Saudis have been Abandoning their Kids Abroad, Now the Children want Answers | Foreign Correspondent

[Music] for decades thousands of saudi arabian men have traveled abroad as university students many take advantage of their new freedom to have relationships with foreign women only to abandon them when they become pregnant now the children they left behind are searching for answers i spent thousands and thousands of hours searching for them and yearning to know their saudi fathers do we need a permit how do we go about that i'm brietta haig an australian filmmaker and journalist for the last year i've been working with saudi journalist assam al-halib and we've been investigating saudi children abroad who've been abandoned by their fathers i do hope that the father does recognize him the wealthy arab kingdom is now opening up to the world will it finally acknowledge the saudi children left behind [Applause] jared morrison is as all-american as they come you want to say blessing no i want you to okay dear heavenly father we thank you for this delicious meal you've blessed us with this day we ask you to help us to have a wonderful day a washington state guard and full-time insurance agent he values god his family and hard work all right you want to do first i would like some um but from a young age he knew he was different from the other kids in his white working class town so my full name is jared aljasser morrison my father was a student at portland state university in the 70s as well as clark college across the river in vancouver he and my mother met at clark college when she was a student there as well around 1974 and they fell in love and they dated for a while and my mother wound up pregnant with me and upon hearing that i think my father had some challenges or some fear and they eventually split up and he went back to saudi arabia jared was raised by his mother and grandparents when he was six years old his mother told him he had a father in an arab kingdom my child mind built it up daydreaming that you know maybe someday i'll walk outside and there'll be this long black stretched car pulling up in front of my house with diplomatic flags lining the vehicle and then he would get out wearing you know his thobe and schmug and and kneel down and greet me you know kneel down and outstretch his arms to me but saudi arabia was not the romantic world of his childhood imagination an oil boom had made the bedouin society staggeringly rich grew powerful through international trade while ultra conservative clerics railed against western decadence young men could have experiences abroad back home they were expected to forget them or keep them secret so my understanding is they met at a party here obviously there was some attraction they started dating and according to my mom they decided to go steady right not see anybody else he spoke english very well he was very educated he presented himself very well a deep desire to know his saudi father grew into an obsession to find him when i started looking for my father the first attempt was when i was 12 years old my mother woke me up about 2 o'clock in the morning i remember her dialing international information and trying to navigate that and then you fast forward 20 plus years until beginning in 2000 that's when i picked up and started searching for him again i spent thousands and thousands of hours took me a couple of years ultimately i would manage to get my father's cell phone number in riyadh i'll never forget my heart was just boom boom boom racing it literally felt like it was beating out of my chest he finally says what do you want so now here's my chance here's my chance to give him my sales pitch right after initially denying paternity he finally admitted jared was his son i said mr al jasser i would never address him as father or dad or anything like that so i said do you have any desire or intention to ever know me and almost as if i asked you if you would like your steak rare it was just very matter of fact i'm sorry but no all of a sudden the only thing i could think of is my mom telling me when i was 12 years old that i could be setting myself up for a psychological punch in the nose i was so shocked it literally i felt it physically it blew me away that someone could just have the emotional switch completely turned off like that it's still foreign to me to this day the rejection has had a profound impact on jared's life the mistake of one parent the act or omission of one parent can have consequences for generations to come but jared has never given up the dream of finding his father i had that overwhelming urge and drive to find him locate him learn about him learn about the culture it was just an innate instinct as saudi arabia opens to the world entering as a tourist is possible for the first time jared has decided to travel to the kingdom to try and make contact with his family it's a dream i've always had since since i was a child to explore that cultural heritage that that genetic pull can't really describe it but i've always been fascinated with trying to explore the links to you know my brown skin and my dark hair oh hopefully i'll be able to connect with my father oh come on oh come on oh no no no no no no no no no where to go oh [Applause] what's up with that i thought we were gonna be having salmon for dinner tonight i want to cry [Music] so i pull it in as far as i could wearing brand new shoes it was no it was about it was it was either a salmon or a steelhead no a few days before his flight to the kingdom jared's close friends gather to farewell him i just i i i have a hard time even grasping what you have to be going through in your heart and in your head i'll be honest that you may answer some questions but you know what cost yeah well i think i've already paid the price when he flat out told me that he didn't had no interest in knowing me he's in his early 70s he's got to be coming up on 74 right now but while he's reflecting on his life and he tries to make amends or rationalize all the things that he's done and ask forgiveness you know am i going to be