RIYADH, 12 November 2006 — A Saudi father could not believe his ears when he heard his two daughters, who are living in the United States with their American mother, over the phone asking him to stop sending them copies of the Holy Qur’an since they had now converted to Christianity, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
The father is devastated that his two daughters, Suhaila, aged 15, and Somayya, aged 9, have left Islam and become Christians at the behest of his ex-wife.
“I married the woman when I was in the US on a scholarship. She converted to Islam and we were living fine in the US. I had my first daughter Suhaila there and she became an American citizen by birth. I came back to Saudi Arabia after I was done with my studies and joined a private company in the Eastern Province,” said the father.
He said that his ex-wife found the cultural change in the Kingdom too much to bear and did not like living here. “She was complaining all the time,” said the man.
“I went back to the US again for my masters degree and it was there that our second daughter Somayya was born. I came back to Saudi Arabia in 1999 after finishing my masters and once again my ex-wife began having the same problem of being unable to get used to living in Saudi Arabia.”
It was then that the Saudi man became sick and together with his family traveled to the US for treatment.
“On our way to the United States, we had a stopover in Amsterdam and at the airport my wife took off her Hijab and started to shout and curse me and my country. I tried to calm her down. I sneaked into the office of the Saudi Arabian Airlines to cancel my trip to the US because I knew that deep inside she wanted to desert me and take my children away from me,” said the Saudi father.
But the woman called airport security and told them that her husband had intended to kill her and the children.
“The airport security gave me the choice of either going to the US or back to Saudi Arabia alone. I decided to continue with my flight. In the US, the airport security stopped me and asked me about the allegations,” he added.
The husband said that after two days, two police officers came to his room at the hotel he was in together with his family.
The officers searched him and his belongings and took his children and their mother to an unknown location. The woman contacted her husband after he had completed his treatment and told him that she was staying with her family and that if he wanted to see them he could come to the family house.
However, when he went to see his wife and children he was stopped by his father-in-law. The man had acquired a restraining order from the US authorities banning his son-in-law from coming to the house.
The Saudi tried to meet his family, and finally unable to do so returned to the Kingdom.
The man says he has tried to accept the reality and live with his loss. He resigned from his job to live in the US next to his daughters.
He added that his estranged wife harassed him with false police reports and he was finally forced to return to the Kingdom.
The Saudi said that he filed a lawsuit against his wife in order to take custody of his daughters, with the Saudi Embassy bearing all expenses of the case. The case did not last for long because of the events of 9/11.
Shortly after the Twin Tower attacks, his American lawyer sent him a letter saying that he was unable to continue with the case.
After searching for a long time, the man has now found an American lawyer of Palestinian origin, who has advised him that it would be easy for him to win the case because his ex-wife is presently married to a man who is of an improper character and from whom she is in the process of seeking divorce.
The father is optimistic, especially since the mother of her children is financially insecure and unable to support the two girls.
