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MOTHER YEARNS FOR SOME 'SON'SHINE
It has been nearly 15 years since Sadia Abdul Salam last saw her son.
- PUBLISHED: Sun 27 Nov 2005, 1:32 PM UPDATED: Fri 23 Aug 2024, 11:34 AM
Maher Nowfal was just seven-years-old when his Iraqi father whisked him away from his Moroccan mother. Sadia believes that Maher is living somewhere in Basra, Iraq, without any knowledge of his mother ...
from whom he was separated at a tender age.
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After 15 years of futile search, 45-year-old Sadia still hopes that one day she will see her son, now grown up into a 22-year-old young man.
"Years have flown by after that fateful day when his father took Maher away while he was playing outside my house in Morocco. Since then, there hasn't been a single day in the last 15 years when I didn't think of him. I don't even know how my boy looks like now," Sadia told City Times, tears welling up in her eyes. Sadia and her Iraqi husband parted ways just after Maher's birth in 1985. Until he was seven years, Maher lived with his mother in Morocco. Sadia, who later married a UAE national, was divorced again, and is currently living in Shahama, Abu Dhabi, with her niece.
"I was in the kitchen when Maher's father took him away. It came as a rude shock when I learned that they were off to Holland. Determined to win my child back, I pursued them to Holland, but in vain, as Maher's father did not let me see him. He even threatened to harm me if I followed my son. After a few week's stay there, I came back disappointed," Sadia narrated her tale of woe.
She jetted off to Holland once again, when some of her relatives confirmed having seen Maher with his stepmother and half brothers. "The second time I made it to Holland, they packed him off to Iraq. Since then, I have been trying through my friends and relatives in Iraq for some scrap of information about Maher's whereabouts. And by Allah's mercy, news arrived recently that Maher is in Basra and is running a used cars shop called 'Emarat's Garage', with his half brother," she said.
Illiterate and living on a government allowance, Sadia is seeking help to reunite her with her long lost son. "I don't know what to do or whom to turn for help. I want Maher back in my life. I don't even know whether he remembers me. May be he has been told that his mother is long dead," cried Sadia.
She said her friends who spotted Maher in Holland told her that the boy wore such a constant melancholy look that his neighbours thought there was something wrong with him.
"He was a calm, loving and handsome boy who loved cheese very much. I still buy cheese hoping that one day I can feed him with my own hands," Sadia sobbed, clinging on to an old photograph of Maher as one would to a life's treasure.
Anybody who has information on Maher can contact Sadia on 050 6992690.