Belgaum has barely recovered from the grief of a botched pregnancy that led to the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland when it has to grapple with the trauma of a mother whose 23-year-old daughter has gone missing in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh after what she claims is a forced kidney extraction.
Shamshad, the mother of Tanaz Shaikh, 23, whom she adopted when Tanaz was orphaned as a child, alleges the kidney was removed without her daughter’s consent by doctors in a Riyadh hospital. She also accuses them of keeping the young woman confined at an undisclosed destination for the last two years.
Shamshad on Monday wrote to the Indian embassy in Riyadh, the external affairs ministry in New Delhi and Mouwasat Hospital in Riyadh urging them to help free her daughter. “We want her to come home,” Shamshad, a resident of Malmaruti, in Belgaum, said. Shamshad also submitted a letter to Belgaum deputy commissioner Anbu Kumar in on Monday pleading for her daughter to be brought home.
Tanaz joined Mouwasat Hospital as a nurse in March 2010 and developed a severe stomach ache that persisted for a few months. Shamshad asked Tanaz to return to India for treatment. However, doctors at the hospital recommended her kidney be removed. The operation was conducted in September 2010, ignoring Tanaz’s objections, says Shamshad. “Although she is in touch with me from Riyadh, she is unaware of the place where she has been kept nor is she allowed to live a life of her own,” Shamshad said.
Other members of Tanaz’s family in Belgaum are in touch with her through email, and chat with her on the Internet. According to them, Tanaz’s health has deteriorated since her kidney was removed and she has been getting more and more depressed during her forced confinement in Riyadh.
“Neither the external affairs ministry nor the Indian embassy have responded to my letters, which have been sent to them repeatedly. I met the agents of Basha Enterprises of Mumbai, who helped Tanaz get the nurse’s job in Riyadh, but we have been unable to trace Tanaz’s address. The agency says its job is over once its customers are recruited by companies abroad,” says Shamshad.
“The hospital authorities are not prepared to provide any details about Tanaz nor are they telling us why she has been kept away from the hospital. She is a bold girl who always worked hard throughout her life to shape her career. After completing her pre-university education in Belgaum, she managed to complete the nursing course,” says her mother.
“We urged all authorities concerned to help Tanaz get back to India during the month of Ramzan but nobody took our requests seriously,” Shamshad Shaikh said.