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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











ReaderComments (Page 3 of 4)
9-01-2010 @ 7:01PM
jiniries said...@JIM...EWWWWWWWWWWW ...JIM YOU'RE GROSS AND DISGUSTING, YUK!!!!!!!!!
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9-01-2010 @ 6:32PM
Anderson said...Thats exactly what you should think about before marrying some dumb foreigner. Use your head instead your part below. Men are so stupid. l hope he does not get his kids back just to teach him and other ignorant men a lesson. l keep reading stories about fathers and fathers wanna be way too many times.
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9-01-2010 @ 6:40PM
Heather said...Thats right don't marry a foreigner because an American would never violate a custody agreement and kidnap thier children!
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9-01-2010 @ 6:47PM
Lisa Philippon said...Wow, all of the racism, bigotry, and spelling errors that riddle this page...
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9-01-2010 @ 6:47PM
Donna said...Gotta wonder why a judge would award dad FULL custody. Most will side with the mother, especially if the kids are young. As for her breaking the law and thumbing her nose at the USA, what do you expect from someone born and raised in the middle east?? They lie with a straight face and think nothing of it.
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9-01-2010 @ 7:04PM
jiniries said...Most Caucasians men and woman cheat on their spouses because they have a lot of lovers which is why they get sexual transmitted diseases. Women from other countries are more educated. That's a fact!!
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9-01-2010 @ 7:06PM
Maureen Dabbagh said...I am surprised that the dad has not utilized the Cross Border mediation program that is part of the Hague. Some non-Hague countries are part of this too. Egypt (a non-Hague country) is part of the corss border mediation program. Children have been returned from the Middle East through cross border mediation-I know, I am a cross border mediator.
Is this dad an American? Usually Americans don't want to mediate the return of their child. They usually litigation, or snatch-back, or media bltiz or congressional noise.
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9-01-2010 @ 7:07PM
A1DAD said...American women wouldn't do this ? Yeah right, It isn't just women from another country that do this crap. Ask any Loving Father that has been fighting a court battle for years (WITH AN AMERICAN WOMAN) just to be able to spend quality time with their child. Ask any Father that works every week just to pay their attorney and Child support. And for people to assume a CHILD'S PLACE IS WITH THE MOTHER, think again. Look at how many kids have been killed by their own Mother's. How many mother's are partying, high on crack and other drugs but claim they love their kids so much. They love their lifestyle , the child support money, food stamps, WIC and medicaid. They use their kids as a crutch. Yes their are some wonderful Mother's,(Thanks Mom 4 being such a loving & Wonderful mother, The way You & Dad raised me, gave me the courage & determination to fight so hard.) but there are some straight out liers , that will say or do anything and use the child and the system to get what they want.$$$. How do I know? Because, I am one of them Father's. A Father that loves his child and wants to be an active part of his life and not just given Daddy time every other weekend. I have Never drink nor done drugs or abused a woman , but in a custody case you would think I were a big time dealer because the courts are so biased towards men. South Carolina Court Judges need to wake up and look at the evidence and not past it.
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9-01-2010 @ 7:21PM
Pretaygrl said...Puffyzone, your the idot! One race is no better then another. Just because she is Egyptian doesn't mean she is muslim. Religion has nothing to do with this father missing his children. Yeah your representing the Americans? You dont represent me!! Superior race? If you are what we are breeding I hope that that gene pool is depleted!! Your end will be soon with that kind of hatetred.
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9-01-2010 @ 7:29PM
Guts 4 glory! said...PuffyZone! Keep puffing your weed and getting in your own Zone !! You are some real ignorant A** Hole... Typical of you! First off his wife is not a muslim otherwize she would'nt have been able to marry him !! you are just plain stupid !!
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9-01-2010 @ 7:36PM
CAROLYN said...My daughter is engaged to a Honduras guy and they just had their first child he has been talking about going home and raise his son over their my husband and I are scared that when they go over there for Christmas that he won't let them come home. I was married to a Lebanese for 4 year's and we lost our child then he went for a visit to see his family he was killed and the family came over here to get his belonging and left me with all the bills and his college loan so I tell people the if you won't to end up like most young ladies then don't marry guy's from over seas
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9-01-2010 @ 7:57PM
nestmission said...to answer your reply, that if this woman were a muslim she would not be allowed to marry someone out of the muslim religion....yes she can, and they do all the time. This brings more little muslims into the world, and this is what they want.
