The New York Times - By
Ensaf Haidar with a picture of her imprisoned husband, Raif Badawi, during a protest outside the Saudi Embassy in Vienna in October. Credit Georg Hochmuth/European Pressphoto Agency
The story of how Ensaf Haidar first encountered her husband, Raif Badawi, is an unusual version of “meeting cute.”
In 2000, Ms. Haidar was a cloistered young woman studying the Quran in a small town in Saudi Arabia, where she lived with her family and rarely interacted with men.
It all started with an accidental meeting. Ms. Haidar was using a borrowed phone and mistakenly returned a call from Mr. Badawi. At first she hung up, but he called back, and kept calling.
Over time she gave in, leading to a secret, phone-based romance and eventually, marriage. Now, 16 years later, the couple’s romance endures under extraordinary circumstances — across thousands of miles, through prison walls and against the backdrop of an international fight over freedom of expression.
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