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Irish mother rescues kidnapped daughter from Syria

Dramatic escape after father kidnapped daughter back to Syria

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, October 23, 2011, 8:35 AM

Updated Sunday, October 23, 2011, 8:35 AM

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Louise Monaghan rescued her kidnapped daughter May from Syria.

Louise Monaghan, who risked her life to rescue her six-year-old daughter from Syria, has said that people-smugglers helped them escape the war-torn country.

The 36-year-old mother rescued her daughter May Assad Monaghan after she was snatched by her father, reports the Independent.

Monaghan, who is originally from Swords in Co Dublin, met her ex-husband Mostafa Assad in Cyprus. The couple had daughter May, but eventually split.

May went for a walk with her father on September 7 and never returned. Her father had kidnapped her and taken her to his family home in Syria. Assad then contacted Monaghan and told her to sell all her possessions in Cyprus, where she was living, and move to Syria to live the life of a Muslim woman.

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Monaghan decided to stay calm "and play the game" with her husband, agreeing to his demands. A few days later, she was reunited with her daughter in Syria. While there, Monaghan was locked inside Assad's family home.

Monaghan saw an opportunity to escape one day when she and May were left alone in a taxi. She took her daughter by the hand and they fled. She paid another taxi €350 for another taxi to take them through nine checkpoints, to Damascus. There, after every legal route available to them failed, Monaghan hired people-smugglers to take them across sheer mountain faces to Lebanon.

"It was pitch dark," said Monaghan. "We climbed over mountains for hours.

"I don't understand how we made did it. We literally climbed up sheer mountain faces and back down inclines."

The mother and daughter made it safely to the other side in Lebanon.

"We got down eventually and there was a 4x4 waiting for us. On the journey to a safehouse in Lebanon, May said to me, 'Mammy, there are loads of handguns on the floor.' I said: 'Don't touch anything, just look straight ahead'."

Said Monaghan: "I couldn't bear the thoughts of her having to stay in that country and live like that."

She added that she is now considering entering a witness protection program to protect her daughter.

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Newrone | Mar 25, 2013, 09:03 PM EDT

I was virtually in tears last night listening to her tell her story to Stephen Nolan (BBC). She is bigger & stronger than the most heroic fictional character could ever be. Her daughter must be so, so proud. And she's a little heroine herself too!

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kevin1971 | Oct 24, 2011, 11:12 PM EDT

She was very lucky,a lot of western women go missing every year and end up housebound in muslim countries and are never seen again,child snatching is common place too,they cannot bear the idea that their children will not be muslims,i really hope this man does not come after them again,irish women should no better than to get mixed up with that culture,i remember during the 1980s an irish girl by the name of Anne-Marie Murphy became pregnant by her jordanian boyfriend who then put her on a plane bound for israel with a bomb in her bag,these people are not to be trusted

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jacersagain | Oct 23, 2011, 05:46 PM EDT

I saw Ms Monaghan on Irish TV’s Late Late Show last night. Fascinating story. It reminded me of the time I lived in Abu Dhabi and met young Irish women engaged or married to native Arabs. When I asked them why would they give up their Catholic religion to marry a foreign stranger, most said it was because of the money and riches that the Arabs offered them. Mammon is still alive and well.

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cillowen | Oct 23, 2011, 01:04 PM EDT

its the suffering situations they be programmed to get themselves caught up in. Saving the world is their game like the Irish monks of the past who sallied forth to save civilization. Makes for a movie, though.

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cillowen | Oct 23, 2011, 01:04 PM EDT

its the suffering situations they be programmed to get themselves caught up in. Saving the world is their game like the Irish monks of yore who sallied forth to save civilization. Makes for a movie, though.

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cillowen | Oct 23, 2011, 01:00 PM EDT

its the suffering situations they be programmed to get themselves caught up in. Saving the world and EU civilization like the monks of yore. Makes for a movie, though.

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Schenck2 | Oct 23, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT

These are of the same blinded group that believes that this is a pacifistic religion and hasn't studied it or the culture is fosters. We are asked to be blind, deaf, & dumb.

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Barbaracvm | Oct 23, 2011, 11:23 AM EDT

Witness protect will be the only to save yourselves. Why do so many western women think the Muslim men will treat them well. How many stores like will it take for those of you to understand you are a commodity.

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antoman | Oct 23, 2011, 09:55 AM EDT

Not without my daughter.

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