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9-01-2010 @ 7:54PM
dj said...She probably married him for a green card.
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9-01-2010 @ 8:06PM
Tony said...Why do men get involved with woman from overseas?? When things go south they take the kids and run, using them as pawns in there game! American is the only DUMB country with its stupid laws that give everyone but it' s own people protection for there own stupidity!!This woman is a crimanal and should be turned over the the U.S. Government for Prosacution!! But the Ararib world is just another world from ours!! I think that we should have the same laws here and give the rest of the world a taste of there own medican!!! We have so many lawyers that have screwed up our country that everyone but the American People get a fair shake
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9-01-2010 @ 8:12PM
MSpradliln said...Very well said.....!!!!
9-01-2010 @ 8:06PM
MSpradlin said...This is why Americans should marry Americans...People from other countries just use gulible Americans... natural born Americans onlyshould marry their own country person, no ties to other countries...we have Natural Born Black, Brown, White, Asian, all kinds....what is wrong with them...these other people from other countries speak with forked tongues, I wouldn't believe what any one of them said...they have been known to LIE....but then you reap what you sow...(no e)
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9-01-2010 @ 8:17PM
helenvcard said...It is really sad story, and there is probably no right side for it. As a mother, who madly loves my child, I may understand that woman. Any women, American or not, can feel the same way about loosing a children. And woman, who was raised in the culture to live and breeze for children probably couldn't feel safe to be in the country, where she has to give away the most precious thing in her life, basically reason of her life. As a European "foreigner" originally I know whom the system would prefer in this case. Probably she didin't make enough money, probably her status wasn't a Citizen, probably she didn't have money for a good lawyer to win this custody, probably she wasn't so terrible mother as well, plus "arab-mother" versus all American good father's case in front of judge, common, guys. Besides, most of American guys I have seen married with foreign wives, marry them for a pure control. Yes, it is wrong, she broke the law, but her action seems so desperate. Besides, probably Egyptian law may be different towards motherhood and this is a reason for them not pushing hard in this case. Anyway, I think that situation wouldn't happened at all if father wouldn't punish ex-wife for unhappy final of the marriage by taking kids to full custody. I think that woman ran with a kids from despair. And maybe if he wouldn't push law enforcement, but instead just tried to find contact with ex-wife (even through the facebook, hopefully she is using internet or maybe better through her family, if he ever met them) and just make some reasonable adult compromise for children and their mother, he would get them back. Good luck with that anyway. I will prey for this family.
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9-01-2010 @ 8:21PM
mbonhamwolv said...I know nothing about child custody situations pertaining to the law and child custody, but how about court ordered supervised visitation, along with the passports of both parents being confiscated by the courts. Maybe places in the U.S. where you can have your passports made, could require that both of the child's parents show up with birth certificates(need 2 forms of I.D.?) of all parties involved. I don't know if the computers at the places where U.S. passports are made are interconnected with federal(DOJ, HHS?) or individual states' department that oversees child custody situations, but if they don't, they it seems they could do it to keep the foreign born parent from illegally taking a chld out of the U.S. . Maybe if the court deems the U.S.-born parent unfit(i.e. mentally unstable, or a threat to the child's welfare) for the child to be around, or the parent relinguishes all parental rights, these could be exceptions for the foreign-born parent to take the U.S.-born child out of the country. These are just my thoughts.
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9-01-2010 @ 9:10PM
Shakefellow said...It is clear this man needs a private detective to find these boys and steal them back. The government will take years and the boys will be indoctrinated into a culture that will not be the best for them. Woman are treated badly and are considered inferior in this country. Get busy sir and figure out a way to get them back. Take a year off from work and go get them. Stay incognito until you find them. Those people understand money. Bribe somebody.
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9-02-2010 @ 12:25PM
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. The check on the kids show they are fine and apparently happy.
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