Dubai: The mother of 10-year-old girl who is in the centre of a bitter custody battle, is seeking the public’s help in locating her daughter who has been missing and is believed to be still in the UAE.
Samia Yousuf claimed that a Dubai court had granted her full custody rights over her daughter, Feroza in 2009.
“I just need to see her and know that she’s doing fine,” the worried mother said on Thursday after her former husband took legal action and stopped her from having any form of contact with her daughter.
Yousuf made an appeal to Gulf News readers in the hope that someone may have spotted her daughter around the city, as she currently has no idea on the whereabouts of her ex-husband and daughter and if they are still in the country.
Yousuf, an Indian, got married in Dubai and then moved to the UK with her husband to start their life together. But it was not all wedding bliss as Yousuf claims that her husband was abusive.
“In 2008, my daughter and I moved to Dubai to live with my family as it was unbearable to live with my husband anymore, and by the next year, the divorce was finalised. He never paid any maintenance for Feroza and was not active in her life,” she said, pointing out that he owed Dh127,000 up till now in child support.
“Last Thursday, he arrived with police at my door and presented a court order stating that he had full custody of our daughter. We were then all escorted to the police station, where my ex-husband said he would sign a promise not to travel with her but he didn’t do it,” Yousuf said.
“I was left helpless and watched as Feroza begged at her father’s feet not to take her away. She did not see her father for several years and he is putting her through a traumatising experience. I have no objection if he wants to see Feroza but it should not be done like this. We have never spent a day apart and I have to know where she is and if she’s okay,” Samia said.
The case has been appealed and Yousuf is awaiting a court hearing at the end of the month.
