Marine, Sheik’s Daughter Defy Tradition for Love

The Marine and the royal cousin fell in love but her family disapproved. Royally.

She was forbidden to see him and confined to the house. In her native Bahrain, that can happen to women who defy Islamic taboos.

And so Lance Cpl. Jason Johnson and Meriam Al-Khalifa did what young lovers often do when confronted with a hostile world: They fled.

Now they are at the center of an immigration court case in San Diego as she fights to remain in the United States.

Johnson, 25, spirited his 18-year-old beloved out of Bahrain late last year aboard a commercial airliner, disguising her as a Marine with phony military documents and a New York Yankees cap to hide her long hair.

But when the couple arrived in Chicago, they were confronted by officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who had been alerted to the royal runaway by the government of Bahrain, a strategically important U.S. ally.

Rather than bow to the State Department’s request to take the first flight back to her Persian Gulf island nation, Al-Khalifa requested political asylum, contending that she faces persecution for breaking one of the strongest strictures in the Islamic world.

“I did the worst thing possible in my country, to fall in love with a non-Muslim,” said Al-Khalifa, now 19. “To make it even worse, he’s an American.”

Johnson agrees. “I think they’d kill her if she ever returned,” he said. “She embarrassed the royal family. To keep their reputation clean, they would have to take vengeance.”

Given a reprieve by the slow pace of immigration proceedings, the truck driver’s son and the sheik’s daughter married in a wedding chapel on the Strip in Las Vegas in November, two weeks after arriving in the United States.

They settled into the spartan accommodations of government housing at Camp Pendleton, a world away from her life of luxury in Bahrain.

There Al-Khalifa does housework--something she had servants to do in Bahrain. Johnson, who has been busted by the Marine Corps back to private first class for the escapade, goes to work every day as a machine-gunner.

On July 17, the couple faces the latest in a series of INS hearings in San Diego, where a judge will consider her petition for asylum, a plea opposed by the U.S. government.

It is common for some families in Islamic countries to treat a woman who has dated, let alone married, without her family’s blessing as nothing more than a prostitute who has brought dishonor on her family and country--a fact that INS officials considered in allowing her to remain in the United States for a hearing.

Though Bahrain is considered by most scholars to be far more liberal than most Islamic nations, it has seen a recent surge of Islamic fundamentalism. Bahraini women who dare to socialize with non-Muslim men are sometimes considered “damaged goods” to be scorned or physically assaulted, said Richard Dekmejian, a Middle East expert and political science professor at USC.

A spokesman for the Bahraini Embassy in Washington said Al-Khalifa has no reason to fear returning home. “The family still loves her very much and would love her to go back,” said the spokesman. “Nothing will happen to her. This is a family matter, not a royal matter.”

Still, she fears that others in Bahrain, possibly at the behest of right-wing clergy, might assault her if she returns, possibly as a sign that not even the royal family is exempt from a strict enforcement of cultural codes.

Dekmejian doubts, however, that that would occur in a high-profile case involving the wife of a U.S. Marine, given the Bahraini government’s concern about maintaining good relations with the United States.

“If her family forgives her, I don’t think there is much the clerics would do,” said Dekmejian.

The couple met in a mall in the Bahraini capital of Manama, where Johnson was assigned to a counter-terrorism unit to provide security for Americans in Bahrain, including 500-plus U.S. Defense Department employees.

For several months she hid from Johnson the fact that her father is Sheik Abulla Al-Khalifa, a cousin of the head of state, Emir Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. As the daughter of a sheik, she holds the title of sheika.

All he knew was that she spoke nearly flawless English with a slight British “Spice Girl” accent and had been to the United States at age 12 to visit Disney World in Florida.

“We had to see each other behind my family’s back,” she said. “When they found out, they were very angry.”

Forbidden by her family to see each other, the two continued their courtship mostly by telephone. That’s when the intercontinental elopement plans were hatched. With his yearlong tour of duty nearing its end, Johnson refused to leave without the woman he loved.

Using his night-vision goggles to scout out security procedures at the airport, Johnson found that Bahraini citizens are asked for their passports before boarding a plane, but that U.S. Marines are not.

So he went to great lengths to disguise her as another Marine, furnishing baggy “grunge” clothes and phony military documents. To avoid attracting attention in picking her up for the drive to the airport, he even rented a Lexus to blend in with the expensive neighborhood.

Though the masquerade lasted no further than Chicago, Al-Khalifa convinced INS agents that she had a credible fear of being harmed if returned to Bahrain--over the objections of the State Department, which wanted her put on an immediate return flight.

This decision entitled her to a hearing under U.S. laws that allow political asylum for foreign citizens who can demonstrate that they face persecution because of race, religion, political opinions, social group or nationality. Being married to a U.S. citizen alone does not guarantee a right to stay in the country.

Experts on immigration law say there is a precedent for Al-Khalifa’s asylum bid on the grounds that she will face persecution for having married outside her faith. But they noted that she will have to present evidence of physical threats or past maltreatment--and evidence that she has become such a pariah that local authorities would not protect her.

“Just showing that she will be socially ostracized will probably not be good enough,” said Kevin Johnson, an immigration expert and law professor at UC Davis.

Laurel Fletcher, associate director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, said the record of women seeking asylum on grounds of gender-related persecution is mixed.

“This case seems to fall both into the ‘political opinions’ and ‘social group’ categories,” said Fletcher. “She is clearly a nonconforming Muslim woman.”

In Las Vegas, Johnson’s family says they love their new daughter-in-law and wish the Bahraini royal family could come to accept their son in the same way.

“These kids are very much in love, and she’s scared to death what will happen if she is sent back,” said Johnson’s grandmother, Frances Johnson. “If I could, I’d tell that royal family: Please, can’t we forget tradition and make these kids happy?”

Johnson’s father, Dale, a cement truck driver, says he can understand how his daughter-in-law’s father, the sheik, can be upset at a child who defies his wishes.

“I have mixed emotions about this,” he said. “I’m sure her parents are really having a hard time dealing with this. From their viewpoint, I’m not pleased. But from the standpoint of kids in love, I think it’s great.”