Dear Reader,

Tanya suggested that I copy my diary entries and send them to this site for your pleasure. I have of course changed all the names to keep my anonymity and the real location of the palace is hundreds of miles from the location I give, in fact I doubt there is anything but desert in that region.

Actually it was Najibah, First Wife of Emir Sheikh Ahmed Faizal who, when she found it, encouraged me to keep my diary and allowed me to write home, first by email and later we were able to send and receive letters but to her the emails and letters were to stop our families worrying although the first ones had the opposite effect. She's a kind woman and taught us, me especially, to speak and understand Arabic and helped us through our time in captivity although when I first met her, I thought her cruel and callous but I now know, that was largely the result of our attitude towards her and her family. Now she is almost like another mother to me and I'm the daughter she never hand. She likes Tanya too but not in the same way. Perhaps it was because I responded more to her teaching the language and learning to read and write it, whereas Tanya learned enough to get by with speaking and understanding the spoken words, but didn't really get into it like I did and couldn't hold a long conversation with her or the Arab girls at the palace without resorting to English.

Princess Jamilah is the oldest and most senior of the Emir's many daughters by several different mothers and Najibah is not her mother, which probably accounts for the difference in attitude towards us. She is the cruel one. After our initial punishment and our 'debt' to them paid, First Wife Najibah and the Emir treated us kindly, whereas Princess Jamilah used us for her pleasure and pleasuring her was often painful.

Tanya Cooper and I, Rebecca 'Becky' Green, have known each other all our lives. We were born within days of one another, and indeed we were probably conceived on the same week at a seaside holiday hotel where our parents stayed nineteen years ago. Our mothers are sisters, which undoubtedly accounts for us looking very much alike although we are in fact, cousins. Both of us are about 5' 6'' and have light blonde shoulder length hair that surrounds our 'pixie' faces with our little upturned noses, but her 34'' boobs protrude slightly more than mine. Our personalities differ though, Tanya is outgoing and has a bubbly disposition and is able to talk freely with anyone, stranger or friend, whereas I'm more studious and do better with my schoolwork. I'm not shy but I tended to follow her lead until our adventure ended in disaster.

We went through school and sixth form college together and planned on going to university but that seems unlikely now. Neither of us were virgins when we left but I'd only had sex a few times and Tanya has only admitted to having a few more boys. You couldn't say either of us was promiscuous.

Our adventure, for that's what we thought of it at the time, started at the end of June. We finished our exams at the six-form college and, like a number of others from our group, Tanya and I decided to take a 'gap year' before going to university. However, we wanted to do something different to the others who were going to New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia or the U.S.A, and decided our destination would be the Arabian Peninsula and perhaps find our way round to India. At that time we knew little or nothing of the culture but decided we'd find that out as we went along. We'd have to be economic with our funds but we thought we might get casual work to help out and our parents put aside enough money to get us home in the event we ended up destitute in some foreign city. Luck was with us when we heard of a tour operator having two cancellations on a trip to Aqaba, Jordan's port at the top of the Red Sea, sandwiched between Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. We got a two-for-one deal on the tour including five days in a hotel in the town, so we decided to use that as a springboard for our journey. Planning and packing was hectic because we only had two full days before the flight left but we were young and carefree and knew we could find our way around and take whatever opportunities arose. How wrong we were.

Tuesday 4th July 2006

We flew to Aqaba and, after changing planes in Amman, actually got there at the scheduled time, which seemed a good omen. Aqaba is a modern tourist town and, while they were not too strict about dress, we were told not to walk around in bikinis or flaunt our sexuality especially in front of the local women. We conformed to this except when in the hotel and at the pool in the tourist area. In the bar yesterday evening, we chatted to Ahmed, a local lad who worked evenings in the hotel and in the docks during the day, and when Tanya told him of our plans, he suggested we ask about getting a job on a coaster that took passengers and cargo and made its way around Saudi and into The Gulf, stopping at many of the ports on the way. That sounded like a good idea and this morning we went aboard the ship.

The captain directed us to the purser who spoke good English. "We have two Arab men doing the work and serving the passengers at the moment, but they will leave the ship at Jiddah and make the pilgrimage to Mecca. You can take over from them there. Your wages will be small but you will get your food and tips. In the meantime there is one small cabin free and I will charge you a nominal fare for it, if you agree to the work." We agreed even though the cabin wasn't much more than a windowless box with a double bed, a washbasin and a locker.

