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| Ordeal of a Japanese Mother: She Has to Visit Kingdom to See Her Son |
| 2005-04-10 |
| If a child was kidnapped from a Saudi and whisked out of the country, there would be national outrage and shock over a horrible crime. But when the kidnapper is a Saudi parent and the child is whisked into the Kingdom, the foreign mother learns it is a matter for civil courts. Perhaps Hiroe's story and her Saudi ex-husband's are typical of any couple from different countries who separate and one of whom has to endure living away from their children. But it is still a story worth mentioning because no matter what the variations in details and background, in the end there is a father and a mother fighting over custody and a child suffering the consequences. There must be a better, more civilized and definitely a morally and religiously acceptable way of handling these issues. In Hiroe's case, some people might consider her lucky that she is at least able to see her son regularly, but that arrangement did not come easily. For her, spending two weeks in Jeddah with her son every three months is neither enough nor is it practical to travel back and forth to Japan. They met in 1990 when Wasef came to Japan to attend an international meeting on the marine environment and kept in contact until they married in Japan in mid-1995 and she converted to Islam. He joined her in Japan at the end of 1995 after getting his master's degree from the United Kingdom and applied for a scholarship to get his PhD in Japan. In Osaka, she gave birth to their son, Faisal, in March 1997 while Wasef studied Japanese to enter the university. Unfortunately, his scholarship specified a different university in a different city. So, from 1998 to 2001, Wasef worked on his PhD while visiting Hiroe and Faisal every few months for a couple of days in Osaka where she worked and supported herself, her son and Wasef as the scholarship money was not enough for his expenses. In early 2001, Hiroe was transferred to the company's Tokyo head office. Meanwhile Wasef quit his studies because he had problems with his supervisor and was unable to continue and returned to Saudi Arabia in April 2001 to find a job. Hiroe stayed in Japan with her son until Wasef was settled and then visited him in the summer but returned to Japan with the understanding that she would live with him in Jeddah once he got a regular job. In December 2001, he invited Hiroe to Saudi Arabia for a vacation in Bahrain. A day after arriving in Bahrain, he left Hiroe in the hotel and took Faisal for an outing and never came back. Worried sick about her son and asking around about him in a strange country with no one to help her, she finally got a call from him at midnight telling her that he is in Saudi Arabia with Faisal and ordering her to return to Japan and not to call him until after three months or she would never see her son. "He kidnapped him, and I didn't know what to do," she told Arab News. He left her passport and a one-way airline ticket to Japan for her in a safety deposit box at the hotel, and without a guarantor (kafeel) to re-enter Saudi Arabia or iqama and family ID card, which he took with him, she had no choice but to return to Japan. She followed his instructions and when she called him, he refused to discuss any solutions for their problem and kept postponing any meetings while threatening her if she caused him any trouble. "I was crying every day, and despite the problems we had in our marriage I really hoped we could work it out," she said. After a year and a half, Hiroe finally realized that he had no intention of getting back with her even though he did not say he wanted a divorce. "In fact, he took advantage of the situation by asking me for help in establishing his business while keeping my son hostage," she said. Hiroe finally began seeking help from a lawyer, the Saudi Embassy in Japan and the Japanese Consulate General in Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 Given all the reports of this type of crap,why would any woman arry one of these a##holes. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-04-10 11:52:42 AM |