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    Sky Tracks Down 'Abducted' Girl In Tripoli

    Sky News has tracked down a young woman who was taken from England by her Libyan father without her mother's consent 19 years ago.

    Ayesha Shirif, 22, was born in England but lives with her father Khaled in Tripoli.

    But when the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi began she saw an opportunity to try to escape in the chaos to be with her mother in England.

    It was a desperate attempt that failed and she has not been allowed to communicate with her mother since.

    Ayesha went to the port to try to get on a ship evacuating British citizens but Libyan officials would not allow her to be part of the evacuation because she was a woman travelling alone.

    Eventually when she realised she would not be able to board the ship, she admitted to her father that she had tried to run away.

    She told him where she was and her angry father took her home.

    That was in March and he has refused to allow any contact between the mother and daughter since.

    I have known Ayesha and her mother Tracey since we filmed them and other mothers being reunited in Tripoli for a Sky News documentary - Libya: The Stolen Children - last summer.

    The British mothers had married Libyan men in the UK. Their husbands had taken their children back to Libya without the mothers' consent leaving them devastated.

    Ayesha was taken from England by her father when she was just three.

    I went to her father's house in Tripoli to try to speak to her.

    When I went to her father's house in Tripoli, Khaled, wearing a white vest top and sunglasses, at first blocked the doorway and refused to speak to me.

    It took nearly 45 minutes to eventually persuade him to allow me to phone Tracey so I could put her on the phone to Ayesha.

    Shy and aware her father was watching, Ayesha accepted the mobile phone telling her mother that her father had taken her phone from her.

    The short conversation culminated with Ayesha telling her mother she loves her.

    When I asked her why she went to the port, she explained simply: "I wanted to go to England to see my mum."

    Libya has not signed up to international protocols to get abducted children returned to their country of origin.

    Khaled insists his actions are in his daughter's best interests.

    He has always said he wanted Ayesha to be raised a Muslim and to live in a Muslim country.

    But he has always felt confident knowing under Colonel Gaddafi there was no law forcing him to do anything else.

     