The ship was due to sail a little before midnight but we joined it before dinner and, not knowing the custom on an Arab ship, we dressed fairly conservatively. Our fellow passengers were two Arabs in western dress, a Dutch couple with two children (the woman wore a long skirt and a long sleeved blouse but otherwise was similarly dressed to us) and four Indian or Pakistani youths who were making the trip to Mecca. All retired early and there was no night-life and no bar on the ship. We wondered why there were so few passengers if we had the last cabin but decided to have an early night and then spent a long while discussing the adventure so far and where it is likely to lead us.

Friday 7th July 2006

Next day we found out the hard way that an Emir had booked a suite of cabins and food was served to his family group in his suite. At breakfast, we spoke with the Dutch couple and Marika, the wife, said we would probably get away with wearing shorts if they were a reasonable length, but advised us to wear a top that covered our stomachs. It seemed a shame not to be able to work on a tan in the early morning sun but we conformed at first but then seeing there were only the Dutch, the two business men more concerned with their laptops than us, and a few crew on deck, Tanya took her top off and when there was no reaction, I followed suit. Our bikini bras covered our breasts so we still showed less flesh than on a beach at home. However, when everyone was called to prayers, the purser asked us to cover ourselves, which we did but then Tanya couldn't control her giggling at the sight of all the people bowing their heads and the wailing that came from the loudspeaker system. Her giggles were infectious and I couldn't help myself and started to giggle too although I tried to control it.

The group on the deck praying, now included the Emir and his party, although we didn't know it was anyone of importance at the time. He was dressed in fairly plain white robes and the women all wore the traditional white or black burka that completely covered their body and part of their faces. At the end of prayers, the group filed past us on the way to their cabins and Tanya giggled again and whispered loudly enough for the women to hear, although she didn't expect them to understand our language, "The women must all be frumpy and suppressed to have to cover their body all the time. I wonder if they have tits enough to warrant wearing a bra?"

I knew she'd said the wrong thing when the older woman turned to us for a second and I saw the look of contempt in her eyes. "Shush Tanya, that wasn't a nice thing to say," I whispered back but she still couldn't control her giggling. We weren't laughing when fifteen minutes later four members of the crew came and dragged us below to the captain's office. We shouted and screamed at them but they ignored our cries or maybe they didn't understand what we said. The captain wasn't there but they made us stand in front of his desk like two naughty schoolgirls, which I suppose we were, and two of the men stood behind us to prevent our escape, not that on a coaster at sea, there was anywhere to escape to. Our protests and demands for an explanation were met with blank looks and silence. Presently the other two seamen returned and placed our passports and our mobile phones on the desk; they'd been in our cabin and rifled through our belongings. This brought further indignant outbursts from us but the men were implacably silent.

At the time, I knew we were in trouble but I had no idea as to how serious the trouble was. I guessed it had to do with our behaviour at prayers and thought we might be reprimanded and maybe put off the ship at the next port but my mental musing was interrupted by the arrival of the captain and the purser. "What's this all about?" demanded Tanya, "What have we done wrong? Why have we been dragged here?"

The captain thumped the table. "You girls quiet be!" he roared and then conversed with the purser in Arabic.

"Girls, you may not realise it but you are in real trouble," the purser started in a quiet way, "And the captain has asked me to explain it to you because his command of your language is not very good." He paused and then went on, "You are here firstly because you flouted your bodies in front of other passengers and the crew and we had a complaint about it. That in itself was not too serious and would only have gotten you a reminder of our dress code for women. Of much more import was the way you mocked our religious ceremony. We do not insist that non-believers take part but they must respect our ways otherwise the consequences are grave and in the not so distant past, your behaviour would have resulted a death sentence."

"Oh No! You can't do that surely? Not these days. Please, I'm sorry if we offended your ways and I promise we won't do it again," I pleaded but Tanya was more defiant and said that she only giggled a bit because she thought the sight was comical and couldn't help herself.

I saw the purser's face darken but he remained calm. "Had that been all, maybe you still might have got away with a short custodial sentence but you also insulted the first wife, the elder daughter of Emir, Sheikh Ahmed Faizal and his retinue. He is the ruler of a large area of the country around Yanbu' al Bahr, the port after the next. We have the honour to have his Excellency the Emir on board with us and he is most displeased with your behaviour and has demanded you receive a full and just punishment for the double disrespect. Again, until recently, the punishment was stoning to death in the market square and in some of the remoter areas, this form of punishment is still carried out. On a ship, the perpetrator might well be flogged until his body ran with blood and then thrown into the water as food for the sharks." I felt myself becoming feint and only one of the seaman supporting me, stopped my falling to the floor. Vaguely I heard Tanya protest and was again ordered to be silent. I do not know the truth of his statement or if he was just trying to frighten us but I suspect the former and he succeeded with the latter.

