It’s a proverbial Catch-22. In order for Canadian Foreign Affairs Department officials to be able to help a pregnant Canadian woman, 24 year-old Nathalie Morin, leave Saudi Arabia with her children, they first have to wait for the the appropriate Saudi legal channels to handle the case according to their laws.
In other words, misogynist Saudi officials are keeping this woman captive in ‘The Kingdom’ until she gives birth to her third child, then she will be allowed to leave, but without her children, since Islamic law (Sharia) heavily favors the man. Only then will Canadian officials begin their efforts in trying to get the children reunited with their mother.
Fat chance, unless her ex-husband is proven insane and has no other relatives to take care of the children after he’s institutionalized, this woman hasn’t a snow ball’s chance in Riyadh. She’ll be lucky if granted visiting rights.
Canadian laws cannot help Nathalie Morin without solving legal issues in Saudi: Foreign Affairs
OTTAWA – The Foreign Affairs Department says it has had extensive contact with a pregnant Quebec woman, who wants to leave Saudi Arabia, as it rebutted criticism of a Bloc Quebecois MP that it has ignored her plight. Still, there is nothing the Canadian government can do to bring home 24-year-old Nathalie Morin, Foreign Affairs spokesman Rodney Moore told Canwest News Thursday.The Saudi father of Morin’s children, one of whom was born in Canada, has the final say over whether the children can leave Saudi Arabia, and unless the couple works out their custody issues, no one can change that fact.
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Morin returned to Saudi Arabia with Samir Said Abdallah Ramthi Al-Bishi, a former Concordia University student, and their two children, the second of whom was born in Saudi Arabia. Moore said Morin has “repeatedly expressed her wish that her children” leave Saudi Arabia with her.
But Canadian diplomats have told Morin that she and the children’s father must resolve their child-custody differences “through appropriate Saudi legal channels” before they can do anything to help bring them back to Canada, said Moore. “Under Saudi law, the father must approve the departure of his children from the country. In the absence of this approval, consular officials cannot facilitate the departure of children without contravening Saudi law.”
