The American woman taking refuge in the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with her two young children initially went hungry there because she had no money for food and wasn’t offered food by staff, reports Pat Roush, a leader in the quest to free Americans held captive in Saudi Arabia and author of “At Any Price.”
As WorldNetDaily reported, Sarah Saga, 23, was kidnapped by her father as a child in 1985 and taken to the kingdom. She has been prohibited from leaving there ever since. As has happened with other Americans, Saga was married off to a Saudi and bore her own children. Now the woman, who claims to have been abused by her father, stepmother and husband, has sought refuge in the U.S. Consulate, having arrived there Sunday. She is pleading with U.S. officials to help her and her children, age 3 and 5, travel to America. Saga has been told, however, that if she leaves, her Saudi-born children must stay in the kingdom.
Saudi law dictates that no woman, American or not, can leave the country without permission of her husband or father.
Roush says Saga’s mother, Debra Dornier, was told by a consular officer she would have to wire funds so Sarah and the children could eat.
“The consulate couldn’t provide food to one of America’s daughters who wanted protection and safe haven from the Saudi men who had stripped her of all human rights, locked her in a room for years at a time, threatened, beat, starved, humiliated and would surely kill her if she went outside the walls,” Roush said.
The wire transfer, however, didn’t go through as quickly as hoped, and one night this week Saga and her children went to bed without eating.
Said Roush: “I wonder if we should ask the families of the Saudi prisoners in Guantanamo who are provided with a special diet for Muslims, clothed, given prayer rugs and Qurans, to send their citizens money so they can eat.”
As WND reported, Saga signed – she says under coercion – a document Thursday giving up custody of her two young children. Since then, however, she has declared she will not leave the kingdom without her kids.
“I will never leave my children here to suffer the same horrible life that I had to endure,” Sarah Saga said on the Fox News Channel.
Yesterday, the State Department confirmed Saga’s decision.
”The U.S. Consulate officials had told [Saga] that she could voluntarily change her mind about that decision and the latest news we have is that she has done so,” State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters, adding, ”At this time she remains in the consulate and she may remain in the consulate as long as she desires.”
Previous stories:
American vows to stay in Jeddah with kids
American coerced into signing kids away?
Woman seeks freedom from Saudi oppression
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