Abdel Alahdal tells Radio Sawa that he and Nada have been threatened

Originally published by Voice of America, from a Radio Sawa report, on 25 July 2013.

In the days when Nada Al-Ahdal’s video was being shared across the world, her uncle, Abdel Alahdal, told Radio Sawa that the attention had brought danger with it (Voice of America, 25 July 2013 · archived copy).

Hard-line Islamic parties, he said, had threatened both him and his niece; they wanted the girl, and the whole affair, to vanish unless she bowed to her parents’ wishes. He said he had not known that her parents were planning the marriage, and that attempts to change their minds, by officials and by humanitarian organisations, had failed (Voice of America, 25 July 2013 · archived copy).

Nada, he told the station, had lived in his house since she was two years old. She herself said she had left her parents’ home alone at six in the morning, and that she was now under the protection of the Yemen Women’s Union (Voice of America, 25 July 2013 · archived copy).