ALIA'S RAINBOW

by

Pat Roush


PREFACE

I have written Alia's Rainbow to express the sorrow, pain and destruction of the soul that my family encountered when my two young daughters were stolen from me in 1986 when they were only three and seven years of age. We were separated and kept apart for all these years except for a brief two hour meeting. During this time we were able to express our love for each other and our longing to be together while being guarded by security forces right outside our meeting room. My daughters were then taken away from me again and we were never allowed any further contact.

This book tells the story in a poetic style because in matters of the heart it is only poetry that can truly express our deepest emotions of love, pain, and joy.

"Poetry is the honey of all flowers; the quintessence of all sciences.the marrow of wit.the very phrase of angels". (Thomas Nashe 1592) A contemporary of William Shakespeare.

The story begins from the day of the kidnapping and weaves its tale through diplomatic twists and deceptions, the politics of child abduction, the failed rescue mission, personal tragedy and pain. I have tried to describe the pain, agony and sacrifice that my family and I have had to endure as well as the love, courage and fortitude that has made us stronger through our suffering and grief. I have highlighted very compelling stories of several women I have known including my
friend, Sarah Anderson Noman, who lost her life in the Red Sea while trying to rescue her two children who were abducted to Yemen.

My daughters are now young women and still cannot leave the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A Saudi woman living in the Kingdom can only obtain an exit visa with the written permission of a male relative. If a male relative is not willing to sign the document giving her permission to leave the country, she can never leave. This results in a life sentence for my daughters who are under the control of their father, a man who has sworn he will never allow them to leave the Kingdom.
Without the assistance of the United States government and unable to claim their U.S. Passports at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, my daughters remain prisoners for life inside Saudi Arabia, a medieval Kingdom where women have no voice. They remain incommunicado with the entire Western world deprived of all their rights as American citizens under the Constitution of the United States. They will never be allowed to know the mother that loves them or the family that weeps for them.

This book is dedicated to my children and to all the children whose lives have been shattered through international kidnapping.



FORWARD


There is nothing in this world more precious to a loving mother than her children; and to such a mother there is no greater agony than to be separated from her children by an enforced, irrational hate. Such has been the terrible ordeal of Patricia Roush for the past fourteen years.

Whoever reads these poems is reading the exposed soul of a mother revealing her agonized frustration from futile attempts to get back her two daughters from their imprisonment in their father's home in Saudi Arabia.

The mother's agony is increased by her knowledge of the restraints imposed on the Saudi women by an ancient culture that relegates women to conditions of subservience that American women would consider degrading.

This mother's emotional gamut over these years of separation goes from fear to faith, hope, expectation, desperation, disappointment and defeat - much of it from people she trusted.

It is difficult to believe that when she presented her case to our government, it would be hypocritical in it's supposed concern for human rights and that it would be so impotent in righting this terrible wrong.

This book of poetry is one that the reader will never forget. Every reader will hear and feel what Wordsworth describes as ".the still, sad music of humanity".

Great poetry is the special choice and organization of words to produce some aspect of truth and beauty. This poetry does that in a word tapestry of love, frustration and sorrow.



Charles B. Garrigus
Poet Laureate of California