JEDDAH, 16 January 2008 — She looked Arab but spoke, in addition to English, a Southeast Asian language. When asked about her origin, she said her father was Saudi, who left her mother and returned to the Kingdom, said Najeeb Al-Zamil, a businessman and Saudi columnist, who met the girl by chance while abroad.
The girl worked as a masseuse, serving tourists at their private accommodations. “She was not the only Saudi-origin girl abandoned in that country or in other countries,” he said.
“Unfortunately, after four years the girl died at the age of 17 with HIV. ... She was not the only victim in the family. Her mother also had Arab features and she too was abandoned by her Saudi father as well,” Al-Zamil said.
“We tried to reunite them with their family in Saudi Arabia but both Saudi fathers left no trace and we failed to help them... The only thing we managed to do was to move them to a better home,” he added.
Al-Zamil said it was a reality that many Saudis fly to the Far East, get married, have children and then simply leave.
Another heartrending tale is that of a 14-year-old girl called Salma, not her real name. At the age of seven her Saudi father left both her and her mother, and returned to the Kingdom.
Salma left school early and began working at a bar and as a model featuring in low budget advertisements. She was nicknamed the queen of advertisements. However, life’s experience has left her bitter about men, Saudi Arabia and Islam.
In spite of everything, Salma’s mother, who had converted to Islam to marry her father, had still brought her daughter up as a Muslim.
When Al-Zamil met Salma, she acted tough and only referred to her father as that “guy.” However, after she learned that Al-Zamil wanted to help her and read articles that he had written citing her case, Salma was emotionally touched, as this was one of the few times that a man had shown her care.
She later telephoned Al-Zamil and apologized. She cried and spoke of how she had never met a Saudi who wanted to help her. She also asked him to contact her father and tell him that she loves him.
Salma does not wish to use her original name saying it may embarrass her father and scare him from taking her back. She was also lucky to receive support from many people.
“Thank God that we have been able to reunite some families and have helped other abandoned children,” said Al-Zamil, adding that such Saudi children were not born outside marriage. Their mothers had married their parents thinking their marriages were for life.
He added that Abdullah Al-Hamoud, chairman of Awasser, a Saudi charity that looks after Saudis abroad, also offered to help Salma.
Al-Zamil said that once, while visiting a foreign country, a friend asked him to switch on the TV and watch a beauty pageant. One of the participants was wearing a Saudi flag. This upset his friend but it emerged that the girl was the daughter of a Saudi man who had abandoned her. Her mother had intentionally encouraged her to participate in the event to give publicity to what her father had done to them.
Al-Zamil contacted her mother, who told him that he should ask the father to support his daughter and not to blame her on the way she was brought up after her father left.
Many of the children who Al-Zamil has managed to bring back to the Kingdom have found a better life here. There are still others whose fathers continue to live in denial and refuse to accept their responsibilities to their children.
Abdullah Al-Alami, another Saudi writer and president of Alami Consulting, said there was a need to help forgotten children of Saudi men. “I encourage people to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring these children back and prevent them from living in poverty. We need to save our children,” said Al-Alami.
Children who have been abandoned and wish to live in their home nation could contact Al-Zamil at [email protected]. Finally, Al-Zamil had a serious message to these fathers: “Fear God.”
