with a large bed, a wardrobe, a dressing table, and a separate bathroom. The windows overlooked an interior courtyard with a garden.
The first wife said something in Arabic, but Liana didn’t understand a word. The woman repeated herself more slowly, but it was no use. Then he simply pointed to the bed, the wardrobe, and the bathroom, and left, closing the door behind him. Liana was left alone, she sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. The room was bigger than his family’s entire house in the Philippines.
The bed was soft and the bedding was impeccably white. In the bathroom there was a huge bathtub, a marble sink and [music] a mirror that covered the entire wall. There were new towels on the shelves and bottles of perfume and cosmetics on the dressing table . Liana approached the window. Below was a garden with fruit trees, rose bushes, and stone pathways.
In one corner of the garden he saw a small building that looked like a guest house. Perhaps the staff lived there . He thought of Maria. The girl worked nearby. Perhaps they would see each other soon. Liana took out her phone and wrote a message to Maria. She told him that she had arrived, that they had taken her to the house, and that she was in her room.
Maria responded almost immediately. He wrote to her that he was glad Liana [musician] was safe, that she should behave calmly and obediently, and that they would see each other soon. At night, a young maid came to look for Liana. The girl was from Indonesia and spoke broken English. He brought Liana an aballa and a hillab and explained with gestures that she should put them on. Liana changed.
The aballa was made of fine black cloth and the giillab covered her hair and neck. The maid nodded in approval and gestured for him to follow her. They went down to the dining room on the first floor. The long table was covered with food. dishes with rice, meat, vegetables, bread and fruit.
There were several people sitting at the table. The first wife presided at the table. Next to her were two men in their 30s, probably Chalid’s sons . Further on sat two women with Jillab, one of them holding a child. Two other children were sitting in high chairs. They all spoke Arabic. Aliana was seated at the end of the table. Everyone fell silent and stared at her.
The first wife said something. They all nodded and continued eating. Liana picked up the fork, but the maid stopped her and told her that she had to eat with her hands like everyone else. Liana tried to imitate them, but she felt awkward and clumsy. Chalid was not at the table.
[music] Liana wanted to ask about him, but she didn’t know how. After dinner, everyone left. The maid accompanied Liana back to her room. The young woman lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I didn’t know what would happen next. When would I see Calid? When would the wedding take place? What would they expect from her? The next morning, the maid woke Liana up, brought breakfast on a tray, and placed it on the small table by the window.
After breakfast, the first wife arrived with an interpreter, a young man in a white shirt and jeans. He explained that he was Khalid’s nephew and that he would help Aliana with the translation until she learned Arabic. The first wife, through the interpreter, informed him that the wedding would take place in three days.
Until then, Liana had to stay in her room, study the prayers, and prepare herself. A teacher would come to her to teach her the fundamentals of the Islamic faith and the obligations of a wife. After the wedding, she would become a full member of the family and Chalid’s fourth wife. The next three days were confusing.
Each day an elderly imam visited Liana, spoke English with a strong accent, and explained to her the rules of Islamic marriage, the duties of a wife, and the importance of obeying her husband. Liana listened and nodded, although much of what he was saying frightened her. The imam said that the wife should obey the husband in everything, that the husband had the right to punish the wife if she did not obey him, and that the wife’s main obligation was to give birth to children and serve the husband.
The wedding was held on the afternoon of the third day. It was a small ceremony at home attended only by family members and a few close friends of Chalid. Aliana was dressed in a luxurious gold-colored wedding dress embroidered with stones. They styled her hair and put on her makeup. She did n’t recognize herself in the mirror.
The ceremony was held in the grand hall. Liana was sitting in a chair surrounded by the women of the family. The imam recited prayers in Arabic. [music] Then they brought Chalid. He wore white clothes, his beard was neatly trimmed, and he smelled of expensive perfumes. He sat down opposite Liana, looked at her appraisingly, and nodded with satisfaction.
The imam asked Chalid a question, to which he replied affirmatively. Then, the imam addressed Liana through an interpreter. He asked her if she would accept to become Khalid Al Mansuri’s wife. Liana looked at all those unfamiliar faces around her, at Calid with his gray beard and cold eyes, at the luxurious house that was now her cage.
[music] He thought of his family in the Philippines, of the $50,000 that had saved them from poverty. She thought of Maria, who was waiting for her [music] , and of the plan they had to carry out . He said yes. The imam [music] read a few more prayers and the marriage was formalized. The guests congratulated Chalid and the women hugged Liana.
