Arab News | Belgian content creator Alexia Tashbaeva says Kingdom has ‘become home’

RIYADH: Belgian content creator Alexia Tashbaeva, who lives in Saudi Arabia, has said the Kingdom has become her home, explaining that she chose to stay despite her family urging her to return to Belgium amid recent attacks on Saudi airports.

In a video shared on TikTok, Tashbaeva said she usually avoided discussing politics on social media but wanted to speak out in solidarity with the Kingdom.

“My family asked me to stay away from Saudi Arabia due to the current situation, but I feel like it would be very unfair to do so because even though I am not Saudi and I did not grow up here, I feel like Saudi Arabia has become my home,” she said. “I do not see myself going back to my country.”

Tashbaeva said she had been following coverage of the situation in French-language Western media.

“It’s very ironic because right now I feel safer in Saudi Arabia than in my own country,” she said, pointing to recent unrest in Belgium, where she said people were “very unhappy with the economic situation” and “very angry with the government.”

About 30,000 people joined a national strike in Brussels on Oct. 9 against government austerity measures, with hundreds of youths clashing with riot police on the sidelines of the march, according to police. Earlier demonstrations in Liege had turned violent, with about 200 arrests.

“Here in Saudi Arabia, the people trust their government, (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) and, first of all, Allah,” Tashbaeva said. “The Saudi government always cares about their people and their best interests. And through every challenge, my heart stands with this country and its people. May Allah always protect Saudi Arabia.”

Tashbaeva joins other public figures who have voiced their support for the Kingdom in recent days in the face of increased aggression from Yemen’s Houthi militia. Saudi beauty entrepreneur Yara Alnamlah said “our homeland runs through our veins,” while Saudi designer Alanoud Badr described Saudi Arabia as “a solid land that cannot be defeated by crises or divided by lies.”