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A Washington mother, who moved to Saudi Arabia to teach at a university, lost custody of her husband after divorcing her husband because she was too Western to raise the child, according to a Saudi court.
Bethany Vierra, 32, lost custody of her daughter - four-year-old Zaina - in July after the court determined that the mother was too 'new to Islam.'
Can you really feel sorry for any woman too damn stupid to move to Saudi Arabia and NOT expect to be completely screwed over like this?
While I do have empathy for this woman and her sad situation, I am sorry to say this but "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". It would have certainly been to her advantage whether she liked it or not is another matter.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 14 days ago)
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This article is really confusing.
It appears that a US citizen moved to Saudi Arabia in 2011, got married there, and had a child in 2015. She has since divorced the Saudi father and is raising the child, a Saudi citizen presumedly, in a way that the Saudi government feels makes her an unfit mother, and they have proof on social media of this.
Does her child have any US citizenship rights?
I don't understand, at all, that she's not allowed to leave the country unless she renounced her US citizenship rights. That's something the State Department needs to deal with, IMHO.
This event brought to mind a film I had seen a long time ago and apparently in the aftermath, it had some controversies, to say the least.
Not Without My Daughter is a 1991 American drama film based on the book of the same name, depicting the escape of American citizen Betty Mahmoody and her daughter from her abusive husband in Iran. The film was shot in the United States, Turkey and Israel, and the main characters Betty Mahmoody and Sayyed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody are played by Sally Field and Alfred Molina, respectively. Sheila Rosenthal and Roshan Seth star as Mahtob Mahmoody and Houssein the smuggler, respectively.
It appears that a US citizen moved to Saudi Arabia in 2011, got married there, and had a child in 2015. She has since divorced the Saudi father and is raising the child, a Saudi citizen presumedly, in a way that the Saudi government feels makes her an unfit mother, and they have proof on social media of this.
Does her child have any US citizenship rights?
I don't understand, at all, that she's not allowed to leave the country unless she renounced her US citizenship rights. That's something the State Department needs to deal with, IMHO.
It sounds similar to the "Not Without My Daughter" case in Iran (Sally Field played the mother in the movie). An American woman married an Iranian doctor in the USA and they went to visit his family. While he was there, he became drawn into the Ayatollah's new strict Islamic regime, and decided to stay. She wanted to go back to the USA with her daughter, and her husband said no.
The woman went to the American embassy, and they said, too bad, so sad, but Iranian law says that a woman can't leave the country unless her husband says so, and once you stepped inside the country, you became bound under that law.
Eventually her husband gave her permission to leave to see her ailing parents, but said she could not take her daughter. She ended up making contact with an underground group who assisted her in escaping from Iran with her daughter.
Too many Americans think that just being American protects them from the laws of the countries they enter, and then they find out too late that they were wrong.
ETA: Should have read ahead. I see the poster before me also mentioned this famous case.
Maybe we should stop being so xenophobic in regards to people from the Middle East and then acting shocked when they do the same to our people.
In countries like this women have always been secondary to men in things like custody and other legal issues. And a citizen is always going to get the benefit of the legal doubt over an outsider.I don’t think anything we do or don’t do is going to influence their family court system.
It sounds similar to the "Not Without My Daughter" case in Iran (Sally Field played the mother in the movie). An American woman married an Iranian doctor in the USA and they went to visit his family. While he was there, he became drawn into the Ayatollah's new strict Islamic regime, and decided to stay. She wanted to go back to the USA with her daughter, and her husband said no.
The woman went to the American embassy, and they said, too bad, so sad, but Iranian law says that a woman can't leave the country unless her husband says so, and once you stepped inside the country, you became bound under that law.
Eventually her husband gave her permission to leave to see her ailing parents, but said she could not take her daughter. She ended up making contact with an underground group who assisted her in escaping from Iran with her daughter.
Too many Americans think that just being American protects them from the laws of the countries they enter, and then they find out too late that they were wrong.
ETA: Should have read ahead. I see the poster before me also mentioned this famous case.
That was the most exciting and suspenseful movie! It’s not just Middle Eastern countries at this happens in either. There was a man who lost custody of his son because his wife went back to her country and remarried. The courts even took away his visitation. Even after the child’s mother died in childbirth, the courts gave the stepfamily custody of the child that biologically wasn’t even related to him. . I can’t remember what country it was, possibly Brazil, but it was a western country. He finally got the child back at the age of 11 or 12 or so, I was all over the news and tv shows at the time.
That man didn’t even go live in that country. She took the child there to supposedly to visit her parents and then never came back. That happens quite frequently, one of the parents take the child to their home country and then the parent at home cannot get them back.
Yes, I can and do feel sorry for her, ignorance and all. This stuff gives me chills. I am so thankful to be born in America. Never in a million years would I visit or move to Saudi Arabia. I certainly wouldn't birth or drag a child over there.
She moved there to teach in a university, but apparently wasn't smart enough to comprehend the danger? How smart can she be?
You would think that Saudi Arabia would meet with her beforehand to make sure she wouldn't teach her "western ways" in their university.
Not Without My Daughter was a great movie and teaching tool, if you ask me.
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