Meriam Al-Khalifa

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Meriam Al-Khalifa during her CBS News interview

Meriam al-Khalifa (born 1980) is a relative of Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the King of Bahrain. She became famous after she met a US Marine and eloped with him to the United States. Her story was celebrated in the media – she was featured in highly popular TV shows such as Oprah, a movie about her aired on TV.

1 Family background
2 Rise to fame
3 Application for asylum in the US
4 Media depictions
5 Return to Bahrain in 2001
6 Divorce from Jason Johnson
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Family background

Meriam al-Khalifa is the daughter of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain's royal family.

[edit] Rise to fame

She acquired notoriety in 1999 after she met Jason Johnson, a United States Marine and a Mormon, in a shopping mall in Bahrain and fell in love with him. She escaped to the United States in November 1999 using forged documents and abandoned her life as a Bahraini royal, opting to marry Johnson and live as a housewife in Nevada. Johnson was court-martialed for his actions, demoted to private, eventually discharged & ordered not to re-enlist again.

[edit] Application for asylum in the US

Al-Khalifa faced charges of illegally entering the United States and deportation proceedings. The princess applied for political asylum, citing that she faced harm, which would have included death for her marriage to a non-Muslim and her exit from the country, which caused embarrassment to the royal family. Johnson and Al-Khalifa said in an interview with CBS News (see image at right) that if she returned to Bahrain, she would be "lashed, executed, stoned, killed, shot" [1]. He later also told the press that there was constant tension with her family, and at one point the FBI told him they had intercepted a Syrian national who said he'd been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.

[edit] Media depictions

In 2001 a made-for-TV movie called The Princess and the Marine aired, telling the story of their relationship. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as LCpl. Jason Johnson and Marisol Nichols as Meriam. The IMDB plot summary of the movie says,

Based on a true story, American Marine Jason Johnson (Goselaar) is sent on assignment to the Emirate of Bahrain. While there, he meets and falls in love with a spirited, lovely young woman, Meriam (Nichols), without realizing she is really a member of the Bahraini Royal Family. Meriam, who does not wish to consent to an arranged marriage, knows her love affair with Jason is dangerous, as he is a Mormon Christian and she a Muslim. Her parents would never consent to their match, and so Meriam and Jason race against time to escape Bahrain and make it to the United States, where they can marry. If Meriam is sent back, however, her life may be in jeopardy.^[1]

The movie was heavily promoted. Reportedly,

The movie created a buzz, not only because the story has gripped U.S. audiences since it was first reported, but also because, according to Hollywood insiders, it caused one of the biggest bidding wars for packaged rights in the history of television movies. Some even go as far as to say that it was the biggest, estimated at more than $500,000.^[2]

[edit] Return to Bahrain in 2001

In May 2001, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service granted her Permanent Residency status, popularly known as the Green Card.[2]

In June 2001, she resumed communication with her family, according to her attorney.[3]

Despite her earlier claims — she had asked for political asylum in the USA, saying that she faced death in her own country for marrying a non-Muslim, an assertion that she had repeated in public interviews — Meriam Al-Khalifa returned to Bahrain in September 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. According to the Los Angeles Times,

She told friends last week that she and her husband are considering divorce and that her family was concerned for her safety because of violence aimed at people of Middle Eastern descent since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.^[3]

[edit] Divorce from Jason Johnson

The couple filed for divorce on November 17, 2004 (one day after their fifth wedding anniversary) in Las Vegas, Nevada, citing "incompatibility in marriage" as the reason. According to Jason Johnson, Meriam left him about one year earlier, and he claimed that she had plunged heavily into the Las Vegas night life, and had become estranged from him. She had been pressing him for divorce for some time – reportedly, the couple had been considering divorce in 2001^[3].