HRH Princess Mishaal bint Fahd Al Saud (1958 – 15 July 1977; Arabic: الأميرة مشاعل بنت فهد بن محمد بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود) was a member of the House of Saud who was executed by shooting[1] for committing adultery[2] in 1977, at the age of 19.
She was blindfolded, made to kneel, and executed on the explicit instructions of her grandfather,[6][7] a senior member of the royal family, for the dishonor that she had brought on her clan.
[6][8] Khaled, after being forced to watch her execution, was beheaded with a sword by, it is believed, one of the princess's male relatives rather than by a professional executioner.
[10] Independent film producer Antony Thomas came to Saudi Arabia and interviewed numerous people about the princess' story.
A major PBS sponsor, the Mobil Oil Corporation, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times op-ed page opposing the film and declaring it jeopardized U.S.-Saudi relations.
For example, in South Carolina, the PBS affiliate cancelled broadcast of the film, a decision influenced by fact that the then US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John C. West, had formerly been the state's governor.
But this was not following the process of any law.David Fanning, co-writer and executive producer of Death of a Princess, added: The difference between the official version, which was the girl was killed because she was found guilty of adultery, and the truth of it, which turns out that she was, in fact, executed by the king's elder brother in an act of tribal vengeance in a parking lot in Jeddah, was, in fact, the heart of the controversy because that was the part that, of course, the royal family could not countenance.
[13] Raza Ali Sayeed of Dawn wrote that "it’s probable" that her death occurred "for simply bringing dishonor to the family".