Alex, Mona and Donya at Heathrow
Trembling and dripping with sweat, Alex Abou-El-Ella could feel her heart in her mouth as she spotted her toddler daughter.
Disguised head to toe in robes and with her face hidden by a black veil, Alex struggled to cope with the searing heat of the Egyptian summer.
On top of that, the sheer excitement of coming face-to-face with her daughter Mona for the first time since the youngster was abducted two years earlier left her shaking like a leaf.
As she stepped out of the car and walked towards three-year-old Mona, Alex pulled her robes tighter around herself in a bid not to fall flat on her face in the dust.
Ignoring the sweat pouring down her back, she grabbed her child from the large woman with her.
But when she tried to scramble back into the car, Alex stumbled and her feet got tangled in the flowing material of her dress.
It took her only a few seconds to extricate herself and bundle her stunned daughter into the back seat of the white car.
But by then Alex was gasping for breath in the blistering heat and could feel the woman behind her.
The 29-year-old mum of two only began to calm down as the car sped out of the village for the three-hour drive to Cairo airport.
It was nearly the end of a saga that started when Alex told police Mona had been snatched by her dad Mustafa from the family home in Slough, Berks, and spirited away to his home village in Egypt.
Police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Interpol were all put on red alert.
But Mustafa had already flown out with his daughter.
So Alex enlisted British author Donya Al-Nahi – dubbed Jane Bond for helping a string of women rescue their children – to mastermind the SAS-style raid.
Despite civil unrest and Foreign Office warnings against travelling to Egypt, they went with one of Donya’s trusted drivers to Kafr el-Dawwar, a city in the Nile Delta.
A search revealed the nursery where Mona was enrolled and the block of flats where she lived.
And next day Alex – wearing a veil to blend in with local women – was sitting in a car watching the flat when Mona appeared with an aunt and a boy just before 9am.
Alex said: “I got out of the car but I’m not used to wearing the long dresses so I kept pulling it up and walking funny.
“I was walking behind them, faster and faster, and saw Mona’s hand a few metres away from me.
“So I grabbed her, pulled her into my arms and the lady looked at my face – but all she could see were my eyes.
“She started screaming and fell over on the floor.
“She even left her son to one side and screamed.
“I had Mona in my arms and ran to the car. But the door was locked. It’s automatic so when the car stops it’s locked and I couldn’t open it. I was panicking but Donya managed to open it and pull Mona in.
“She then pulled me in but we couldn’t close the door and I felt the woman breathing on my back. I just screamed, ‘Drive’.”
Confused, Mona cried out for the woman she called mummy.
Polish-born Alex added: “I still can’t believe I had the strength to take her from that woman and take her to the car because at the time my whole body felt like lead.
“I cried for days because the moment I took her I heard Mona scream out to the woman in Arabic, ‘Mum, help me, Mum’.
“I felt shocked and upset to hear those words coming out of her mouth about another woman.
“But after half an hour she looked up at me and said, ‘Are you my mum?’
“She finally recognised me and it was a beautiful moment for me, especially after not having her for the past two years.”
But as they made their way back to Cairo, Alex feared they would be arrested at the airport.
She need not have worried. They used the Polish passport of Alex’s other daughter Olivia to keep Mona’s Egyptian surname secret then bribed an official to board a London-bound flight unchecked.
And – as our dramatic photo opposite shows – they arrived safely at Heathrow 11 days ago, switching to Mona’s own passport to enter the UK legally.
Alex has since been in touch with Mustafa to let him know where his little girl is.
Receptionist Alex came to Britain from Poland as a teenager and had a long-term romance with the father of Olivia, six.
But after the couple split, Alex met Mustafa when he was running a food-stall in Slough.
She said the Egyptian charmer “treated her like a princess” and they moved in together.
In September 2009 – three months before Mona’s birth – the couple wed at a register office and Catholic Alex converted to Islam, though she never practised.
Alex said she suspected nothing the night Mustafa took Mona to visit pals in Hounslow, a stone’s throw from Heathrow airport.