one of the things that he thinks about one of his great regrets that he wants to make amends for you know as he's got one foot into the afterlife i don't know you have a completely different religious background than the entire country wearing a cross in saudi arabia you know public displays of any religion other than islam is is frowned upon so if i was catholic i can't get anyway the only thing i wear around my neck is my dog tags but which you are not taking which i'm not taking you guys will not allow me to wear my dog tags it's okay there's a lot of concern and a lot of hopes for you in what's going to come up in your trip i wish you the safest of travels so here's to you and saudi and i get to ride a camel [Music] jared's story is one of many in guatemala city ten-year-old sami al-rashi chang is answering the call to prayer at a local mosque [Music] [Music] sami's father solomon was studying on a scholarship in the usa he was part of a saudi government program that paid full tuition fees and a living allowance to students abroad while at university suleiman met guatemalan student mandray chang they began a relationship and talked about getting married our relationship was good we didn't have any problem and suddenly i discovered that i was pregnant then he decided to go to saudi arabia he said that he will travel for two weeks that he is going to go to visit his family [Music] mandray's pregnancy was complicated she felt desperate and alone contact with solomon was intermittent i consider myself to be a strong woman i don't usually cry but in that period of time i cried a lot a lot a lot a lot solomon eventually returned to the states and acknowledged baby sammy changing the birth certificate to include his name but he told mondre he didn't want to be in sammy's life he said like no i'm sorry i will study in here and and you will be doing your life with the baby andre has not heard from solomon since without financial support in the us she returned to guatemala to be close to family but mondray can't register sammy as a guatemalan citizen without solomon's involvement sami is illegal in guatemala it was difficult for me to register him in school because they always ask for his father a signature and i have to paint a fine mondre set out to track down suleiman in her search she came across a blog called saudi children left behind it featured the stories of other people searching for saudi fathers the blog was created by jennifer crystal an american woman with a story just like mondre's hi mandu how are you doing good they quickly became allies do you remember how it was before we started talking oh my gosh 10 years ago and the small town that i lived in in ohio there were like five girls that had a similar situation to what you and i were in and i remember thinking at that time if it's such a problem in this very very small community how bad is it everywhere else so created the blog and lo and behold there was so many people all over not only here in the united states but you know we had people that were in the philippines and we had people that were in australia contacting us after you and i actually kind of got together [Music] mondray helped manage the blog fielding hundreds of messages from women all around the world mostly us philippines some other latin countries the blog caused a sensation in saudi arabia featuring on news reports and talk shows well we meet in minneapolis [Music] muslim saudi arabia's strict sharia law makes it all but impossible for students to marry the women they fall in love with government permission is required to wed foreigners and only men over 30 are eligible non-muslims are expected to convert to islam the saudi government has never acknowledged the large number of abandoned children but one non-government organization called awasa claims to help them mandray reached out to the group and at first they agreed to assist her but when i sent all the paperwork suleiman's signature on the birth certificate the acknowledgement and everything they suddenly disappear awasa says they've helped organize the return of 8 000 abandoned saudi children to the kingdom we've been unable to verify these claims [Music] the number of saudi students studying abroad has soared since the government began its scholarship program little has been done to prepare them it's like you are in a room without anything and then you just open the door and you see all the amazing things uh girls do not dress in the u.s like in saudi arabia you cannot go to have dinner with a man in saudi arabia but in the u.s you can't do it you can walk freely in the university or college with women around and also classes are mixed in saudi arabia they have schools for men and schools for women so it's kind of complicated because in the other side women like me or others they don't know about saudi culture [Music] [Music] jared aljassa morrison has come to saudi arabia to try and find his father he begins in jeddah the gateway to the islamic holy cities of mecca and medina this is jared's first time outside north america good morning tell me about what it's been like the last 24 hours it's uh it's definitely a culture shock it's really uh it's pretty awesome i'm hoping to learn more details about my family's cultural history and potentially why you know what would lead my father to make a decision that he did you know 45 years ago and understand that better through the eyes of an arab over here because i can only look at it from the eyes of a westerner jared is invited to talk with religious and political scholar sadek malki and his american muslim friend samuel sadiq lived and studied in the us and understands the cultural conflicts that confront saudis in the west they meet at the traditional home of a renowned architect well i had some questions for you if you don't mind yes please the most difficult so my father was one of the first wave of saudis that came to the u.s in the 70s right and uh so coming from a country obviously at the time from my understanding anyway that saudi arabia at this time was very very ultra conservative men