They set the table with food, but Liana barely ate anything. She felt as if all of this wasn’t happening to her, as if she were watching someone else’s life from the outside. Late that night, when the guests had left, [music] Chalid approached Liana and took her hand. His palm was dry and rough; he gestured for her to follow him.
He led her up the stairs to the second floor, but not to her room, but to his own. Her bedroom was enormous, with a bed bigger than Liana’s room in the Philippines. He closed the door. Chalid spoke broken English. He said that Liana was now his wife and that she had to fulfill her obligations. Liana stood motionless, not knowing what to do.
Chalid approached and began to remove her jewelry. His movements were slow and methodical. Liana closed her eyes and thought about anything but what was happening. He thought about the sea, the rice fields near his home, and Maria. That night Liana barely slept. Chalid fell asleep quickly with heavy, snoring breathing.
Liana lay beside him, staring into the darkness. As dawn broke, he got up silently and returned to his room. He sat on the bed and remained motionless for a long time, staring at a [music] point. In the following days a certain routine was established . Liana had to get up early, say her morning prayer, and then go downstairs to have breakfast with the rest of the family.
He sat in silence, ate little, and answered questions with monosyllables through the interpreter. The first wife was cold towards her, but without open hostility. His second and third wives barely paid him any attention. Chalid’s children, adult men and women, looked at her with curiosity or indifference. During the day, Liana spent her time in her room or in the garden.
He was not allowed to leave the villa without a companion. Chalid gave her a credit card to make purchases, but there was nothing to buy and no one to buy it from. The maid brought him food, washed his clothes, and cleaned his room. Liana tried to talk to her, but the girl only spoke Indonesian and a few phrases in Arabic.
At night, Chalid used to call Liana to his room. Sometimes I only spoke to her through the interpreter. I asked her how she felt, if she liked life in Dubai, if she was happy. Liana replied that everything was fine, that she was grateful for everything. Chalid seemed satisfied with his answers. She said she was a good girl, obedient and modest.
This is how a Muslim wife should be. A week passed. Liana wrote to her parents that everything was fine, that they treated her well, that she was happy; it was a lie, but she couldn’t write the truth. The family had received the money and their lives had changed. I couldn’t ruin it. His mother would reply with long messages.
He told her how they had renovated the house, bought new furniture, and enrolled the young children in a good school. His father had found a job as a security guard at a local store and his back hurt less after the treatment. Liana also wrote to Maria every day. Short messages about how the day had gone, what had been eaten, what had been done.
Maria rarely responded, usually late at night, when she finished work. She wrote that she was very tired, that the bosses were demanding, and that she missed Liana. He promised they would see each other soon. Two weeks after the wedding, Chalid announced that his first wife’s family was going to hire a new domestic worker.
They needed a girl to work in the kitchen and help around the house. The first wife was no longer young and found it very difficult to do all the chores. [music] Chalid asked Liana through an interpreter if she knew anyone from the Philippines who was looking for work. Liana replied that she had a friend who now worked for another family, but wanted to change jobs.
Chalid said he could arrange the transfer of the contract if the girl was a good worker. Liana assured him that Maria was very hardworking and responsible. Calid nodded and said he would get in touch with the necessary people. Three days later, Maria’s contract was transferred to the Al Mansuri family. His former employers did not object because Chalid’s family had influence and it would not be wise to refuse.
Maria arrived at the village on Saturday morning. [music] Liana watched from her bedroom window as the driver brought her in his car. Maria left with a suitcase and a bag. She was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. The maid accompanied her to the house and showed her the servants’ quarters located in a separate building in the garden.
Liana could not approach Maria immediately. That would have aroused suspicion. She had to behave as if they were mere acquaintances, not close friends. He waited all day for the moment when he could see Maria. In the evening, when everyone had left after dinner, Liana went out into the garden. He pretended to be taking a walk, approached the servant’s room, and gently knocked on the door.
[music] Maria opened. They stood looking at each other for a few seconds. Then Maria let Liana in and closed the door. He hugged her tightly. Liana felt all the tension of the past few weeks vanish. They sat on the narrow bed in Maria’s small room. The room was simple, only a few square meters.
A bed, a wardrobe, a small window. Maria asked Liana how she was feeling. Liana said, “That’s great.” Maria looked at her carefully and told her that she knew it wasn’t true. Liana started to cry. Everything I had repressed during those weeks came to light. He told Maria about the wedding, about Calit, about how he hated every minute he spent in that house.
Maria hugged her and told her that it would all be over soon, that they just had to hold on a little longer. They agreed to meet at night when everyone was asleep. Liana would go out into the garden through the window of her room, which was on the ground floor. They had to be very careful. Nobody was to find out about their meetings.