    145 comments

    • BRUCE  •  8 months ago
      Finally amina, im glad to live in an area of uk which is not multicultural ie the south west. And have no wish to mix on a personal level with other cultures what so ever, Why should I , im living in a country where anglo saxons have been here for 1400 years at the very least.
      • amina 8 months ago
        so in this case do you never wish to visit another part of the world and be welcomed?..do u never go on holiday to a country which is not your own?
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Bruce, you keep your head up your #$%$ then. I'm sure they wouldn't want to be best pals with you either.
      • Richard 8 months ago
        AMEN to that DUDE! I just had a month in Cornwall and it was like England 50 years ago, no road rage, politeness, manners, friendly locals who had time to chat, ALL post war non economic or student immigration has been a collossal mistake!
    • TheTruthHurts  •  8 months ago
      If d women in Libya are suffering, then I bet it is Libyan culture that has problem, not Islam. Because according to Islamic history, Muhammed himself was a strong advocate women's rights and education. In fact in a very popular tradition (d Muslim all know this, it is documented), Muhammed said "educating a single woman is like educating an entire community". He never said this about men. Muhammed also said "Anyone that gives a girl the best of upbringing is rewarded with paradise", this is also documented. Do pple even know that in Islamic shariah, women are not obliged to contribute their earnings in any form to the family? That is entirely d woman's choice. I have lived in a Muslim country, have Libyan friends too, and I know even Libyans know this, and it is d norm in most Muslim countries. under Islamic law, organisations and individuals are compelled to honour women's time of menstruation, pregnancy and lactation, and d husband or d organisation she works for must make necessary to give her enough freedom, proximity to her family and matrimonial duties are considered even in her schedule, and this is common in many Muslim communities where have worked. In fact, it is because of all these freedom that Muslim women are very lazy. I know many that have d education but prefer not to work because d husband takes care and does everything for her. This is simply not d case here. So when if pple talk about "liberating" Muslim women, I find it difficult to understand what they're talking about. But now I understand that some Muslim communities don't live that way. And one thing we should understand, unlike here where d husband is forced to serve and respect his wife and children bcos of d law, in Asia and Africa the d wife and children serve and respect d dad bcos he provides for and takes care of d entire family.
      • starman666 8 months ago
        Ahh, TruthHurts, if only your dreamworld version of Islam and Sharia law really existed! What a wonderful world it would be! Until then, keep on dreaming while women suffer under Islam.
      • Richard 8 months ago
        unfortunately, what the Prophet may have said, and how it is interpreted today are two entirely different things, was he not married to a 12 year old girl? how would that be interpreted today?
        Religion has no place in the modern world.
      • mike 8 months ago
        12 year old! she wasnt that old Richard 6-9 years is more near the truth
    • Tex  •  8 months ago
      Inbreeders!
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Inbreeders? Do you know what that term means? Read the article, it is not an example of inbreeding, you idiot.
      • malcolm 8 months ago
        Haze, I know you are getting upset because you are an inbreed, just deal with it
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Malcolm, you mean "inbred" not "inbreed". And who is upset? Not me. I am happy. Happy that Britain allows Muslims to come and live here in peace. However, bigoted views like yours are not allowed. Great, isn't it?
    • ELWYN  •  8 months ago
      all muslum men who live in the uk would like to get there girls out from the uk when thay get to about 8 yrs old. and look at what young muslum boys try and do to white girls.
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Oh yeah, because young British Men are a paradigm of virtue? All I have to do is go out on a Saturday night and see the drunken twunts out loose on the town, or the hoodies mugging old ladies. What a hypocrite.
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Plus, my dad, a Muslim man, never tried to get me out of the UK! He stayed with my Protestant mother and they have been together for 36 years.
      • mike 8 months ago
        Haze please stop telling lies! you should be in the kitchen cooking your husbands tea!
    • apples  •  8 months ago
      i can never understand the idiots who marry these people,get it through your thick skulls,to them you are only a woman & have no rights atall over men.fact of life.
      • uglytroll 8 months ago
        Arabsockets....
      • Dr. Zook 8 months ago
        To them a woman is not a woman, she is rather PROPERTY like a horse or a goat.
      • Honk 8 months ago
        Chopper 10, I would rather be married to a Muslim man that a fat British lazy benefit thief.
    • Narges  •  8 months ago
      Approx. 6.96billion is the population of the world, 1.57billion is the population of so called muslims in the world... do u really think that 1.57billion people are all the same, just because they call themselves muslim! thats like 25% of the population of the earth! I mean seriously there are billions of different types of muslims ( rich, poor, educated, un-educated, high #$%$ low #$%$ shafi, sufi, hanbali, shia, ismaili, bahai etc etc.) you cannot put this many people into the same pot just like you can't put all the followers of Christianity or Judaism in the same pot either.Please lets stop generalising, and have patience to learn why these stupid things happen so we can atleast be part of a solution and not part of more problems.
    • chaz  •  8 months ago
      This is not new, years ago abduction was going on. In Glasgow one drugged yougster was taken back to the city from the airport by the authorities after her relatives tried to get her to a Muslim country.
