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Boston Dad Fights to Get Kids Back from Egypt
Filed under: Divorce & Custody, In The News, Single Parenting
Colin Bower posts video messages to his sons on Facebook. He hopes they can see him, because he can't see them.
His ex-wife, Mirvat el Nady, violated their custody agreement, allegedly forged passport documents and ran off with their boys to her native Egypt. Bower hasn't seen Ramsay, 7, or Noor, 9, since Nady, who is listed as a fugitive by Interpol, picked them up for a scheduled on visit Aug. 9 of last year.
MSNBC reports Bower has traveled to Egypt six times. However, despite help from U.S. Sen. John Kerry and the State Department, the Boston resident doesn't know when -- or if -- he will see his sons again.
Bower started a Facebook campaign to get the boys back and tells "Today" he hopes his sons know about it.
"It is, frankly, therapeutic for me to communicate with them in some fashion after a year, because I haven't been able to see them at all," Bower tells "Today."
Bower was supposed to have sole custody of Ramsay and Noor after he and Nady divorced in 2008. The boys went for a visit with their mother on Aug. 9, 2009, and she was supposed to return them home a week later. Instead, using the last name "Power," she fled with the boys to Egypt two days later.
MSNBC reports an Egyptian court granted Bower visits with his sons twice a month, but Nady is nowhere to be found. There are international warrants for her arrest on kidnapping charges.
Although he's supposed to fly to Cairo for a third scheduled visit next week, Bower tells the show he's been told Nady won't show up for that visit, either.
David Goldman of New Jersey faced a similar problem when his ex-wife absconded with their son to Brazil. Father and son were reunited after a five-year legal and diplomatic battle. Bower tells MSNBC he hopes for a similarly happy ending on a shorter time line.
Just as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited the White House this week, Bower was told a U.S. embassy official managed to visit Ramsay and Noor to check on their well-being. Bower tells MSNBC he was told the boys are in good shape and they reportedly talked excitedly about their friends and activities in Egypt.
But Bower tells "Today" he believes his sons "were well on-message and well-coached for that visit."
Even though Bower has an Egyptian court order for visitation on his side, he tells MSNBC there's little chance of him seeing his boys. "There's no one to enforce compliance on the Egyptian side," he says.
"I want them to be on an airplane tomorrow," he tells MSNBC. "She has the ability to do that. The Egyptian government has the ability to return these children tomorrow. And that's what I want. That's what they deserve."
Related: Facebook Reunites Mom With Kidnapped Kids
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 4)
9-01-2010 @ 2:16PM
Ms.Mouthy said...Yeah...this is exactly why marriage is dangerous!
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 5:37PM
Jim said...EEEEWWWW, AN EGYPTIAN ??? GROSSS !!!
9-01-2010 @ 2:27PM
lucky said...Why would he let his ex have the boys for a week when he had full custody. He should have made sure she had supervised visits. Be careful when you marry a person fron another country! Hope he gets his boys back and his ex should be in jail....
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 7:40PM
noel said...they are her kids too foreigner or not. maybe if she didn't feel threatened by her husband she wouldn't have had to run off with them. If he was letting her have her fill of them why go away?
9-01-2010 @ 2:55PM
Hi Debbie said...Americans should know better than to marry people that were born and raised in another country with their children, if things go wrong in the marriage, it is easy to run back to these countries some of which do not have extradition rights. I have been hearing more and more of this kind of thing and it will only get worse.......I had enough problems here with getting fair treatment in regards to the children after a divorce, I cannot imagine if skipping the country was an option......
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 7:02PM
jiniries said...@DEBBIE... Americans divorce every single day simply because they don't take the time to know one another. Divorce has nothing to do with race, you're a bigot!!! There are Americans that marry people from all over the world.
9-01-2010 @ 3:08PM
Jean Bailey said...This is the reason why you shouldn't marry outside your culture. I have a friend who married a guy from Egypt. They have two daughters. Since women in this culture aren't revered, he's not battling over the "girls". But, if it were sons, he would have stolen them long ago and brought them to Egypt; a place where they've never been before! Women and children are property to the men in these types of cultures. It's sad, and stupid!
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 3:18PM
maphilgood said...THINK 10 TIMES BEFORE YOU MARRY A FOREIGNER ESPECIALLY ONE THAT COMES FROM THE ARAB WORLD. OUR GOV. SHOULD NOT HAVE TO GET INVOLVED WITH HIS STUPIDITY.