and women had to be separated my mother fell in love with my father they dated my mother um thought that they were you know going to progress and nobody into marriage eventually um she won a pregnant with me and then he um basically got scared and from what it seems you know took off back to saudi arabia i would say one of every hundred saudi goes to the states have a similar story now the time frame that the place took place saudi arabia was too conservative to to even admit a story like this even though it's happening either here you know is it still happening right now yeah if people are human so what were some reasons that he may have caused him fear because i know some other probably this man your father is not a bad man what happened is that he just thought how can i go back to saudi arabia a country where people are veiling women with a lady probably she's blonde or something and and and she will not she's a feminist and and you put yourself in his shoes it would be disastrous jared realizes his father would have been ostracized by his family and society had he married a foreigner and non-muslim i can only imagine what it's like coming from a very uh conservative environment that you can have lifelong consequences not just for yourself but for other people jared begins to explore a land he's only ever dreamed about [Music] looking at the arabian culture through western eyes is beautiful [Music] what's in here oh wow i'm still learning about the different cultures within this country you've got the country itself and then each region has its own flavor amazing this is amazing it's definitely a cultural awakening now i feel saudi [Music] in riyadh jared's finally going to meet a blood relative he's managed to track down a first cousin through social media i'm excited to meet my cousin i don't know what to expect i don't know how well i'll be received when i talked to him about a month ago and i told him i'd be coming here he told me do not worry you're one of us i'm of the young generation i'm not of the old generation with with old beliefs i have young beliefs and new beliefs and i accept everyone i don't think i've ever been in a hotel this night they have fruit i think he felt like he needed to reassure me that he wouldn't deny me or shun me or anything jared now you're going to meet with your cousin are you worried you might cause scandal for your father i'm okay with that i'm okay with that i'm totally fine with that that's something that he has to deal with that is not my problem that is not my problem i i'm tired of feeling ashamed every child no matter what religion they're from no matter what race they're from every child is entitled to a mother and a father [Music] jared has asked us to protect the privacy of the family and asks us not to film the meeting okay jared so tell me about that experience last night uh it was absolutely amazing i met my cousin and he came and picked me up at the hotel when he got out and he saw me he said i look like the sands of arabia running my veins and i look like i'm bedouin it was really just a lifelong dream to uh to be able to actualize that and and touch and look at this person it must have been really emotional for your cousin to see you because you look so much like your father he said i look exactly like him not only like my father but but like the rest of the al jazeera family he said when he saw me that there was no absolutely no doubt and did you talk to your cousin about your quest to find your father i did um he said he wasn't sure how to deal with that he said it would cause a lot of internal issues with the family there's some other pretty serious internal dynamics which after hearing those i understand the decision that was made a lot more now i understand a lot more in detail the culture of his family and the sheer terror that uh that my father must have felt um from from his his family as well as his community so it opened up my eyes a lot and i actually started to feel sympathy never thought i would say that wow jared never thought i would say that but uh but it helps me understand the a lot more of the culture and and why that decision was made what did he say about the younger generations of your family totally different totally different very open-minded the difference between the old old generation and and uh you know a new school train of thought that's more accepting and more it's been raised with more of a western influence so do you feel like you're in the process of being accepted by the younger members of your family absolutely absolutely [Music] jared's cousin promises to introduce him to his uncle but nothing eventuates the younger generation may be open to change but jared senses they're still bound by the old rules of conservative islam and preserving family honour i was hoping to meet my uncle but that didn't work out sometimes i feel frustrated and despondent that maybe they're not sure how to deal with it and they really don't want to because they don't want to cause embarrassment to anybody or rock the boat despite his disappointment jared has found connecting with his arab identity a deeply moving experience i've made a lot of progress on the goal my journey's not over my journey has just begun i've met my cousin i haven't met my uncle or my father yet i think that's just a matter of time i'm happy that i came here it's just a wonderful life-changing event i have absolutely found peace as a matter of fact a lot of my friends i've seen the pictures that i've sent and they say that i actually look like i'm at peace so even though i haven't met my father just just even being here is just just sitting here in the sky i feel peace in my heart [Music] in guatemala city sami and mondray have found solace in the local muslim community [Music] still holds out hope that one day solomon may respond to her messages i don't want sami to grow up having a bad image about his dad i think that he will get into an age that he can build his own conclusions and have have an opinion about his death [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 6,266,090

