When Joanne checked herself into the hospital, she was so far into labor that she was wheeled into the delivery room right away.
Three hours later, she gave birth to a 8.58 pound (3.9 kilo) baby boy.
When the dust had settled, the hospital began to process her paperwork and asked for her marriage certificate.
When it was clear that she could produce neither a husband nor marriage certificate, Joanne knew they would come for her. So that evening when the two police officers came – one man and one woman – Joanne was not only expecting them, she was waiting for them.
What she wasn’t expecting was how deferential the two officers were, considering that under Qatari law, she had committed a crime. She was going to jail for the crime of having a child out of wedlock.
“They helped gather my things. They gave me an option to use a veil to cover my face. The female (officer) was cooing at my baby and playing with him. They were really very nice,” recalled Joanne.
The male officer helped Joanne into the wheelchair and the female officer carried her newborn baby, careful not to draw attention to themselves. They discreetly exited the hospital through a side door where a police car was waiting.
Mother and son were transferred to the Capital Security Police station in Najma, where police questioned Joanne for several hours.
04 September 2014 -- Thursday
I’m trying to decide what to do tonight -- well, I don’t have that much options though -- I mean -- who would have when you’re in Markazi jail ?! : (
I’m trying to read a book -- while I’m listening to an Arabic music playing from the radio @ someone’s room.
I miss EVERYTHING! : (
I listened to music last week for the first time in like almost 2 years now -- it gives me chills. I miss a lot of things-it made me cry.
IMPRISONED:
She looked around the narrow dreary gray room and saw a bed across them where a woman lay asleep. Joanne guessed she was about 7 months pregnant.
Lying in his small cot provided by the jail, William began to fidget and cry. The truth finally hit Joanne – and hit her hard. This was going to be her life with her son. And quietly she wept.
Joanne spent two years and 10 months in a jail in Doha for her pregnancy and unpaid loans. William spent the first years of his life in prison with his young, unmarried mother.
Phones and cameras were disallowed in jail so Joanne began writing a journal to document the milestones of William’s early life. She wrote down reflections that offer a glimpse of life in jail and what it’s like to raise a child behind bars.
Joanne shared one of the 3 volumes of her journal which chronicles her final days in jail up to her release in October 2015. Returning back home in April 2016, she said, “I think it’s time to finally tell this story.”
25 July 2014
I am full of hatred today -- in everything -- well, almost -- not 2 William or my family -- NEVER!
What I hated most is how these people only see the mistake that I did.
And yet...Like I’m the only one who’s responsible for doing this mistake.
William is never a mistake. He is my angel.
Joanne met David* at work. They were assigned to work on the same project. The time they spent together extended beyond work and they became a couple.
“The first few years of our relationship were amazing. We were young and in love, both kind of drunk on the high of living and working in a foreign country,” Joanne recalled.
The relationship lasted for 5 years – on and off. Occasional tussles sparked emotionally charged break-ups but they always made up. It was in between breaking up and making up that Joanne got pregnant.
That was a problem.
In Qatar, zina laws based on Islamic legal tradition make unmarried sex a crime punishable by imprisonment.
She and David could be sent to jail. They would lose their jobs and be deported.
David went through a rollercoaster of emotions and took Joanne with him. On days he was feeling romantic, he asked Joanne to get married. Other days, he was angry and resentful, telling Joanne she had ruined his life and she should get an abortion.
Once, he proposed marriage in front of Joanne’s manager at work.
“I said, no,” recalled Joanne. David was so volatile and unsure about how he felt about being a father. Joanne didn’t want that for her baby.
“I told David we should work things out between us first before even considering marriage. But I already knew then we were never going to work out,” said Joanne.
While she was still pregnant, David got engaged to a girl his parents arranged for him to marry. That served as the finality their relationship needed.
Reporting for this project was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
She realized she was going to jail.
With her son, who had just been born the day before.
CHAPTER VII
In much of the Gulf countries like Qatar, pregnancy out of wedlock is a crime punishable by imprisonment.
05 September 2014 -- Friday
While she was in jail, Joanne’s father died. She was devastated.
“There are so many things I want to tell him still. I want to tell him over and over again how sorry I am for all the things that happened. I want to tell him that I love him so much and that he was – and still is – my best friend. I want to tell him that he is the best father a child could ever have. I want to tell him that I truly am so grateful for everything that he has done for our his family.”
The words come out in tumble for Joanne, who to this day, struggles with guilt and grief. If there is one thing she wishes she could do differently, it would be being at her father’s side to take care of him during his last days.
“It’s hard for me to even think that he’s gone and I wasn’t there when he passed away,” she said.
Joanne never got to say goodbye to her father. Her father never even got to meet William.
Everything in jail was a reminder of the life she used to have and the things she used to enjoy.
Sometimes, Joanne would find herself thinking back to how a young single girl with a promising career found herself in jail.
She didn’t even know where Doha was back in 2007 when a friend told her about a job opening in an oil and gas company.
She had never heard of the little country on the fringes of the Persian Gulf before. She did a quick Google search and the more she learned about Doha, the more intrigued she became.
It would be a chance to live abroad – on her own! She loved her family dearly but she also loved the idea of being completely independent.
She thought to herself: why not?
21) Being Fit
22) Mirror - Full length
23) Grocery-Shopping-Shopping Itself
24) Being Sexy
25) Having a Job
26) House in Ormoc
27) Breakfast w/ Daddy (Caldereta)
28) Mommy's Food.
29) Yellow Tamaraw :)
30) Playing w/ Dodong / Bojong
31) Ron2x
32) My sister - being w/ them.
33) Girl's night out!
34) travelling
35) Istanbul - the streets / people- in love w/ it!