They waited until I'd recovered a little, but before the purser resumed, I asked to speak. He nodded and I apologised in as sincere manner as I could for what we had done and asked to be allowed to say how sorry we were to the Emir and his family. The purser held a lengthy conversation with the captain but we had no idea what was said until the purser went on, "Miss Green, I know your part in this was a minor one but the pair of you will be treated as one and the same. His Excellency does not wish to see or hear from you until you are punished but he graciously expressed the wish that you would not be put to death, instead he decreed that you both be publicly whipped and suggested a hundred lashes or until he decides you are sufficiently punished." Again I had to be held; the thought of even taking one lash of the whip appalled me and I knew such a whipping would scar us, physically and mentally for life.

Tanya belatedly started to plead and show some remorse but it had no effect on the outcome. The captain spoke to the purser who then relayed the message. " The punishment will be carried out in the morning a little after sunrise and until then, you will be confined in a storage compartment. When we get to Yanbu' al Bahr you will be taken before a judge to determine whether you have been punished sufficiently and he could award further strokes of the whip or a custodial sentence." We tried to plead with him but he was only the mouthpiece for the captain who in turn received instructions from the Emir. The seamen took us away and locked us in a bare room with no bed, chairs or toilet facilities and, for most of the time, the only light came from the crack under the door. We sat huddled in a corner and cried.

In the darkness, time passed very slowly but I could mark its progress by holding my wristwatch to the light coming under the door. Of course, at first I blamed Tanya for our situation but then realised that whatever happened we were in this together and she was the only friend I had at that time so, after some initial arguments and between bouts of crying, we cuddled and tried to think of ways to get out of our punishment. The only workable way we thought of, was to appeal directly to the Emir if we could actually get to talk to him. We agreed that I would be the one to ask as my appeals sounded more sincere than Tanya's. Then we had another theory, they were not actually going to whip us, and it was all a threat, but neither of us really believed that although for a time, it raised our spirits. For long periods we bemoaned our fate and the injustice of flogging two relatively innocent young girls.

At four in the afternoon and at nine in the evening, two seaman took us to the toilet and on our return, gave us a jug of water and a piece of flatbread each and the light in the cell remained on for about fifteen minutes while we ate. The night passed very slowly as we lay uncomfortably on the floor or sat propped into a corner, but morning came far too quickly. The ship's public address system roused us for the horror that was to come. The announcement was first broadcast in Arabic but we suspected it concerned us when we caught our names in the flow of words, and this was confirmed when it was repeated in English.

"Attention please. All passengers and off-duty crew are to attend the main deck in thirty minutes to witness the punishment of Tanya Cooper and Rebecca Green for the way they insulted our faith and the family of his Excellency, Emir Sheikh Ahmed Faizal. Attendance is compulsory except for the two children. Breakfast will be delayed by thirty minutes." Even with the distorted sound of the public address system, I recognised the slightly accented voice of the ship's purser. Tanya and I hugged each other tightly in the darkness and wept; we knew the time for our punishment would soon arrive. We were the reason the passengers were being summoned to the main deck.

The announcement hardly finished before we heard our door being opened and four seamen hauled us to the bathroom. "You use toilet, you use shower, you wear..." he held up two robes, "You have..." one of the seamen indicated fifteen minutes on my watch. Three left the bathroom but one stood in the doorway with his back to us, there would be no way to escape but at least he wasn't looking at us and we both needed to pee. If he understood my questions and appeals, he didn't show it.

At 7:20 the four came back into the room despite the fact we hadn't put on the robes and were naked and wet. "You put on, you come now. You no keep Excellency waiting." The one who spoke a little of our language thrust the robes at us and the men all tried to help us get our arms into the sleeves and one managed to squeeze my breast. I screamed, but, with the robe unfastened and loosely open at the front, they half carried us to the main deck.

Even though my eyes were flooding with tears, I knew immediately how we were to be whipped; the ship's two cargo derricks had been swung so their ends were about ten feet apart and about the same height from the deck. The hooks swung lazily a little above head height. My body shook with fear and I could barely move but the men soon positioned me where they wanted on a hatchway a couple of feet above the main deck, from where I could see the seemingly unreal scene unfolding in front of me. It was almost as though I was in a dream, but the wind blowing my hair and the smell of the water rushing by, told me it wasn't. Feeling like a woman on a platform waiting to he hung, I saw the chairs arranged in a semi-circle and the spectators filing in so they could sit in comfort and watch us suffer. The passengers took most of the rear chairs and I noticed the Dutch woman was crying and leaning close into her husband; the officers took the remaining seats and the rest of the crew stood or leaned on the rail and watched. For a short while I was just held facing them and then, before I had time to resist, my robe was taken off and my wrists bound to a hook. Tanya's screams and curses, told me that she was being treated in a similar way. I tried to remain calm in the hope that I could plead with the Emir but then, for a moment while the hook was being raised I wondered at their reasoning. They objected to us showing a little flesh and yet it was okay for us to be completely naked and totally exposed for a punishment. Shortly my arms were raised until I could barely stand flat-footed and a member of the crew turned me to face the audience. I blushed with shame at being so openly exhibited to the gaze of others.

