Sihame Ayouba Ali was one of only seven Comoran Olympians at the 2012 Olympics. She finished last in the heats of the 100 freestyle and then disappeared into the streets of London. She did this because her parents had “sold” her for marriage to a 60-year-old man, one who already had two wives, trying to cash in on her celebrity as an Olympian. Ayouba Ali later would claim that her only chance to avoid this fate was to live on the streets of London. She prepared to travel to Paris, arranging a fake passport with the name Mouniate Mhoussini, but the false documents were spotted by UK border officials when she tried to cross the channel into France, and she was arrested. She did not realize that she could have applied for asylum as soon as she had entered the United Kingdom legally for the Olympics, and had she done so, she likely would have been able to stay because of the persecution she faced at home. In January 2013, she pleaded guilty to using false documents and was sentenced to eight months in jail. She then faced deportation charges, and through her lawyer, applied for asylum, fearing for her life, as she expected she would face death in the Comoros for shaming her family.
Comoros