Mom, daughters reunited after 18 years

An Emirati woman was tearfully reunited with her daughters nearly 18 years after her national husband divorced her and snatched the two off her, according to a UAE newspaper.

Thurayya, now 34, had thought she would never again see her two daughters, Moza and Reem, when their father in Ajman took them off her and threatened her against coming near them.

Quoted by the Dubai-based Emarat Alyoum Arabic language daily, Thurayya said she could do nothing when her two daughters were taken away as she married when she only 13 years old and was till a teenager when her much older husband divorced her and took them.

When she grew up, the younger daughter, Moza, now 19, decided to embark on what she described as a long and weary trip to find her mother after she moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband.

“One day, she sent a text message to a social programme broadcast on Dubai radio in which the presenter Widad Lootah talked about the rights of divorced women, the suffering of their children and the children’s rights to see their parents after divorce,” the paper said.

“Moza had not expected much help on the grounds the programme is prepared by the Dubai Social Development Agency and she is from Ajman….but an agency official, Mohammed Haidar, decided immediately to help the two daughters.”

After nearly one month of search, with the help of Dubai police, the mother was located in Sharjah through her sister. She is now married with five children but appears to be still thinking of her two daughters.

“The reunion with my daughters was above all descriptions….it was neither easy for me nor for my daughters,” a tearful Thuraya said.

“I had suffered much in my first marriage because I was only 13 years old and my husband was much older and was already married with children…when he took my two daughters off, I felt that I would never see them again as I was still young and had no one to help me except for my mother and my little brother and sister.”

Moza said she had always dreamt of being hugged again by her mother and that she had not given up hope. “I had always told my sister Reem in Abu Dhabi that I am certain that my mother is close and that I had felt her presence every time I had cried…I had a feeling that we all would meet again.”

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