With Madeleine Baran and Heidi Blake, Illustrations by Malika Favre

January 23, 2024

Aboard a yacht in the Arabian Sea, Latifa was briefly free. Then commandos stormed the boat.

When Latifa and her friend Tiina reached the yacht Nostromo, for a couple of days it seemed as if their escape might be successful. But back in Dubai Latifa’s friends were questioned about her disappearance, and she and her co-conspirators feared that Nostromo was being followed. Latifa contacted supporters in Britain, letting them know that she’d escaped—she thought that publicizing her case might blunt the response of her father, Sheikh Mohammed. But the sheikh had powerful allies and forces at his command. He and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, made a deal; armed commandos stormed the yacht and carried Latifa off. Her supporters were left with no idea where she was—or even whether she was still alive. They released the video she’d recorded, and the story of the missing princess made headlines around the world.