India, July 16 -- When Nimisha Priya from Kerala's Palakkad district went to Yemen for work, hers was a story identical to those of numerous other young women in her state. Within less than a decade, she'd got married, had a child, and opened her own clinic, even as the Arab Spring and a civil war led to major geopolitical changes in the region.

By 2018, she was in jail for murder.

Now, she is at the heart of a diplomatic tangle as India tries to save her from execution that was scheduled originally for July 16.

Nimisha Priya, barely 20 years old, moved to Yemen to work as a nurse. The country, and in fact the wider Gulf region, is a top destination for professionals from the southern Indian state of Kerala.

She married a fellow Malay...