In the eyes of the family, Liana was to remain an obedient wife and Maria, a mere servant. The following weeks passed in this double existence. During the day, Liana played the role of Chalid’s wife. She prayed, sat with her family, and smiled when necessary. At night he would go to see Calid and let him do whatever he wanted.
She would close her eyes and think about something else. Chalid either didn’t notice his absent gaze or didn’t pay attention to it. For him, she was an obedient body that fulfilled a function. At night, after midnight, when the house was asleep, Liana would silently climb out the window. The garden was dark; only a few streetlights illuminated the paths.
He was heading quickly to the servant’s room. Maria always waited for her. They would spend an hour or two together talking in low voices, holding hands. Those were the only hours when Liana felt alive. Maria worked in the kitchen from 6 in the morning. She prepared breakfast, helped with lunch and dinner, [music] washed the dishes and cleaned the dining room.
There was a lot of work to do. The first wife supervised everything with attention and rigor. Maria didn’t complain. I told Aliana that the important thing now was that they were together, that nothing else mattered. They began to discuss the plan. Liana had to save money. Chalid gave her a card for shopping.
which allowed her to withdraw small amounts of cash without raising suspicion. $500 once a week. She said she was buying clothes, cosmetics, and gifts for her family in the Philippines. Chalid didn’t check it. He was so rich that those amounts seemed insignificant to him. In one month, Liana accumulated about $0,000. He hid the money in a suitcase with a false bottom that he made by cutting the lining.
Maria also saved her salary, $400 a month. Of those, he sent 200 to his mother and hid the rest. They calculated that in 6 months they could save about 15,000. That would be enough to buy tickets to the Philippines, rent a house in another province, and start a small business. But 6 months is a long time, too long.
Liana felt she wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer . Every night with Chalid got harder. He began taking sleeping pills that he secretly took from his first wife’s medicine cabinet. She would drink [music] before going to see Calid to feel distant, as if it wasn’t happening to her. Maria noticed the changes in Liana. The girl had become quiet, her gaze dull.
He was barely eating and was losing weight. She had developed dark circles under her eyes . Maria was worried. One night, when Liana went to see her, Maria asked her directly [music] how much longer she could continue living like this. Liana said she didn’t know. Maybe a month, maybe less. Maria made a decision.
He said they weren’t going to wait 6 months, that they would leave sooner. They already had about $4,000, enough for the tickets and initial expenses. They could leave in a few weeks. Liana asked how exactly. Maria said she had an acquaintance, a driver from Bangladesh who worked for the neighbors. He could take them to the airport early in the morning when everyone was asleep.
They would fly to Manila and then go to another province. Nobody would find them there. Liana listened and felt hope rising within her , a real and tangible hope that this nightmare would soon end. He asked when exactly the [music] could leave. Maria said that in two weeks they had to prepare the documents, buy the tickets online and arrange it with the driver.
Liana nodded. Two weeks, 14 days. It could last 14 more days. During the following days, [music] Liana counted the hours. He acted as usual so as not to arouse suspicion. He prayed, ate with his family, spoke with Calid through the interpreter, but inside all his thoughts revolved around the escape.
Maria bought tickets for a flight to Manila departing on Saturday at 6 a.m. They agreed with the driver that he would take them for $200. Maria said they had to leave at 4 a.m. to arrive on time for check-in. There were 5 days left. Liana packed her things into a backpack, the bare minimum of clothes, documents and money.
Maria also packed her bag. They were ready. Each night brought them closer to freedom. But after three days something changed. Chalid began to behave differently. He began to keep a closer eye on Aliana. He asked her strange questions. I asked him where he went in the afternoons, [music] why he didn’t sleep at night.
Liana replied that she was simply taking a walk in the garden because she couldn’t sleep. Chalid stared at her intently for a long time, studying her, then nodded and let her go. Liana was worried. He wrote to Maria that Chalid suspected something. Maria replied that he should behave even more cautiously, that there were only two days left, and that they had to endure.
On Thursday night, Chalid did not call Liana. It was strange because he usually called her every night. Liana stayed in her room waiting, but nobody came. He lay down, but he couldn’t sleep. Something wasn’t right. On Friday morning, the first wife came to pick up Liana. [music] She was accompanied by a performer.
The woman told him through him that Liana should go with her to the mall. We had to buy new clothes and gifts for the family. Liana was surprised, since she did n’t usually leave the house, but she couldn’t refuse. She nodded and went to get dressed. They went by car with a driver. The first wife sat in silence and looked out the window.
