The Emirati princesses standing up to male rulers: After daughter of Dubai’s leader brutally dumps husband on Instagram, how her sisters fled to escape their father and his wife left him ‘in fear of her life’

The daughter of Dubai’s ruler has sent shockwaves through the city by announcing her intention to divorce her husband in a brutal Instagram post – railing against the emirate’s gender norms and royal protocol.

Sheikha Mahra Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who welcomed her first child with her husband Sheikh Mana just weeks ago after their marriage last year, appeared to suggest he had been unfaithful to her in the social media statement.

‘Dear Husband, as you are occupied with other companions, I hereby declare our divorce,’ the 30-year-old princess said in the post. ‘I divorce you, I divorce you, and I divorce you. Take care. Your ex-wife.’

The sensational declaration is by no means the first time a female member of the emirate’s ruling family has defied her male ‘guardian’.

Two of Dubai’s princesses – Mahra’s half sisters Latifa and Shamsa – famously risked their lives for freedom amid allegations of torture, beatings and imprisonment against their father, billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

One of the Sheikh’s wives, Princess Haya of Jordan, also fled to Britain in ‘fear for her life’ following what she said was a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by her husband.

The Sheikh has promoted the UAE as a progressive and welcoming place for women, but human rights observers warn the reality for female members of his family, and women and girls more widely, is vastly different, with disobedience often punished.

While it is unclear if Mahra will face repercussions for her unconventional public declaration, Emirati princesses who have stood up to their male guardians have faced brutal consequences in the past.

Princess Mahra is one of around 26 of Sheikh Mohammed’s children, who he shares with at least six wives. 

Her father previously divorced her Greek-born mother Zoe Grigorakos, who Mahra regularly shares selfies with and once described as ‘my everything’.

The Emirati royal enjoys a public-facing role in the emirate, recently visiting a pre-school graduation, and flaunts her luxurious lifestyle online.

The British-educated princess has nearly half a million followers on Instagram, and has used her platform to be an outspoken advocate for women’s rights in the UAE.

But Mahra has not posted since the black and white text post announcing her wish to divorce her husband two days ago. 

The post goes against custom in the conservative state, where Islamic law governs marriage and divorce proceedings for couples.

In using the phrase ‘I divorce you’ three times, the princess appears to be referencing the controversial practice of triple talaq, which is banned in the UAE and elsewhere.

Under Sunni Islamic law, triple talaq allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife by saying talaq – the Arabic word for divorce or literally ‘undoing the knot’ – three times. 

The man does not need to offer a reason or obtain his wife’s agreement. Women are not allowed to use the talaq under Islamic law, instead needing to submit a formal request and citing a valid reason as to why they want a divorce.

Speculation swirled over problems in Mahra and Mana’s marriage when she recently posted a picture of her daughter with a caption: ‘Just the two of us’.

The couple have both now unfollowed each other on Instagram and removed all pictures of each other from their pages.

Sheikh Mana – also a member of Emirati royalty who is a distant cousin of his estranged wife – appears to still be in favour with the royal family, sharing a post by his brother-in-law Prince Hamdan a day after his wife’s announcement.

The House of Maktoum, the royal family that rules Dubai and which Mahra comes from, has remained silent on the issue.

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political commentator, said Mahra’s post ‘violates lots of royal family code of conduct, let alone social norms.’

Mahra, who is said to be among the favoured princesses, has seemingly gone against royal protocol with the public move.

‘If you want to be in favour, you buy into what the king does. If you’re not, you’re pushed aside and nobody really cares about you,’ a source with knowledge of the family said.

Mahra’s repudiation of her husband comes after her father’s own messy divorce from Princess Haya of Jordan.

The pair became embroiled in one of the most high-profile and expensive custody battles of all time, with the Sheikh eventually paying a record £554 million settlement and losing legal responsibility for the former couple’s two children.

The sixth and youngest of his wives, the Haya fled Dubai in 2019 saying she was ‘in fear of her life’ amid a campaign of intimidation by the Sheikh’s agents.

She escaped to Germany and then the UK following reports that her husband had become ‘concerned at her apparent closeness to her British bodyguard’.

But the Princess also went on to reveal her suspicions over the disappearance of two of her husband’s daughters – Princesses Shamsa and Latifa.

In a case that made headlines around the world, Princess Latifa escaped Dubai in February 2018 after recording a disturbing video in which she revealed her troubled relationship with her father.

In the video, Latifa accused him of jailing her for three years in 2002 when she tried to escape what she called his ‘repressive control’.

The princess said she was drugged and tortured on the orders of her father, was not allowed to drive, had no passport and was followed by a team of guards.

In an audacious plot, Latifa fled Dubai by jet ski to rendezvous with a yacht waiting to sail to India.

After eight days at sea, the yacht she was travelling on was boarded by Indian commandos off the coast of Goa and she was returned to the custody of her father in Dubai.

The sheikh says Latifa was tricked into escaping by criminals who wanted money and that returning her to Dubai was a rescue mission.

Six years on from her escape attempt, Latifa’s situation is unknown. She was last pictured in Paris with the UN High Commissioner in 2022, and was said to be living ‘living as she wishes’, though many have been sceptical of these claims.

Ahead of her brave bid for freedom, she famously said: ‘It will be the best or last thing I do… I have never known true freedom. For me, it’s something worth dying for.’ 

Latifa’s disappearance came 18 years after her older sister Shamsa made a break for freedom while on holiday in the UK.

The ‘headstrong’ teenage princess was reportedly angry her father wouldn’t let her go to university and disgusted by Dubai’s human rights record.

She also allegedly suffered abuse, with Latifa once telling her friends that she had seen her father punch Shamsa repeatedly in the head for interrupting him – allegations he denies. 

In mid-July 2000, Shamsa evaded heavy security at her father’s sprawling Longcross estate in Surrey, where the family spent most of their summers.

She drove her black Range Rover to the corner of the grounds and escaped through a perimeter fence on to Chobham Common, then ran off.

Staff discovered her abandoned car the next day, and a search operation swung into action.

The Sheikh flew in from his horse racing base in Newmarket, Suffolk, to take charge.

All staff were sent out, on horseback or in cars, to search for the runaway. Nothing was found except Shamsa’s discarded mobile on the common.

For a few weeks, she evaded capture by staying at a hostel in south London.

But on August 19 2000, her father’s henchmen caught up with her outside a bar in Cambridge. 

The sheikh had traced Shamsa after ordering the bugging of her friends’ phones, the High Court judgment found, and had even offered a Rolex watch bribe to one.

Shamsa was allegedly drugged and flown to Dubai via northern France using her father’s private helicopter and jet, and hasn’t been seen in public for more than 20 years.

In 2020, High Court judge Sir Andrew McFarlane concluded that her father was keeping her captive.

Princess Latifa has since begged British police to re-investigate the snatching of her older sister.

The Sheikh has been the subject of a number of other allegations from members of his family, with two former wives also claiming he abused them. He denies the claims.

While princesses in Dubai’s royal family are often afforded greater freedoms and privileges than women in wider society, the royal household is often described as a ‘gilded cage’.

Like Mahra, who studied International Relations at a London university, some are educated abroad and have highly public profiles – in exchange for towing the line.

Meanwhile other women in the Sheikh’s extensive family are treated like ‘cattle’, according to campaigners, bearing children and remaining out of sight.

‘You have the fancy title of being a princess, and of course you have people waiting on you [hand and foot], but you’re essentially a prisoner,’ an Arab dissident told Vanity Fair. ‘You’re not supposed to socialize. You don’t have a normal life.’