JEDDAH, 15 March 2007 — Things are still complicated for the Saudi father whose two daughters converted to Christianity after being taken to live in the United States nine years ago by his estranged American wife.
Arab News published the man’s story in November last year and detailed how the man married an American woman who converted to Islam and came to live with him in the Kingdom. The woman was unable to adjust to Saudi lifestyle and would frequently return to the US where the couple’s two daughters — Suhaila, 15, and Somayya, 12 — were born.
On a trip to the US nine years ago, the woman took the girls to live with her parents and arranged for a court injunction preventing the Saudi from meeting the children.
At the time, the Saudi Embassy in the US selected an American lawyer to fight the man’s case. “Three years after sending him all the documents related to the case, the lawyer told me he hadn’t done anything,” said the father.
“I’m living in Saudi Arabia; how could I search for a lawyer in the States. Unfortunately, with all due respect to the people working at the Saudi Embassy, nothing was done with my case. The case did not move forward,” he said.
He added that the embassy sent him a list of lawyers’ names and that he worked hard trying to obtain profiles to identify a suitable lawyer with a high percentage of wins and expertise in child-custodial issues. Finally, he selected an American lawyer of Palestinian origin, who also specialized in Islamic law.
The Saudi told the embassy about his choice, but the lawyer was turned down since he lived in New Jersey while the children were in Florida.
American law states that lawyers cannot hold a case in a different state to the one they reside in as the law varies from one state to another.
The Saudi added that the lawyer told him he would find another lawyer in Florida to run the case under his supervision. “The embassy asked how they could pay for two lawyers. Do I have to kill the whole case just for money? A royal decree has been issued to appoint a good lawyer to run this case,” he said.
The father had managed to obtain a royal decree from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah — then the crown prince — in 2001 three days before 9/11. The decree directed the Saudi Embassy to appoint a good lawyer to fight the case.
“I was so happy when it happened. However, after 9/11 the case had to be stopped for two years,” he said.
The father wants to bring back his girls before they grow up and forget about their country and traditions.
Speaking about his ex-wife, who divorced him in an American court without his knowledge, the man said, “She now works and is not always around to take care of the girls. Sometimes she leaves them at home alone for days on end while working in distant areas.”
He added, “If the case had been taken care of from the Saudi Embassy side then things would have been different and it wouldn’t be taking this long.”
The man says visiting his daughters and then returning without them would not remove his pain but grieve him even further. “Now my pain is somehow extinguished. If I were to see them for a while and then deprived of seeing them again this would cause me further pain,” he said, adding that he remains in contact with his daughters through telephone calls and the Internet.
The man traveled with his family to the US nine years ago for medical treatment. It was then at Amsterdam Airport that his wife took off her hijab and began to scream and curse Saudi Arabia. The woman called police alleging that her husband wanted to murder her and the children. Police in Amsterdam told the Saudi man that he had a choice of either continuing the trip to the US or returning to the Kingdom without his wife and daughters.
The family continued the trip and two days after arriving in the US, police came to the hotel where they were staying and took the mother and girls to an unknown location. This was the last time the father has seen his daughters.
Since that time, nine years ago, the father is still struggling to obtain custody of his daughters who have Saudi passports. The mother also obtained a divorce from an American court and full custody of the girls without the man’s knowledge. According to a court injunction, the man is only able to visit his daughters under police supervision in case he kidnaps them.
Awasser Society, a Saudi charitable organization, is presently supporting the man’s daughters financially through a monthly allowance of $1,000. The society supports Saudi families living abroad and helps them return to the Kingdom.
