Cultured Views

20 month old children do not simply vanish into thin air, but that is what appeared to happen to toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui when she was put to bed in her bedroom in the Sydney suburb of Lurnea in 2005.  The child of Lebanese migrants, Rahma was missing when her parents checked on her during the night, the flyscreen on the window slashed open and the baby was gone.

Rahma El-Dennoui

That was in 2005 and no trace of Rahma has been seen since. A very unusual case of child abduction that the media have been very careful about commenting on because, of course, the people are the centre of this story are migrants. And no journalist wants to be accused of being racist. Well let’s comment away here because now it is being revealed that the circumstances surrounding this story are even more sinister than suspected with it being finally revealed, after seven years, that Rahma’s dad, Hosayn, is a well known local drug dealer. Nice example of integration eh…?

There are details about drug deals, late night phone calls from Lebanon, the claim that little Rahma swallowed an ecstasy pill the night she disappeared…either way this little girl has become a victim of her father’s criminal activities. Her mother, Alyaa, despite living in Australia for over seven years does not speak English and needed an interpreter to deny everything claimed about her husband. But let’s face facts – this child has disappeared off the face of her family’s earth…a very calculating, clean abduction in the dead of night and no sign of her since.

Have Australian police considered searching for her in Lebanon…?