Keywords: foreign correspondent, saudi arabia, saudi, saudi men, saudi children born overseas, saudi men abandoning children, saudi children left behind, finding your biological parents, finding your birth parents, documentary, documentaries, abc news australia, abc news, abc, abc news indepth, finding your roots

Id: qLidxfL8q1Q

Length: 29min 31sec (1771 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Encripture]

This is a pretty good piece.
The critique in the middle, that little has been done to prepare the "surging" number of men the Saudi government is floating abroad, and that the women who encounter them in US schools are wholly ignorant of the extreme culture from which they come, is right on target. But still only one portion of a host of relevant issues.

And the trouble Saudis get into doesn't stop at romantic entanglements. Federal investigations and legislation have emerged, for example, from The Oregonian's discovery that there is a pattern of Saudi students stealthily escaping US soil in the wake of criminal allegations. The film's characterization of the root problem being a generational, overly traditional concern for family honor is too facile and neglects in its storytelling the influence of the wealth and political aims powering these programs, the widespread Saudi view of the US and Europe as depraved playgrounds in which Saudi students can expect to revel in debauchery, and the greed of universities (see the recent Chinese money scandals at US and European universities for a more naked telling of international departments as vectors of corrupt soft power). Any star-crossed romance or child abandoned by his father is a sufficient story unto itself, but in these cases there is more to the story.

[u/[deleted]]

I’m only about 10 minutes in but my dad is from Australia and fucked back off when I was a kid and man, some of these experiences are gut-punching my similar.

[u/Pipalbot]

Seriously felt bad for that Guatemalan lady especially when she was all alone as university student in US pregnant. I wonder if she thought about abortion or the guy just promised her marriage and happy family to keep the baby. Anyways it was eye opening news.

[u/hine-raumati]

There's nothing that country won't do. Starving the entire population of Yemen and the world turns a blind eye because they want the $$$$

[u/OrigamiMax]

Money. Money is always the answer.

Saudis have it. Universities want it. They turn a blind eye and allow everything.

[u/suciac]

Tucson, Arizona is full of those.

[u/Unlikely_Quail_7006]

i don't understand why it has anything to do with him being saudi, POS like him exist in every color and race, why do western media outlets like targettting social problems that exist in a foregin country that exists everywhere else? what makes this unique?

[u/Evamariel3]

This made me remember two muslim dudes that worked in my building, they seemed pretty normal and liked the local girls very much to put it nicely. A common friend asked them if they were planning to marry here to what one of them replied: My wife has to be virgin and muslim in that order.

[u/closetotheglass]

Worthless appendage of US foreign policy produces misery abroad. Imagine my shock.