Suddenly everyone stood and then knelt for the arrival of the Emir and his entourage. They sat in the front and I saw this as my only chance to appeal to him. "Excellency, please pardon us, please spare us, we didn't intend to insult you or your family and to make fun of your faith. Please Excellency, use your power to forgive us. Please, please, we are so sorry for what we did." It was a pretty pathetic speech and made no impression on him at all. He dismissed it with a flick of his hand.

I turned my attention to the older woman. "Highness," I had no idea how to address the wife of an Emir, "Cannot you find it in your heart to forgive us? Please will you not try and save us from this terrible ordeal."

To my surprise she replied in perfect English and I knew she must have understood every word that Tanya uttered the previous morning. "Rebecca, I am sorry but it is my duty to see that you are punished, and punished properly. In our country, insults are taken very seriously whether they are personal ones or ones against our beliefs. If we pardoned you, in a week or so you would laugh about the incident and make fun of us again. You will certainly not do that after this morning. Your punishment will be severe but not life threatening and I will personally see that you are cared for afterwards. I'm sorry, but you will have to endure it." Again the slight wave to show my appeal was dismissed. Tanya screamed at the top of her voice but for some reason I couldn't.

"They deserve all they are going to get and more," commented Princess Jamilah and I took an instant dislike to her.

The captain now came to the front and showed the Emir the coiled whip which he shook out. The purser translated for our benefit. "Your Excellency, Sheikh Ahmed Faizal, praise be to Allah for your goodness, we had no whip aboard this vessel but one of our crew members spent most of the night weaving and platting this from fine rope yarns. Will you approve of its use on these two infidels?"

I watched in horror as the Emir ran is hands along the three, platted tails of the whip and felt the knots at the end. He looked first at Tanya and then at me and calmly spoke, "Indeed it is a fine piece of workmanship and will last for the many lashes it will take before our pride is redeemed and their bodies wilt under its caress. May I suggest, my good captain, that the maker be allowed to use it?" He repeated the request in Arabic.

A lad about 25 years old was pushed forward and knelt before the Emir who spoke to him quickly and then to us. "I've instructed him to lay it on hard but not to cut the flesh. It would be a shame to scar your bodies for life." This did little to cheer us up. Someone turned us so that our backs were to the audience and then I heard the swish and microseconds later, felt the fire and the pain as the whip crashed into my shoulders. I couldn't hold back a deafening howl. Moments later Tanya screamed and this set the pattern for what seemed a lifetime-long ordeal. The whipper alternated between us and slowly covered our backs, bottoms and thighs with a tracery of hellish pain marks. Several times as my senses began to fade, a bucket of seawater was thrown over me, which increased my pain but kept me awake. At first I tried to move away from the lash but my movements were limited and my timing wrong and all I could do was to scream and squirm after each stroke landed. Tanya received the same treatment although after the first few lashes, my own pain was so great I couldn't worry about hers, or her screams.

As the whipping continued, my cries became hoarse groans and then, to my great relief, there came a pause and my spirits rose a little, thinking that perhaps it was all over, but no, it was only an interval for them to turn us around so they could whip our fronts. I did pass out several times when the thongs cut into my breasts and when the lash reached my sex and the last time, I failed to recover until they lowered me to the deck. I don't know whether they'd given me the full one hundred strokes or if the Emir called a halt. Vaguely I remember the robe being wrapped around me and being supported and carried to our cabin. When my senses returned more fully, pain seared through my body and, on opening my eyes, I saw a woman wearing a black burka standing by with a bottle of oil. Carefully and slowly she rubbed it on to my sore flesh. Alongside me, Tanya was getting a similar treatment. Both of us moaned pitifully with the pain. Whatever the oil was, it eased the fire but the pain was still terrible and I could hardly lie still for more than a second or two. The gentle massaging of the oil continued for some time and at intervals we were turned over so that our backs and fronts were equally treated. However, the movement of turning us, caused more pain and each time we cried out but the women spoke to us soothingly although we couldn't understand what they said, it seemed to calm my anger at the hellish punishment I'd received and my hatred for those who sentenced us to it.

