Port Elizabeth - Islamic teacher Nazier Desai threw his arms around his children, Huda and Sha-Wali-Ullah, when they arrived through the gates of Port Elizabeth Airport on Monday.
The two had been detained for 11 months at a maximum security prison in Saudi Arabia without having been charged.
Desai, of Port Elizabeth, told POST on Tuesday that while he was filled with joy, he felt pain that his other daughter, Yumna, 27, and son, Sha-Wasi-Ullah, 25, were still detained at Zahban Military Prison in Jeddah.
He said he intended returning to Saudi Arabia in about a week, when he hoped to meet government officials and prison authorities to plead his case that they be released and get answers on their arrest.
Four of his 10 children, who were studying and working in Saudi Arabia, were arrested on November 22 last year. Desai said someone had reported them and they were detained under the country’s “vague” Security Act.
But soon after their incarceration, he said, prison officials apologised for the wrongful arrests.
“There was no shred of evidence that my children did something wrong or were part of any illegal activities.
“The girls were working, teaching English, and my sons were completing their bachelor degrees in Islamic studies.
“They said they would release my children, but look how long it took for them to free Huda and Sha-Wali-Ullah. I don’t know how long it will take for Yumna and Sha-Wasi-Ullah to be freed.”
Desai said that when he visited his four children for the first time in March, with his wife and a daughter, it was stressful.
“But we could not show them we were tearing up. I had never been to a prison before, so imagine visiting your children at a maximum security prison of political prisoners.”
He said he visited again a few months later.
His daughter, Huda, 33, said she could not sleep on Monday night and had not eaten because she was so happy to be home and reunited with her 8-year-old daughter.
“It was overwhelming to see my mommy and daddy and my family at the airport,” she said.
“The highlight was seeing my daughter. She is my everything. At first, she was reluctant to speak to me and for me to hold her but that night we slept in the same bed and she is slowing adjusting to having me back. But she is angry for what has happened.”
Huda said she travelled to Saudi Arabia last year where she worked as an English teacher. She wanted to make a home there for herself and her daughter, who was born in the country.
But one day, as she was leaving for work, dozens of armed military officials wearing balaclavas arrested her.
“At first I thought someone, like a neighbour, had done something wrong and they wanted to take me in for questioning.”
She said she was taken to Aseer Prison where she was jailed. Huda refused to eat or drink water. She sat on the cement floor praying.
By the fourth day, she was allowed to call home and speak to her daughter. “We have never been apart and for me to hear her voice was the best medicine.”
She was later taken to Zahban Military Prison where she shared a cell with her sister.
Her brothers, she said, were in the men’s section of the same prison and also shared a cell.
“My sister and I slept together, sometimes holding hands, so you can imagine how I felt when the prison officials gave me five minutes to get ready to leave.
“Yumna helped me pack my clothing. She was trying to be brave but we were both crying. It was traumatising. The last time I saw her was when the gate was closed on her face as I left.”
She said she and her brother were transferred to the airport under restraints and were blindfolded.
They were only truly free, she said, on returning home. “I lost my job, my home and came back with nothing. The worst thought was being separated from my baby.”
Asked if she would return, she said: “I want to go back to prove to them that I am innocent. If I could even go back today, even for two minutes, just to see my sister, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Huda said that from this experience, her faith had increased tenfold. “I haven’t felt closer to Him than during this time.”
POST