But they never came home and eventually frantic Alex rang police.
She said: “When I told them what happened, they didn’t take me seriously. They kept saying, ‘Are you sure she’s been taken to Egypt?’”
Eventually, cops learnt Mustafa got on an EgyptAir flight.
Alex said: “The police said he went straight to the airport, bought a ticket and boarded the plane.
“Mona was named on his Egyptian passport but by law each individual has to have their own travel documents and hers were at home.
“I want to know how he managed to get through border control at Heathrow without proper ones.
“If a child buys cigarettes they ask for ID – but when a child is taken through border control they don’t seem to care.”
Mustafa himself called Alex three days later.
She recalled: “I spoke to Mona on the phone.
“At the time she spoke English. But now most of the time it’s just Arabic, though she understands the odd English word.”
Alex said she had lived in limbo for the past two years and would often beg her husband to bring back their daughter.
She went on: “If he was having a good day, he’d let me talk to her but other times he’d threaten I’d never see her again.
“I felt powerless and the police told me their hands were tied and they couldn’t go to Egypt because there’s no extradition treaty.
“In law there’s nothing the authorities there could do because we are still married.” Eventually, Alex decided to take action and started to check out other women who had lost children in similar situations.
She was given hope when a woman contacted her and tipped her off about Donya.
Alex said: “She told me Donya had reunited her with her mother after she was taken to Libya.
“I was suspicious, though – I thought maybe it was Mustafa playing mind games with me.”
But Alex and Donya formed a close bond when they met. Donya had found her vocation after a chance encounter with a woman near her London home in 1998.
She said her husband had taken her daughter to Libya – so Donya said: “Let’s go get her then.”
Mum and child were successfully reunited – and since then she’s helped dozens of women.
Donya, who did not take any money from Alex for her help, said: “You only have one mother and no one has a right to take you away from your mum. But Alex was the real hero here. She took the girl.”
Alex disagrees, though. She said: “Donya kept me calm and without her I’d still be lost and Mona may never have come home.”
She added: “I’ve barely slept since we got back and I find myself watching Mona sleep.
“I’m petrified someone will take her again – but I’m determined she will grow up free.”
Disguised head to toe in robes and with her face hidden by a black veil, Alex struggled to cope with the searing heat of the Egyptian summer.
On top of that, the sheer excitement of coming face-to-face with her daughter Mona for the first time since the youngster was abducted two years earlier left her shaking like a leaf.
As she stepped out of the car and walked towards three-year-old Mona, Alex pulled her robes tighter around herself in a bid not to fall flat on her face in the dust.
Ignoring the sweat pouring down her back, she grabbed her child from the large woman with her.
But when she tried to scramble back into the car, Alex stumbled and her feet got tangled in the flowing material of her dress.
It took her only a few seconds to extricate herself and bundle her stunned daughter into the back seat of the white car.
But by then Alex was gasping for breath in the blistering heat and could feel the woman behind her.
The 29-year-old mum of two only began to calm down as the car sped out of the village for the three-hour drive to Cairo airport.
It was nearly the end of a saga that started when Alex told police Mona had been snatched by her dad Mustafa from the family home in Slough, Berks, and spirited away to his home village in Egypt.
Police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Interpol were all put on red alert.
But Mustafa had already flown out with his daughter.
So Alex enlisted British author Donya Al-Nahi – dubbed Jane Bond for helping a string of women rescue their children – to mastermind the SAS-style raid.
Despite civil unrest and Foreign Office warnings against travelling to Egypt, they went with one of Donya’s trusted drivers to Kafr el-Dawwar, a city in the Nile Delta.
A search revealed the nursery where Mona was enrolled and the block of flats where she lived.
And next day Alex – wearing a veil to blend in with local women – was sitting in a car watching the flat when Mona appeared with an aunt and a boy just before 9am.
Alex said: “I got out of the car but I’m not used to wearing the long dresses so I kept pulling it up and walking funny.
