PRINCESS Haya bint al Hussein is one of the most influential figures in the Middle East — not just because she is the daughter of the late King of Jordan and wife of the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, but because she is changing how women are perceived in a deeply patriarchal society.

An Olympic horse rider and a trailblazer for women’s rights, Princess Haya has long championed causes close to her heart including youth and education.

In a highly unusual move, the half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah II attended a London court Tuesday where she is locked in a legal battle with her husband Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

She applied for a U.K. forced marriage protection order relating to their children as well as requesting their wardship, in addition to calling for a non-molestation order relating to herself, in a case that appears to be connected to the mysterious disappearance of Princess Latifa, Sheikh Mohammed’s daughter from another marriage, according to British media reports.

Princess Haya fled Dubai for Europe last month after she became aware of details related to the forced return of Princess Latifa to the Middle Eastern state after she was intercepted by commandoes last year on a U.S.-flagged civilian yacht off the coast of India.

Oxford University-educated Princess Haya is thought to be hiding in a townhouse in central London over fears for her life, according to British broadcaster the BBC, quoting Dubai royal family sources.

The court also heard that her husband Sheikh Mohammed has applied to the High Court for the summary return of the pair’s two children, ages 11 and 7, to Dubai. Haya was reportedly his sixth wife, and the 70-year-old prince is believed to have more than 20 children.

The princess is the third woman of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family — of which Dubai is the most famous principality — to flee her family.

Born and raised in Jordan, Princess Haya, the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, was educated in elite British private schools and graduated from St. Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford. At 11, she was sent to Badminton and Bryanston where She gained five A-levels before going on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.

Now aged 45, Haya married her husband in 2004 and said a year later that she believed Emirati women were “an example of a modern Muslim woman.”

“In my work and in our family gatherings I have closely been watching women in the Emirates, and I am in great admiration of them ... and I never fail to be amazed at the way in which they combine modernity with Arab and Muslim traditions,” she said.

“They are proof to me that an Arab woman can be modern without feeling the need to be Westernized.”

The princess was appointed a United Nations messenger of peace in 2007, and was the first Arab and first woman to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Program (2005-2007).

She has long championed women’s rights, telling Emirates Woman magazine in 2016 that: “Women need to realize their strength.”

“So many great women before us and among us have suffered greatly to carve a place for us in modern society that is today better than yesterday and will be better yet tomorrow if women are allowed to achieve their potential,” she added.

Issues relating to youth, as well as health and education, are dear to Haya.

“My work in these sectors is another way to ensure that I am in touch with people at the grassroots level, and this is of utmost importance to me,” she said.

Her mother, Queen Alia, was killed in a helicopter crash in February 1977 as she was returning from a visit to a health center in southern Jordan, leaving Haya, 2, and Ali, 13 months.

In her mother’s memory, Princess Haya set up Tkiyet Um Ali in 2003, the first food aid NGO in the Arab world.

“She was really interested in [ending] poverty and in humanitarian issues. I got involved in health care because her last trip was to visit a hospital,” she said.

Princess Haya said that she’s not a feminist, but said: “I had rose-tinted glasses growing up. I was sheltered from the realities of what women in the region and in general face. And now I think I would absolutely support the fact that women deserve equal rights, if not a little more.”

Speaking of her husband, she professed: “Every day I am amazed by the things he does. Every single day I thank God that I am lucky enough to be close to him.”

She told the magazine that she also enjoyed falconry, shooting and fast cars.

But it was her passion for horses and equestrianism, along with poetry, that united Princess Haya with the Dubai prince.

She headed Jordan’s equestrian team before her marriage and remains a keen rider — something which she has in common with the British royal family, with whom she is reportedly close friends.

Haya became one of the first women athletes to represent her country at an international level, winning a bronze medal at the Pan-Arab Equestrian Games in 1992.

He is a major figure in international horse racing and breeding and owns and operates two horse racing farms in Kentucky.

“We share a great passion for horses and equestrian affairs, and that was actually one of the main issues we shared in common when we first met,” Haya said in 2005.

“As time passed, we soon realized that we also share a passion for poetry and writing as well, for Muslim and Arab history and culture, and for preserving and enhancing our traditions. Much of both of our work is dedicated to this end,” she said.

Sheikh Mohammed has an estimated wealth of US$4 billion, according to Forbes, making him one of richest royals in the world. He’s been Dubai’s leader since 2006.

Late last year, Haya hit the headlines when she invited former U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson to meet with Sheikh Mohammed’s daughter Latifa, who was captured at sea in March 2018 after trying to flee the United Arab Emirates.

In a video uploaded to YouTube in March 2018, Latifa, who was then 32, said she was fleeing mistreatment and restrictions imposed by her father’s family.

In the video, Princess Latifa said she had planned her escape from Dubai’s ruling family for seven years and characterized Dubai as one big sham, saying that because she was a women, her father refused to let her visit nonpublic places. Even the private homes of her friends were off-limits.

“There’s no justice here,” Princess Latifa said in the video.

Authorities in Dubai dismissed the allegations and claimed Princess Latifa had been kidnapped and was “vulnerable to exploitation.” On Christmas Eve, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry released pictures it claimed “rebutted false allegations” and proved she was at home with her family. In the photos, Princess Latifa looks dazed and her close friends said they feared she was being drugged.

“It is clear that Princess Haya has taken this step precisely to protect her children from facing the same fate Latifa endured, and which she is still suffering,” said Radha Stirling, the CEO of Detained in Dubai, an organization that provides legal and humanitarian advice for criminal justice cases in the Middle East.

There are also reports that Princess Haya fled because her husband became suspicious of her relationship with her bodyguard. Haya has reportedly enlisted the help of Fiona Shackleton, the same lawyer who dealt with the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, to resolve the divorce.

While UAE authorities have not addressed Princess Haya’s case, Sheikh Mohammed has been publishing his reaction online on his official website.

“O sweetheart, there’s nothing more to say. / Your deathly silence has worn me out,” he wrote in one poem published on the website in Arabic and English.

In another, he said: “You no longer have a place with me. / I don’t care if you live or die.”(SD-Agencies)