Rahaf Mohammed opened her Twitter account on January 6, 2019. Stripped of her passport, she had barricaded herself into her Bangkok hotel room as she awaited either freedom or forcible return to Saudi Arabia. If the latter, she was sure she would be killed; that is what has happened to rebel women in her country. Desperate, she reached out to the world, and the world answered. Online, she rallied approximately 45,000 followers that day. Last summer, Time named her one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet.

Now, two years later and safely in Canada, Mohammed is ready to speak to the world. Her story, told in a fiercely original voice, promises to change the lives of women and girls who have known the same repression and abuse, and turn their hopelessness into hope.

We have long heard about activist women being jailed, fathers beating and raping daughters, religion run amok – in Saudi Arabia and in other countries; but now we have the words, anecdotes, and life experience of a young woman who grew up with the abuse, the brainwashing, the deceit. Saudi Arabia’s repressive, outmoded control of its women is a tragedy and a scandal, not only for girls and women, but for men robbed of their humanity, and for a country robbed of the contribution women such as Mohammed could make. Along with the story of her daring escape, Mohammed will expose the inside story of Saudi women; share untold truths from the closed kingdom; and provide an eyewitness account of the brutal treatment of those who stand up and rebel.