Had there been no Twitter, it can safely be assumed, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year old Saudi woman who fled her family, country and religion could have been dead.

We now know she is safe, in the care of the UN Human Rights Council in Bangkok awaiting a decision on her request for asylum in Australia or Canada.

However, for 24 hours this young rebel had barricaded herself inside a room at a Bangkok Airport hotel, completely at the mercy of Thai authorities, who seemed to be acting at the behest of Saudi authorities and wanted Rahaf deported back to Kuwait from where she had escaped.

Her ordeal began long before she boarded a flight from Kuwait to Australia with a stopover for a flight change at Bangkok Airport.

According to Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, who has been in close contact with Rahaf, she was fleeing physical abuse by her male relatives, in particular by her father and her brother.

Robertson told CBC's As it Happens that the 18-year old was confined to her room for almost six months. "She very clearly stated that she was unhappy with Islam. She was unhappy having to wear the hijab and being forced to pray," he added.

Without her family's knowledge, the young Saudi rebel obtained an Australian visa and an airline ticket to Sydney, Australia, where she intended to ask for asylum.

But while she was in the air, her influential father had alerted Saudi authorities who in turn pressured Thai authorities at Bangkok airport to seize her passport and deny her access to her connecting flight to Sydney on Saturday.

The Thai authorities obliged and detained Rahaf at an airport hotel until she could be deported back to Kuwait on Sunday.

In the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 6, Rahaf began tweeting for help: "I'm in real danger because the Saudi embassy trying to forcing (sic) me to go back to Saudi Arabia, while I'm at the airport waiting for my second flight," she tweeted to the world.

But she had only 24 followers and her first tweets went without being noticed until the BBC picked up the story.

Later she sent me a two-word appeal on a Twitter direct message, saying "Hi Help!"

It was a call to arms.

Soon we had seven Toronto tweeters at my home, three in the U.S., four in India and many more, all coordinating our tweets and writing to leaders like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland to President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

One of us was monitoring the status of Kuwait Airways KU412 that was supposed to take Rahaf back to darkness. And if all else failed and she was forced on the Kuwait Airways jet, an activist in India was ready with a 'bomb scare' tweet to stop the flight from leaving. Fortunately, that was not necessary.

Others sent scores of appeals to the Thai Prime Minister and other officials including newspaper editors to help save a life.

Saudi prisoner Raif Badawi's Canadian wife Ensaf Haider and Arab-American activist Mona Eltahawy kept up a relentless barrage of tweets that were invaluable in turning the plight of the Saudi rebel into a worldwide case.

Notably silent in this crisis were Islamist groups who never tire of repeating the Quranic verse: "To save one life is to save all of mankind."

I asked the Islamic Council of North America (ICNA), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) for their reaction, but there was none.

Fortunately, the pressure of ordinary citizens using social media saved the life of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun who is today free and may soon be in Canada as our beloved fellow citizen, sister and daughter.

Tarek Fatah, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and columnist at the Toronto Sun, is a Robert J. and Abby B. Levine Fellow at the Middle East Forum.