Diksha Sundriyal
Lifetime’s ‘Stolen Girl’ follows the story of a woman named Maureen Danning, who embarks on a quest to get her daughter back from her ex-husband. The film presents a fictionalized version of Maureen Dabbagh’s story and her decades-long effort to reunite with her daughter, Nadia. Her parents, Maureen and Hisham, shared her custody following their divorce. The cultural differences between the couple reportedly became the cause of conflict. Maureen said that she wanted Nadia to grow up exploring both faiths – Muslim and Christian – and decide what she wanted to follow when she grew up. Hisham, allegedly, wanted her to be raised under the Muslim faith. According to Maureen, he had even discussed arranging her marriage to a cousin in Syria, which, she alleged, was where he wanted the family to relocate eventually.
After the divorce, the court ordered that Nadia spend alternating months with each parent. She spent the first month with her mother, but when the time came to return, Maureen alleged Hashim refused to let Nadia go. Later, Maureen claimed that Hisham didn’t pick up her calls, preventing her from talking to their daughter. When weeks passed, and the girl didn’t come back, Maureen decided to take her ex-husband to court for her daughter’s full custody. In February 1993, Hisham and Nadia left the US and went to Syria, where they stayed with his family. Meanwhile, Maureen claimed parental abduction and referred to legal methods to get her daughter back. Her journey received major coverage, while Nadia grew up with her father and his side of the family in a different country.
Nadia Dabbagh is a Beloved Teacher Today
Nadia Alexandra Dabbagh lives in Damascus, Syria. She is an educator and loves working with children. She has worked as an English Language Arts Teacher at Bluebell Childcare School since June 2025, and also works as an online English teacher and instructor. She has been the Branch Manager for Criollo since 2023. Additionally, she has worked as an English Teacher for Grade 1 at Al Rissalah International School and as a teacher for KG3 at Madinat al Oloum International School. Before this, she was a Math Teacher at The International School of Choueifat till March 2025 and had worked at Daisy Nursery for about a year and a half till August 2021.
While Maureen’s quest to find her daughter may have brought her into the limelight, Nadia prefers the comfort of privacy. She is not known to be married or in a relationship. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family. She often travels to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, most likely to visit her father and extended family, who have lived there for a long time. Growing up, Nadia was told about her mother, whose photos she had seen as a kid.
Reportedly, her father told her that he brought her to Syria because he wanted her to be raised Muslim, and he believed that Maureen wouldn’t let it happen. In an email allegedly sent by Nadia to her mother in 2010, she stated that her father and his family had frequently discussed Maureen and described her as beautiful. She said that she also remembered some things from when her father talked to the people at the embassy.
Related
Nadia Continues to Stay in Touch With Her Mother
When Nadia turned 20 in 2010, she asked her father to help her reconnect with her mother, which led Hisham to call Maureen. This contact allowed the mother and daughter to talk to each other 18 years after they were separated. Maureen later noted the awkwardness in their initial conversations because of the different environments they had lived in. However, they started talking more frequently, over calls and texts, which led them to become more familiar. Nadia also read articles about Maureen and her search, and she didn’t like the things that were said about her father. However, she was moved by the lengths her mother had gone to in an effort to reunite with her. Soon, they made plans to meet.
Maureen had made many trips to Syria in search of her daughter, and finally, she was able to meet her after reconnecting with her in 2010. Nadia greeted her mother when she landed in Damascus, and they spent the next couple of weeks together, bonding over shared things, like how their hair looked the same and how they both had the same dimple in their cheek. They went shopping, got pedicures, and watched movies together. Maureen discovered that Nadia had grown up with a different, more privileged lifestyle than she’d imagined. She found out about Nadia’s schooling and the fact that she’d attended a university in Syria.
Nadia also showed curiosity towards her mother’s religion, not because of the thoughts of conversion, but to understand the differences that had torn her parents apart. Maureen said that her daughter had expressed her desire to come to the United States someday. However, she wanted to come along with her father, which complicates things because of the arrest warrant issued for him when he was accused of parental abduction after an Ohio court gave Maureen full custody of Nadia. While both have moved on with their lives, the mother and daughter have stayed in touch with each other through calls, emails, and other modes of communication. Both have expressed their love for one another and are committed to staying in each other’s lives.