Liana tried to speak to her through the interpreter, [music] but the woman responded with monosyllables. They arrived at a large shopping center and spent several hours there. The first wife bought things, showed Liana dresses and jewelry, [music] but didn’t buy her anything. They returned home at sunset.
Liana went straight to her room. He wrote to Maria that they were leaving the next day, [music] that she had to be ready at 4 in the morning. Maria replied an hour later. He wrote to her that everything was ready, that the driver would be waiting for her at the door. Liana didn’t have dinner. She told the maid that she wasn’t feeling well, that she had a headache.
He lay down on the bed and waited. I could hear the noises of the house, how little by little everything was going quiet, how the lights in the rooms were turning off , how the silence arrived. At 1:30 in the morning, Aliana got up. She dressed in dark clothes and picked up her backpack. She approached the window and carefully opened it. Heard.
Silence. He jumped over the windowsill and threw himself into the garden. The grass was damp from the afternoon watering. Liana quickly headed to the service’s premises . He knocked softly on the door. Nobody answered. He called again. Silence. Liana tried to open the door. It wasn’t locked. She opened it and went in.
The room was empty. The bed was carefully made. The closet was open, Maria’s things were gone. There was a note on the table. Liana took it with trembling hands. The note was in English. The handwriting wasn’t Maria’s; there were only a few words written. Go back to your room. Liana immediately stood up with the note in her hands.
His heart was beating so loudly he could hear it in his ears. Maria had disappeared. His things were gone. Someone had written that note. Someone knew something. She turned around and ran out of the room. He ran back home. She had to get to her room and pretend that nothing had happened . Perhaps it wasn’t too late yet. Perhaps an excuse could be invented.
But when she ran to her window, there was a man there. He was Chalid’s eldest son, about 35 years old. He was dressed in black and had his arms crossed over his chest. He looked at Liana coldly. Behind him came another man from the shadows, the village guard, tall and taciturn. Chalid’s son said something in Arabic.
The guard grabbed Liana by the arm. She tried to break free, to scream, [music] but the guard covered her mouth with his hand. With his other hand he held her by the shoulder. Liana couldn’t move. Chalid’s son approached and looked at her with contempt. He said something abruptly in Arabic. Then he gestured with his hand to the guard.
He dragged Liana to the car that was parked next to the side entrance of the garden. A black SUV with its headlights off. They pushed Liana into the back seat. Chalid’s son sat down next to him . The guard got behind the wheel. The car silently left the yard through the side door. Liana was looking out the window.
He watched as the villa, the garden, everything that had been his prison for the past few weeks, receded into the distance. The car was driving through the empty streets of Dubai. The skyscrapers glittered with their lights. Then the city began to disappear. The road narrowed. There were fewer houses. They went out onto the highway.
Ahead lay a desert. Liana understood what was happening. I knew stories of girls who had disappeared in this country, of maids who had run away and been found dead. Of wives who had dishonored the family and never reappeared . I knew there were laws in this country , but for families like the Almansuri, the laws didn’t always work.
Money and influence decided everything. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. He tried to hit his son Chalid. He easily grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully. He said something in Arabic in an icy voice. Liana stopped resisting. He realized it was useless. They had been driving for over an hour .
The desert around him was black. Only the headlights illuminated the road ahead. Then the car veered off the road and onto a dirt track. They drove for another 20 minutes. They stopped in the middle of nowhere. There was only sand all around him. The guard got out of the car, opened the trunk, took out two shovels, then opened the back door and took out Aliana.
She fell onto the sand. She tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t support her. The guard took someone else out of the trunk, Maria. The girl was wearing the same clothes that Liana had last seen her in. His hands were tied behind his back. Their mouths covered with tape, their eyes wide open in terror, they were placed side by side.
Chalid’s son got out of the car, took a black pistol out of his pocket, [music] matte. He stared at the girls. Then he threw the shovels at his feet. He said something in Arabic. The guard translated it into English. They fit. [music] Liana looked at the shovels, then at Maria, then at the endless desert that surrounded them.
They were an hour’s drive from the city. There was no help to be expected. The phone had been left in the backpack that the guard had taken. Shouting was pointless. There was nobody there. Maria looked at Liana. Her mouth was covered with tape , but her eyes said it all. I’m sorry, I love you. Bye bye.
Liana picked up the shovel, stuck it in the sand, and began to dig. They dug for approximately one hour. The sand was dense and the shovels were heavy. Maria worked with her hands tied and fell several times. The guard would lift her up and force her to continue. Chalid’s son stood aside and smoked without taking his eyes off them.
