5 & 8 Year-Old Girls Kept Away From Mother In U.S. Must Be Returned From Yemen

PARDALIS & NOHAVICKA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW UPDATE:
5 and 8 Year-Old Girls Kept Away From Mother in U.S. Must Be Returned From Yemen

The mother was prevented from seeing her daughters (5 and 8 born in the U.S.) for a year and a half.  Her ex-husband had them in Yemen and refused to let her see them. (In Yemen, dowries for marriage with a U.S. citizen, which are paid to the bride's father, may reach as high as $25,000 to $50,000.)

While the ex was staying at his residence in Brooklyn (the girls were in Yemen with his new wife), the mother filed a suit in Family Court asking the court to order the father to bring the daughters to the U.S.

The court confiscated the father's passport and directed him to have the daughters produced.  The father gave his word that if his passport was returned he would appear on the next court date. The court did not buy it and held on to the passport. He was told that the passport would be returned when the girls were back on U.S. soil and in the arms of their mother again.

Here is the decision: Matter of S.A. v M.H.

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_26301.htm