Saturday, July 17, 2010

Facebook reunites a Yemeni father with his son


An announcement through Facebook reunited a father and a son who had never met for 40 years. On the 22nd of last May, which coincided the Yemeni reunification anniversary Bayoumi Murad, a Yemeni father had good news to hear.

It all begun when the son, Yassien who lives in Germany, decided to post an announcement on Facebook, searching for his father who had not known for almost 40 years. Out of pure coincidence, Yassien’s brother read the post in Yemen and he told his father about it. Bayoumi immediately contacted Yassien. He completely found out that it was for sure his son who has been away from him for 40 years.

The story of Bayoumi’s separation with his son goes back to the time when Bayoumi was finalizing his college studies and got married to a German lady. Then he came back to Yemen while his wife was pregnant with Yassien and he couldn’t come back to Germany. Consequently, he setteled down in Yemen and had a second wife and had kids.

Bayoumi said that he went to Germany in 1970 to study then he got married and left Germany while his German wife was pregnant. He got back to Yemen, Aden and after three months his wife in Germany called him and asked him what to name their son and he told her to name him Yassien and that exactly what happened. “For many years, I have been searching for him on facebook, on the internet and asking tourists coming from Europe about him.”

He also mentioned that for the 35 years that he has been tourists guide and a coast security guard, he kept wondering about his son. “The call on the 22nd of May that he received was the most delighting call he has ever received, Yassien saying, “Father I am your son who has been missing you for 40 years”,” said Bayoumi.

Bayoumi hopes to have a chance to see his son and have his son’s conversion to Islam on public.