36) looking @ old photos
37) Being online
38) My Timbies :)
39) Dressing up
40) Dancing!
41) Salon
CHAPTER VI
This will be my goal every day for the rest of my life. I want to be a better person. I want to be a better Mom, a good daughter, a good sister, a good friend,
a better person.
Momma-Baby:
Raising a child in jail
CHAPTER IV
‘Doha? Where’s that?’
20 July 2014, Sunday
I miss my family. I miss my friends.
I miss the people who became my family and friends during these past years and months. But lately, I feel so alone -- everyone I’m with have been gone -- they have been released. I am so happy for them -- coz it’s been a long time for some.
How I wish I will go out soon.
I wish to be outside with William.
To be able to fix my life and start afresh with William
06 September 2014
I don’t know what’s gonna happen but I honestly feel excited. I can feel that we are going out VERY SOON! I can feel that everything will be EVEN BETTER.
08 October 2015
Today, our prayers are answered...I’m so grateful!
This is a great day for us! Thank you! Thank you!
I pray for the friends (who became my family) that were left behind. I pray that they will be out soon also and God please help me to be able to help them in any way.
William’s Father
Punishment
In jail, the women imprisoned with their children are called “Momma-Babies”. There’s a playroom and a special section in the jail for them. At one point, Joanne estimated that there were more than about a dozen Momma-Babies in jail at the same time. Most were domestic workers from different countries like the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh who were jailed for “love cases” like hers.
It could get pretty noisy at times with all the kids running around. Getting the babies to settle down or be quiet during nap time was an everyday struggle.
In this chaos of babies cooing and bawling and moms chattering, Joanne found an unexpected sisterhood.
The other inmates became like a “league of aunties.” They took turns watching over and playing with each other’s children, they cheered and applauded when their babies took first steps and gurgled first words. They became co-parents to each other’s children.
Joanne was one of the longer staying inmates and over time, lady guards grew attached to William and showered him with attention and little gifts. One lady guard so adored William that she began buying him baby clothes.
“After every weekend, one of the lady guards would come in with a gift bag with new baby clothes for William – as in with the tag and everything!”
The friendships she developed with inmates and the lady guards cushioned her heart from the piercing loneliness and despair. It helped mollify her longing for her family. It made it easier to endure the emotional and physical suffocation of living a life of routine within a confined space.
It helped her forget – even momentarily – that she was in jail.
Joanne’s father died
CHAPTER V
In her twenties then, Joanne* and her son William* were brought to their cell at the ungodly hour of 3 am. She was exhausted from the two-hour police interrogation and her body was still achy and swollen from having just given birth.
The arrest
After two years and 10 months, Joanne was finally released in October 2015.
There were moments when she thought that this day would never come. “I was carrying a newborn baby in my arms when I went to jail. I was walking out with a toddler holding my hand,” she said.
It took a few more months to get paperwork and travel documents in order so she could come home to the Philippines. She was only able to heave a sigh of relief when she and William were actually on a plane finally on their way home.
A jumble of thoughts raced through her head.
She thought about William’s father and felt peace. “I went through all different stages of moving on – denial, self-pity, hatred, letting go, and acceptance. I am at peace now and can already wish him well.”
But at that point, the thing that mattered most was that she was with her son and they were finally free. – Rappler.com
*Name has been changed to protect privacy
Human rights groups have recorded the varying applications of zina across the Middle East and North African region, with many cases occurring in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
A one-year prison sentence is meted out for the crime of zina. If the offender is Muslim, there is an additional punishment of up to 100 lashes, and if the offender is Muslim and married, he or she will be charged with adultery and charged with death by stoning.
However, it has become difficult to monitor how often people in Qatar are tried under these laws because media reporting on the subject has all but dwindled.
A lawyer in Doha who spoke on condition of anonymity said that he had noticed deliberate efforts within the court system not to call attention to Qatar’s human rights violations – including so-called "love cases" – since being awarded hosting rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In his experience, the more severe punishments of flogging and death by stoning are rarely carried out. The courts want to sentence zina offenders and deport them as quickly as possible.
“Qatar does not want to be seen as the country that sends pregnant women to jail,” he said.
31 October 2014
“Self-preservation”
20 August 2014
Things that i miss the most :( (not in specific order)
1) Mommy & Daddy
2) Family
3) Friends
4) Cristine & Asri ( Coffee@Beanery)
5) Breakfast @JR w/ Asri every Sat
6) Henna with Renee
7) Fuel Moon Party w/ Renee
8) Tuesday night w/ David (i know i shouldn't but then...)
9) Friday beach/BBQ/Vodka w/ David
10) My clothes, Shoes, Bags, Make-up!!
11) Cellphone/Laptop (Being able to connect to
anyone, anytime, anywhere)
12) Being @ work
13) Meeting new people
4) Beer w/ my best buddy - Ryan
15) Party w/ David & Rami
16) Club 7 w/ Ahmed & Eslam & Christine / Asri
17) Clubbing
18) My Jeans! :)
19) Early morning coffee on my couch. Staring by the window.
just blank staring. My way resting my mind.
20) Being able to eat what or not to eat.
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER III
Freedom
Raising my baby behind bars
CHAPTER II
09 September 2014 - First death anniversary of father
Daddy, I miss you so much -- it hurts whenever I think of you. I want to talk to you...I miss you Daddy -- and I love you so much.
I want to tell you non-sense things like I used to. I want to tell you about some cool thing that I saw in the magazines like those expensive watches that amazes you -- I want to gossip about a few people -- like we used to.
10 September 2015
It’s been two years since you’ve been gone..I feel that you are still there waiting for me and William to go home.