Pregnant Australian ‘snatched’ from Gaza

Published 30 June, 2008, 18:59

A 20-year-old Australian woman who had converted to Islam and married a Palestinian has returned home from the Gaza strip. Tanya Louise Smith was flown home to Sydney from the besieged territory in a special operation o

In 2006, Ms Smith from Winston Hills in Sydney told an Australian newspaper that Islam liberated women 1,500 years ago and that she was free from any kind of abuse being a Muslim.

 “I don't live in fear of a husband that comes back every night to bash me until I’m black and blue, and then rape me,” ‘The Australian’ quoted her as saying. She blamed alcohol for most domestic violence and said that in Islam women are not sexually exploited by men.

After converting to Islam in Sydney she went to the city of Sana'a in Yemen to study her new religion along with some other young Australian Muslims. There she met and married Ahmed, a young Palestinian.  She was expecting a baby when Gaza militants blasted their way through the border with Egypt in January. Along with thousands of others, Tanya fled to Gaza in order to meet her in-laws.  Ahmed wanted her to give birth to their child there. He was planning to join her later, but the border was sealed in a matter of days, leaving him unable to get home.

Isolated in a conflict zone

The young Australian woman was staying with her husband’s family in Sajaya, close to the front line of the conflict with Israel. In three days of fighting in March more than a hundred Gazans were killed.

Tanya seemed isolated and was seldom seen in public. As time went by she started to avoid even her new family. She retreated to her room where she used her computer to have long phone calls with her mother, who was beside herself with anxiety in Sydney.

In April, Tanya’s in-laws in Sajaya received a call: a lady who said she was from the Australian Embassy said they needed Tanya to sort out some paperwork to make her stay in Gaza legal. She was asked to come to the Erez crossing – the main route to Israel for Palestinians.

Once in Israel, Tanya boarded an El Al flight to Sydney. Neither her husband nor her Palestinian family have seen or spoken to her since.

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Ahmed is blaming his family for letting his wife go, saying they ‘destroyed his life’. But the rest of them seem to be worried with another thing:

“The main thing that is upsetting us is she is pregnant. If she wasn't, we would say OK, this happens in life. But can you imagine her having a child in Australia by herself?” the Australian newspaper quotes one of Ahmed’s family members.

Tanya’s family refuses to talk to those calling her from Gaza, saying she is sick or away and do not give comments to journalists on the matter.

Meanwhile, Tanya is said to be committed to Islam.

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