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 3:52PM
Gina said...I'm surprised at how insensitve most of these comments are. This man had his kids kidnapped! It doesn't matter if it was by his ex-wife or a total stranger! They are HIS kids (if he won full custody then that REALLY worries me about the woman as a mother) and she took them from him. How can so many of you place the blame on him for "marrying a foreigner"? That does not help the situation nor bring the kids home safely to where they belong. I hope the governments, both American and Egyptian, do step in to help return the kids and I hope this criminal mother gets what she deserves!
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 4:03PM
Michelle said...I agree with you. It doesn't matter who he married or where she is from. Or even that it was his ex-wife. The man had his children kidnapped from someone that isn't right in the head. I feel for him and he will be in my prayers.
1-27-2011 @ 4:17PM
Shirley said...I agree that people shouldn't be back-stabbing that poor man who just lost his sons. For your info, it could just as easily be a whole different scenario. Our uncle's friend who is from Australia, a very nice man was married to an American (one of our own folks) woman who was attrociasly strung out on drugs--even on their court date. Guess what, the judge in his infinite wisdom awarded custudy to her. She was given ample chance to get clean--she chose drugs over her children. In that case, yes, the "foreigner" should have his kids. People put yourself in this man's shoes, and open up your heart to how he must be feeling. You really don't need to put salt into his wounds.
9-01-2010 @ 7:29PM
broken hearted said...I agree with you gina, My ex husband and I were both american,I had custody of our 2 sons. He took them for visitation in 1993, I have have not seen them to this day and at that time I couldn't get anyone to help me. A court has ordered him to pay a very large amount of back child support for taking them which he has not done to this day. My sons are adults now and I still don't know where they are, so I'm no better off now as I was in 1993.
9-02-2010 @ 12:24PM
Bianca said...How could he have full custody if she had a full week of unsupervised visitation? How could she be considered a bad or dangerous parent if the court said we'll leave the kids with you for at least a full week unsupervised?
In a lot of these cases, the parent gets full custody AFTER one parent leaves and defies the court. The court punishes them by taking away custody. Just because he has full custody now, doesn't mean that was the way it always was, or that she was a bad parent. How bad could she be if the check on the kids show they are fine and apparently happy.
9-01-2010 @ 3:53PM
alfavil said...IF YOU DIVORCE ANY FOREIGNER, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN. IF THE COURT GRANTS YOU FULL CUSTODY, DO NOT COMPLY WITH VISITATION RIGHTS!
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 3:57PM
Michelle said...You can't help who you fall in love with. It doesn't matter if you marry from the country you live in or not. There will always be crazy people out there. I feel for this man and I hope that he gets his children back. If a woman is going to kidnap her children then obviously she isn't right in the head to raise them. This family will be in my prayers.
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 4:12PM
sNOOP said...Yeah' don't marry any foreign women. Marry American women then no problem.
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 7:03PM
jiniries said...SNOOPY...MOST CAUCASIANS WOMEN DIVORCE THEIR SPOUSE BECAUSE THEY CHEAT ON THEIR SPOUSES, THEY ARE NOT FAITHFULL.
9-01-2010 @ 4:18PM
Sean said...Granted we don't know the whole story, but even if the father was abuse or soemthing like that, the kids would be 100% better off with him than growing up in a Muslim nation. If they do, their chances of living their lives as decent humans are over. And for anyone who disagrees, the Muslims have no one to blame but themselves for the perception the world has of them. No PC nonsense..just the truth.
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9-01-2010 @ 4:20PM
jen said...As a mother at 1st I would believe well the kids, belong with there mother but, there was a reason a judge did give him sole custody of the boys. Why he let the kids go with there mom for a week is neither here nor there. As paretns sometimes we want our kids to be happy and feel loved by a parent thats not in the picture maybe he didnt make the best choice. Bottom line she broke the law and she derseves to be punished and the boys should go back to there father. If it was a father that did this people's reactions would be different and would be pledding with the father to get the children back i am a mother but bottom line i am a parent female or male it doesnt matter you have to obey the law and the custody agreements and the kids shouldnt have been taken out of the country.
www.mommyof2lilmunkeys.blogspot.com
Reply
9-01-2010 @ 6:07PM
jeff said...this world is just so unbelievably ignorant ... if the government has the ability to return his children , they need to return his children . why the hell wouldn't the LAW be enforced ... that's hideous and egypt should be embarrASSed . this world gets more ridiculous by the minute .
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