(CNN) Last month, an American mother named Bethany Vierra lost custody of her young daughter Zaina, on the grounds that she was too Western to raise the child well. Now her own parents worry that they will lose both grand-daughter and daughter, as the window to appeal closes in Saudi Arabia.
“If Zaina can’t leave, she won’t leave,” Bethany’s mother Kathi tells CNN from their home in Wenatchee, Washington.
“We love our granddaughter,” her father Myron also said. “I think our deepest fear is that we might not ever see her again.”
Bethany, a 32-year-old student and yoga teacher, moved to Saudi Arabia to teach at a university in 2011. She recently divorced her Saudi husband, and sought custody of their four-year-old daughter. But in July, the court concluded that she would not be a good parent.
