Bouchra Marbouhi says she last saw her daughter the morning of Friday, Sept. 26, when she got her ready for school. She told the girl that her father would be picking her up for a sleepover.
“My birthday was the 29th. So she said, ‘Mommy, I made you a card for your birthday,’” Marbouchi, 31, said in a recent interview.
“I kissed her and I said, ‘Thank you. Where is it?’ She said, ‘It’s in my bag. When I come back tomorrow I will show it to you.’”
But Marbouhi never got the card.
Marbouhi said she has not seen her five-year-old daughter in more than a month, after the girl was taken from the country by her father, Ahmed ElGammal — despite a court order meant to stop him.
CBC News is withholding the name of the child to protect her privacy.
“I miss her smell. I miss her voice. I miss her when she was being stubborn and silly,” said Marbouhi, clutching her daughter’s stuffed toy.
“I miss her calling me mommy. I miss everything. When that happened, I feel like my life stopped.”
Police in Newfoundland and Labrador issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for ElGammal, 36, on charges of parental abduction in contravention of a custody or parenting order.
However, Marbouhi is anxious to confirm her daughter’s safety and get the kindergartener home.
Taken by plane
According to text messages provided to CBC News and translated from Arabic, Marbouhi wrote to her estranged husband the morning after the sleepover asking for her daughter to be dropped off early. ElGammal replied that he wanted more time with her.
Then, at 5:46 p.m., ElGammal wrote: “[Our daughter] and I went back to our country.”
He added: “Do you want to [raise] her on our religion and ethics, you know where to find us.”
At first thinking it was an idle threat, Marbouhi said she drove immediately to St. John’s International Airport and called police while on the way.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary confirmed to CBC News that it received a report of a child who had been taken by a person known to her, on the evening of Sept. 27.
“This is an active and ongoing investigation and the RNC is using all available resources to locate and confirm the safety of the child,” the police force said in a statement.
“We can confirm this case did not meet the criteria for issuing an Amber Alert.”
Marbouhi said police told her ElGammal flew from St. John’s to Montreal then out of the country.
Non-removal order gave ‘false sense of safety’
Marbouhi said she had suspected her estranged husband would try to bring their daughter to his home country of Egypt, so she applied for — and received — an emergency interim court order to prevent the child’s removal from the province.
“I am in extreme fear that my four-year-old daughter will be withheld from my care by my husband or removed from the jurisdiction,” she wrote in an emergency interim application filed May 16.
“I fear that due to his loss of control over me, he will withhold or relocate with my daughter. He knows that I would return to him if he had my daughter.”
In late May, the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador’s family division ordered that the girl primarily reside with her mother, at Iris Kirby House. They had been living at the women’s shelter since Marbouhi fled the family home in March.
In court filings, ElGammal disagreed, saying the family home was “suitable.”
“Child protection didn’t indicate any concern regarding me the father and I was seeing my daughter normally until she falsely claimed that I am taking my daughter back to Egypt!” ElGammal wrote in a family court filing, dated June 6.
ElGammal wrote that he could not leave with her, as the child’s Egyptian and Moroccan passports were with her mother.
Marbouhi believes ElGammal got their daughter a new passport during a recent trip to Egypt, which allowed him to leave the country with her. However, she hasn’t received any confirmation of that.
In court filings, ElGammal asked the court for a non-removal order and for the passports to be surrendered.
The non-removal order states that neither party can take the child from the St. John’s metro area without written approval from the other parent.
ElGammal has not yet responded to questions emailed by CBC News on Wednesday.
Marbouhi said she did what she thought was right to protect her daughter. Now, she’s questioning obvious gaps she sees in the system.
“That non-removal order gave me a false sense of safety. That’s why I feel so mad. No one tells me that it’s nothing, it’s just a paper,” she said.
“So why give such an order and there is no mechanism to enforce it?”
The Canada Border Services Agency had not responded to questions from CBC News by Wednesday afternoon.
Marbouhi said her estranged husband’s family tried to convince him to allow her to speak to their daughter, but that has not happened. Her requests to see recent photos of the girl have also been denied. Marbouhi said ElGammal stopped communicating with her after being inadvertently tipped off by his landlord in St. John’s that the police were involved.
Marbouhi said ElGammal’s family has told her that her daughter does not want to speak with her.
“I’m worried that she thinks I don’t want her,” she said.
“I don’t know if she really said that she doesn’t want to talk with me. That’s not normal for me. [My daughter] was very, very attached to me. She’s emotionally not safe. I know that.”
Marbouhi said taking their daughter was ElGammal’s way of punishing Marbouhi for leaving him.
ElGammal wrote in a text message that he would allow Marbouhi to raise their daughter but only in Egypt and “on my conditions.”
“If you want to [raise] the [daughter], it will be on my terms,” he said.
Denied temporary residency permit
Complicating matters is Marbouhi’s immigration status in Canada.
Marbouhi is a Moroccan citizen. She came to St. John’s in May 2024 on a closed work visa.
She applied for a temporary resident permit for victims of family violence, but it was denied the day before her daughter was taken.
Charlotte Sullivan, one of the lawyers assisting Marbouhi’s immigration case, said the matter is now under judicial review and they have raised the issue with the office of Marbouhi’s MP in order to expedite it.
“I can’t wait that long,” Marbouhi said. “I need to go back there and have my child back.”
Sullivan said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not provide a reason for denying Marbouhi’s application.
Meanwhile, Marbouhi has been asking for a wellness check on her daughter, even providing police with an address where she believes ElGammal is staying. But to date she has received no assurances that the girl is safe.
Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Egypt.
Marbouhi said the RNC told her they have put in a request with both Interpol and the RCMP to co-ordinate a wellness check.
Interpol told CBC News it does not speak on specific cases without the approval of the country concerned.
The RCMP has not yet responded to CBC’s request for comment.
Back at Iris Kirby House, the playground is now covered in orange and yellow leaves. A message written in chalk wishing the kindergartener a happy birthday is fading. A sign of the progression of the season.
Marbouhi said her daughter, whose closet is a sea of pink and sparkles, was excited to dress up as a princess this year for Halloween.
Halloween events at the shelter this year are cancelled. They aren’t going ahead without her.
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