Hyderabad woman, stuck in UAE, set to return home

A Hyderabad woman who was divorced by her husband in UAE and had her passport cancelled will finally be able to return to India.

HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad woman who was divorced by her husband in UAE and had her passport cancelled will finally be able to return to India.

Sabera Begum - who married UAE national Abdul Aziz Rasheed Khalifa Mohammed Al Balochi on January 28, 1983, and received her UAE passport on July 8, 2006 — has been granted a temporary Indian passport to travel back.

“I am overjoyed. This is what I have been waiting for all these years – to come back to India,” Sabera Begum told Hyderabad’s Majlis Bachao Tehreek leader Amjed Ullah Khan on a call on Wednesday.

The Indian Embassy in UAE reacted promptly to Sabera Begum’s distress after TOI carried a report+ about the same in its online edition on August 21.

Sabera Begum had moved to Abu Dhabi after her marriage in 1983. She has six daughters and two sons from the marriage. Begum received UAE citizenship and passport in 2006 and then ceased to be an Indian citizen.

After Balochi divorced her in 2011, her UAE citizenship was revoked and the passport was withdrawn. Begum's request to her Indian passport in 2012 was denied by the Ministry of Home Affairs. She was, since then, stuck in Abu Dhabi.

With the embassy taking up her case, Sabera Begum is now expected to return to India at the earliest.

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