When the holes were deep enough, approximately up to each of their waists , Chalid’s son made a gesture with his hand. The guard took the shovels. The girls were placed at the edge of the holes facing the desert. Liana turned around . I wanted to say something, ask for mercy, [music] explain whatever it was.
Chalid’s son raised the pistol. Liana saw the cannon pointing towards her, she closed her eyes. His last thought was for his mother, who sold vegetables at the market, and his younger brothers and sisters in their new school uniforms. A gunshot broke the silence [music] of the desert. Liana fell face down into the hole.
A second shot rang out a few seconds later. Maria collapsed beside him . The guard checked both of their pulses. He nodded, picked up a shovel, and began filling the holes with sand. He worked quickly and methodically. Half an hour later, only two small mounds remained at the site. The wind began to flatten them before the men left.
The car returned to Dubai at dawn. Chalid’s son entered the house through the side door. He went up to his father’s bedroom. Chalid was sitting on the edge of the bed reading the Quran. He looked up . His son nodded. Chalid closed the book and continued with his prayer. In the morning, the first wife informed the service that Liana and Maria no longer worked in the house.
The girls’ things were collected in boxes and thrown away. Liana’s room was cleaned and closed. Maria’s room in the servants’ quarters was occupied by a new maid from Sri Lanka a week later. A representative from the agency called Liana’s family in the Philippines. He informed them that his daughter had run away with her lover, dishonoring Chalid’s family.
The marriage had dissolved. According to the contract, in the event of non-compliance with the conditions by the bride, the family was obliged to return the majar. $100,000. The family didn’t have that much money. The representative [musician] said he was giving them a month to raise the sum. Otherwise, there would be a legal process.
Liana’s father sold the house. The mother sold everything they had bought with the money from Majar. They asked for loans from everyone who agreed to give them. They raised 60,000. The agency wrote off the remainder as uncollectible debt. The family moved to an even poorer area. The younger children dropped out of school again.
The father went back to work in the fields, [music] although his back barely allowed him to bend over. Liana’s mother tried to call her daughter several times. The number was unavailable. He wrote messages that no one answered. He went to the Philippine police to report her disappearance. The police contacted the authorities in Dubai.
They responded that no report of the disappearance of a Filipina citizen had been received and that, according to immigration service data, Liana Raymond had left the country three weeks earlier on a flight to Bangkok. Maria’s mother received the last money transfer from her daughter at the beginning of the month.
Then the transfers stopped. Communication was interrupted. The woman also went to the police and received the same response. The two mothers met and compared their stories. They realized that their daughters had disappeared on the same day. They tried to get the attention of the media and wrote to several newspapers.
A small newspaper published a story about the missing girls, but the article didn’t get much attention. A lawyer who agreed to help the families free of charge tried to obtain information about the girls’ whereabouts through the Philippine embassy in the United Arab Emirates. The embassy sent a request to the Dubai police.
The police responded that both girls had left the country voluntarily and that no crime had been committed. The case was closed. Khid Al Mansuri continued with his normal life. He went to the mosque five times a day. He prayed for a long time and with great concentration. He donated money to charities. He was respected in the business community as an honest and God-fearing person .
Six months later he took a fourth wife, this time a 20-year-old Indonesian woman. Khalid’s eldest son was promoted in the family business. He became the security director for all of the company’s facilities. The security guard who was with him that night resigned a year later and returned to Pakistan.
There he bought a small shop with the money he had saved in Dubai. The bodies of Liana and Maria were never found. The desert holds many secrets, and two mounds among the endless sands were no different from the thousands of other uneven terrain features. In a few months, the wind had completely leveled them with the ground.
Officially, the girls are listed as missing. His case is in the Manila police files, among thousands of other similar cases of Filipino workers missing abroad. Every year, dozens of Filipinos do not return home from the Persian Gulf countries. [music] Some really do run away and start a new life.
Others die from accidents or illnesses, others simply disappear and no one ever knows what happened to them. The story of Eliana Raymond and Maria Santos has become just another line in these statistics. Their families are still waiting. Sometimes mothers receive messages from scammers claiming to have seen their daughters in Thailand or Malaysia.
They ask for money [music] in exchange for the information. Families no longer believe, but they keep finding out, because hope is the last thing to be lost. All that remains of the girls are some photos on their relatives’ phones and the entries in the church records of their town. There their names appear among those baptized.
There is a hyphen in the deaths column. Technically they are still alive. They simply disappeared somewhere between Dubai and Manila, caught between the hope of a better life and the reality that turned out to be a grave in the sands.
