‘I haven’t seen my daughter in 13 years’

Ashwaq Al-Twairqi
Okaz/Saudi Gazette

MAKKAH – Six months after her marriage, a woman (whose name is withheld for her privacy) moved from her hometown of Taif to Makkah to live with her husband. Suddenly, her family lost contact with her. They looked for her in Makkah and outside the holy capital but their efforts were in vain. The woman’s mother has not seen her in 13 years and has accused her daughter’s husband of preventing her from visiting her family.

For nine years, the father longed to see his daughter and did everything in his means to do so. When he finally found the house she lived in, he was shocked as his daughter and her husband refused to receive him. The father did not give up and thought his daughter was under pressure from her husband so, he decided to try again, secretly. However, his daughter rebuffed all of his attempts of establishing contact and he eventually resorted to filing an official complaint first with police and then in a court.

“Our father died before the case was heard in court but he had demanded that judges force the man to divorce our sister on account of his manipulation,” said the woman’s brothers who have taken up the case after their father passed away.

“Strangely enough, my daughter was not shaken by the death of her father, who had longed to see her and tried tirelessly for the past nine years to meet her,” added the woman’s mother.

According to the mother, several years after her daughter’s marriage, the family discovered that the man she was married to had divorced his first wife under the pretext that she was suffering from psychological problems.
The woman’s mother said they tried to meet the husband’s family and were in for another surprise when his father and brothers said he engages in black magic and sorcery. He also is alleged to have spent some time in jail for defaulting on loans.

“We’re convinced that he has cast a spell on my daughter to control her and keep her away from us so that she remains hostage to a life of suffering and hardship. All I want is to see my daughter before I die. Her husband is crippled and cannot provide for her and she is living on the kindness and alms of philanthropists,” the woman’s mother added.

The National Society for Human Rights wrote a letter to the Makkah Governorate saying that it had become acquainted with the details of the case and asked that the mother be allowed to see her daughter through a meeting arranged by the Makkah Police.