Muslim father dumps daughter in Middle East orphanage after her Aussie mum stops practising Islam



A MUSLIM father dumped his six-year-old daughter in a Middle East orphanage instead of letting her live with her mother in Australia because the woman renounced Islam, a court heard.

The Australian’s Caroline Overington reports the father, an Australian citizen who cannot be named, divorced his wife in 2012 and was granted sole custody of the girl by a Middle East court.

The wife, known in court documents as Ms Hamoud, has been fighting for her daughter ever since, with the Family Court of Australia finally handing down a decision.

According to The Australian, Ms Hamoud returned to Australia after her divorce five years ago to begin the process of gaining access to her daughter.

She was met with resistance by her husband, who wouldn’t tell her where the girl was.

The court heard the father placed the child in an orphanage, claiming her mum abandoned her and that her grandmother was too sick to look after her.

The mother has not spent any meaningful time with her daughter since 2014.

The girl told a court-appointed child psychologist in Australia she did not wish to see her mother, who “hit her, did not look after her, spent all her time putting on make-up, stealing money, and changing her religion”.

She also said that she hated her mother, and wanted only to return to the Middle East.

“We need to fight a battle. I am trying so hard to make us win … all we want is to win,” the girl said.

The court heard that Ms Hamoud was just 17 and her husband 51 when they were introduced in the Middle East.

He had already been married, and had three children, the youngest of whom was eight years older than his new wife.

The couple married in 2004, after which the wife moved to Australia. Their only child was born in Australia in 2006.

The court heard the ­couple moved back and forth between the Middle East and Australia several times between 2008 and 2012.

She told the court she was a “victim of physical and financial abuse” throughout the relationship, adding her husband took charge of her passport and “hid it under the house”.

However after a lengthy battle for custody, the wife has agreed to cede parental ­responsibility to her former husband following a hearing at the Family Court in Australia.

She told the court she hoped that “as the child matures, she may well seek a relationship”.

However, Justice Berman declined the husband’s application to ­return with the child to the Middle East.

Read more at The Australian.

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