    • STAR  •  8 months ago
      Children need their parents and that means both fathers and mothers. Abduction or any attempt to prevent access of any parent, father or mother, to their child or children is not only selfish and inhuman but detrimental to the children. It is time that UK begins to look again at contact arrangements in UK when relationships break down as it does seem to favour mothers more often than not. Men who feel wronged or betrayed by the same community that they have contributed to can sometimes resort to socially unacceptable behaviours to express the injustice done to them. This in itself is a self-destructive strategy as those children that they have abducted will turn to despise them for preventing them from having access to their mother and likewise when women prevent their children from having access to their fathers, the same may happen. So it is lose-lose situation. Every effect has a cause, it may not just be religion or sentimentalism, there may be other issues since abduction also happen in families that are not muslims.
    • fred  •  8 months ago
      IT all reminds me of what a farmer once told me : ALL the rats come running if the `GRAIN' is left out to be got at - but in the future , when there is NONE AT ALL LEFT ,even for said farmer and his family - the RATS are the first to know/notice , and like on a sinking ship are the FIRST to leave !!.
    • Matelot and patriot  •  8 months ago
      To Rekoj - Sharia law is barbaric and has no place in a civilized society. We don't want our children raped by foreigners (Sharia allows under age sex with girls as young as ten). We don't want our women stoned to death for loving a good Anglo-Saxon or Celtic man. I agree, there are some very limited Sharia law attributes that may fit into society, but that is an issue for English lawyers to sort out. Your comments are abusive and offensive to any civilized human. As for this story, if you think Ayesha is in safe hands in Libya, you're smoking something that needs to be banned. As for the drugs and pregnancy thing, surely that's an issue for parents and ergo a social issue and NOT RELIGEOUS. The first thing 'good Muslims' need to do in Britain is to fully integrate and accept our morals, traditions and secular soceity. Why do you think Ayesha wants to come back to UK????
    • Rekoj  •  8 months ago
      If the UK had implemented Sharia Law like good Muslims want then Ayesha would not have needed to be taken back to Libya. The father has given her the best start in life by taking her back, away from teenage pregnancy, drug taking and dishonour.
    • libertas  •  8 months ago
      ''He has always said he wanted Ayesha to be raised a Muslim and to live in a Muslim country''
      Why did he come to England in the first place?
    • Andy  •  8 months ago
      The most distressing thing about this article would seem to me to be the excruciatingly poor English skills on many of the comments. If you can not construct a sentence to the standard of a 9 year old, perhaps your opinion doesnt really count, and perhaps by extension you're entire existance. (Dyslexics excepted of course).
    • Andy  •  8 months ago
      Slightly sensationalist headline, if there had been contact between mother and daughter until March, it would indicate that the whereabouts of the child were clearly known. Still, exaggerations and half-truths are what we can expect from most news agencies.
    • John  •  8 months ago
      I worked in turkey for years and to see the idiotic british women throwing themselves at the turkish men is just embarrising, it all ends in heartache bcos all the turkish men want is a free ticket to the u.k. and when they get here thats the last the woman sees of them, just degrading, erh
    • Gekko G. et al  •  8 months ago
      Ain't Muslim men just a f 'kn dream for their women.
    • Peter Waine  •  8 months ago
      Sky Man to the rescue, love the cape and your underpants on the outside...Tell you what Sky is this the contempt you have for your readers? your stories are just utter #$%$ I only read them for a laugh, what ever happened to good old fashioned investigative and informed news? now its just circus #$%$ like this.
    • WgSg  •  8 months ago
      Islamic countries are backward in terms of their economic and social development. This will remain the case until and unless they realise that oppressing 50% of the population..ie, women, is utterly counterproductive. Any society that bases its practices and policies just on the strength of beliefs will flounder. Beliefs are just that.... beliefs. They cannot be challenged and they imprison the mind. And it's a crime the way children are used by adults to parade their own beliefs in these myths and legends. I find it deeply troubling for instance to see little girls having to wear the hijab. Why? Children are not muslims.....It's the parents who choose to be muslims. I say the same about Christian parents, and Jewish. Let the children be children, especially the girls who always seem to have to bear the burden of dress codes and restrictions, which boys and men, conveniently, avoid for themselves.
    • Avatar 6.6.6.  •  8 months ago
      Why did ''loving'' SKY wait for 19 years to look for the girl????

      Not a politivdecision, then ??

      These ''jewwiish masters of lies'' just can't help temselves or can't be bothered to.
    • Larrissa  •  8 months ago
      To all you MUSLIM MEN I say it comes as NO SURPRISE THAT YOU CANNOT TAKE CRITISISM after all your religeon Has it set in stone that women are to be owned as young as 8years in fact sadly your prophet met his wife when she was six but waited for her until she was nine to marry her. All this mind set is positively MADIEVAL why do you all wan t to come to the west? Is it as I suspect you want to rule us and every other coun try stupid enough to let you in? I never thought that I would agree 100% with ENOCH POWELL WHO SAID WE WERE MAD TO IMPORT YOU ALL and that blood would run on the streets. Well it has on the tube and buses. WHAT A MISTAKE THESE STUPID POLITICIANS MADE ALLOWING YOU IN. EAST IS EAST WEST IS WEST AND NEVER THE TWO WILL MEET KIPLING said that and he was born in INDIA and knew how different we are.