Suddenly the door opened and our massaging ceased when the two women dropped to their knees and bowed their heads. Princess Jamilah entered. We were lying on our fronts at the time and after a short while she ordered us to turn over. Neither Tanya nor I could find the energy or the strength to move and the women were ordered to do it. The Princess examined Tanya first and to my horror, squeezed her right breast. Tanya screamed. "Yes you little whore, you need to suffer, that boy should have whipped you harder but maybe the judge will order a further session later." Her cruel words contrasted sharply with the care we'd received from the other women. When she turned her attention to me, I quaked in fear, but after examining me, she said, "You are just a stupid girl to allow her to lead you along paths you should not follow."

I stuttered another apology but she appeared to ignore it and left us in the care of the women. They stayed with us most of the day and helped us when we needed to go to the toilet and brought us fruit juice and food. By night time the pain was a little easier although our bodies still throbbed and every little movement sent sharp bolts of pain to our brain but we had to move frequently because we could only stand the pain of wherever part of our bodies touched the bed, for a short time.

Some time during the afternoon, First Wife Najibah paid us a visit and was much more concerned as to our well being. "I cannot take away the pain," she said, "But the ladies will do all they can to ease it. As far as I am concerned you have been punished enough and I hope the judge tomorrow will not order any more but again, that is out of my hands. I will pray for you and will do what I can to help you. I have enough knowledge of your culture to know that you will have regarded your treatment as grossly barbaric but to us, corporal punishment is a fairly normal thing and in our eyes, what you did deserved much more than the whipping you had, but I will try and influence my husband to persuade the court not to increase it further. In the end it will be the judge that decides. I'll leave you in peace now and in the capable hands of my girls."

I muttered my thanks and once more apologised for our behaviour. She looked downcast and nodded.

As you can imagine we had little sleep and in the early hours, I started writing this entry to give my mind something to do and to record what happened just in case we failed to live through the night but now several hours later, it is clear that I will survive unless further torture is inflicted on us. It must be one of the longest diary entries I have ever written.

Monday 10th July 2006

I'm writing this from my new home in the Emir's palace.

Early next morning the two women returned and helped us to shower and then put more oil on our welts. Maybe the bruising and deep welts on our bodies was emphasised by the oil but after the shower, the vivid, painful colours on Tanya's body showed very clearly and I knew mine was in a similar state. Moving was still very painful but the women made us walk around the room. They did it carefully and I knew they thought they were helping us, and probably they were but all I wanted to do was to curl up on the soft bed. Tanya and I hardly spoke but I know from the little she did say, that she blamed herself for our ordeal. To some extent I blamed her too and then myself for not having done anything to prevent it. Slowly under the ministrations of the two women my anger subsided and I began to worry about our court appearance.

We got our wish to lie down for a short while when the women left us but they returned within minutes with two black burkas. Dressed in these, they took us to the crew's dining room for breakfast. Neither of us felt like eating but I said to Tanya, "We must eat to get our strength back so we can get home if they deport us." We knew the boat had stopped and we were in port somewhere and I held a faint hope that we would be put ashore and sent home but the words of the captain kept coming back to me. "You will be taken before a Judge to see if the punishment we gave you is sufficient," and the comment the Princess uttered, "but maybe the judge will order a further session later." Later events proved my hopes of returning home soon were very wrong and we now know we won't see our families or England again for another year.

Most of the crew treated us kindly and those that could converse in English had some sympathy for our plight, although they didn't feel it was unjust, but they had no power or influence to assist us or get our release.

After a breakfast of bread and fruits our women helpers took us to the purser's office. Our hopes were raised, only to be dashed. "Tanya and Rebecca, you are no doubt wondering what will happen to you. Later this morning you will be taken to the cabins occupied by his Excellency, the Emir. You will bow down in his presence like you've seen others do and will remain with your heads bowed down until told to rise. He will talk with you and you will answer him with the utmost respect. Your future and, indeed, your lives, may depend on your attitude to him and his family. We will finish unloading in an hour and will sail to Yanbu' al Bahr and should arrive early tomorrow morning. There, I understand you will be taken before the chief judge who will view the punishment you've had and give his verdict as to any further sentencing that is needed."

"Will they whip us again?" Tanya asked the question that was on my lips.

"I cannot say. Much will depend on the Emir; the judge will certainly want to keep in his favour, and this morning's meeting with the Emir might sway his recommendation one way or the other." I got the impression the purser was on our side as he went on to tell us the protocols and give us some advice for our visit.