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Syria invites hunger-strike mom to visit abducted daughter
Thursday, November 26, 1998 By Mackenzie Carpenter, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Maureen Dabbagh's hunger strike ended last week, but her one-woman duel with the Syrian government over her daughter continues.
Dabbagh fasted for 36 days to protest Syria's failure to reunite her with 8-year-old Nadia. Yesterday she finally got a response.
Dabbagh received a fax from the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., inviting her to "exercise your right to visit" Nadia, who was spirited out of the United States by Dabbagh's ex-husband in 1993. Maureen Dabbagh hasn't seen the girl since, even though she has been granted custody of Nadia by courts in both the United States and Syria.
In the fax, Syrian officials stated that relatives of Mohammed Hisham Dabbagh, Nadia's father, had signed a document permitting Maureen Dabbagh to see Nadia, who is said to be living in Damascus with her grandmother and aunt. Hisham Dabbagh does not live with his daughter, having left Syria for Saudi Arabia after arrest warrants were issued there and in the U.S. for him.
Despite the Syrians' gesture, Dabbagh isn't rejoicing.
"I've been down this road before," she said wearily during a telephone interview from her home in Virginia Beach, Va. Three previous trips to Syria - during which she was promised visits with her daughter - have resulted in nothing.
"This is major damage control by the Syrian government. They don't want to look like the bad guys," she added, noting that the fax from the Syrian Embassy came on the same day that her story, documented by photojournalist Allan Detrich for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, appeared on MSNBC's web site.
There are about 1,000 international parental abductions of American children each year, according to U.S. estimates. And while the U.S. might be able to pressure Hisham Dabbagh's relatives to release Nadia by extraditing him from Saudi Arabia, such action would cost the U.S. thousands in airfare and personnel costs.
That's money the United States is apparently not willing to spend, Dabbagh says, since those convicted of international parental abduction face only three years in jail.
Justice Department officials were unavailable for comment.
Dabbagh lost 41 pounds during her fast, and although she felt disoriented and weak much of the time, there have been no lasting side effects, she says. She decided to end her hunger strike after it appeared that official Washington - at least some of it - was taking notice.
A Senate resolution by Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., calling for Nadia's return was approved, although it is non-binding, and Dabbagh was asked to participate in a Justice Department-funded task force on international abductions.
"There appeared to be some real movement, both on our end and on the Syrian end," she said. "And I decided I would be better off helping Nadia if I were alive."
The story has received widespread attention in Europe and "pockets" of coverage in the United States, she added. And she hopes that the publicity will continue to put pressure on the Syrian government, although this latest development doesn't give her much hope.
"I won't see her. I'll go to Syria. I always go when I think there's a chance, and I always come home empty-handed," she said simply.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment on the Dabbagh case except to say that officials were working hard to resolve it and the 1,000 or so similar international abductions that occur each year.
Correction/Clarification: An earlier version of this story included one or more photos by Allan Detrich. The photos have been removed. This action is explained in a note from the editor.
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