“I was walking behind them, faster and faster, and saw Mona’s hand a few metres away from me.
“So I grabbed her, pulled her into my arms and the lady looked at my face – but all she could see were my eyes.
“She started screaming and fell over on the floor.
“She even left her son to one side and screamed.
“I had Mona in my arms and ran to the car. But the door was locked. It’s automatic so when the car stops it’s locked and I couldn’t open it. I was panicking but Donya managed to open it and pull Mona in.
“She then pulled me in but we couldn’t close the door and I felt the woman breathing on my back. I just screamed, ‘Drive’.”
Confused, Mona cried out for the woman she called mummy.
Polish-born Alex added: “I still can’t believe I had the strength to take her from that woman and take her to the car because at the time my whole body felt like lead.
“I cried for days because the moment I took her I heard Mona scream out to the woman in Arabic, ‘Mum, help me, Mum’.
“I felt shocked and upset to hear those words coming out of her mouth about another woman.
“But after half an hour she looked up at me and said, ‘Are you my mum?’
“She finally recognised me and it was a beautiful moment for me, especially after not having her for the past two years.”
But as they made their way back to Cairo, Alex feared they would be arrested at the airport.
She need not have worried. They used the Polish passport of Alex’s other daughter Olivia to keep Mona’s Egyptian surname secret then bribed an official to board a London-bound flight unchecked.
And – as our dramatic photo opposite shows – they arrived safely at Heathrow 11 days ago, switching to Mona’s own passport to enter the UK legally.
Alex has since been in touch with Mustafa to let him know where his little girl is.
Receptionist Alex came to Britain from Poland as a teenager and had a long-term romance with the father of Olivia, six.
But after the couple split, Alex met Mustafa when he was running a food-stall in Slough.
She said the Egyptian charmer “treated her like a princess” and they moved in together.
In September 2009 – three months before Mona’s birth – the couple wed at a register office and Catholic Alex converted to Islam, though she never practised.
Alex said she suspected nothing the night Mustafa took Mona to visit pals in Hounslow, a stone’s throw from Heathrow airport.
But they never came home and eventually frantic Alex rang police.
She said: “When I told them what happened, they didn’t take me seriously. They kept saying, ‘Are you sure she’s been taken to Egypt?’”
Eventually, cops learnt Mustafa got on an EgyptAir flight.
Alex said: “The police said he went straight to the airport, bought a ticket and boarded the plane.
“Mona was named on his Egyptian passport but by law each individual has to have their own travel documents and hers were at home.
“I want to know how he managed to get through border control at Heathrow without proper ones.
“If a child buys cigarettes they ask for ID – but when a child is taken through border control they don’t seem to care.”
Mustafa himself called Alex three days later.
She recalled: “I spoke to Mona on the phone.
“At the time she spoke English. But now most of the time it’s just Arabic, though she understands the odd English word.”
Alex said she had lived in limbo for the past two years and would often beg her husband to bring back their daughter.
She went on: “If he was having a good day, he’d let me talk to her but other times he’d threaten I’d never see her again.
“I felt powerless and the police told me their hands were tied and they couldn’t go to Egypt because there’s no extradition treaty.
“In law there’s nothing the authorities there could do because we are still married.” Eventually, Alex decided to take action and started to check out other women who had lost children in similar situations.
She was given hope when a woman contacted her and tipped her off about Donya.
Alex said: “She told me Donya had reunited her with her mother after she was taken to Libya.
“I was suspicious, though – I thought maybe it was Mustafa playing mind games with me.”
But Alex and Donya formed a close bond when they met. Donya had found her vocation after a chance encounter with a woman near her London home in 1998.
She said her husband had taken her daughter to Libya – so Donya said: “Let’s go get her then.”
Mum and child were successfully reunited – and since then she’s helped dozens of women.
Donya, who did not take any money from Alex for her help, said: “You only have one mother and no one has a right to take you away from your mum. But Alex was the real hero here. She took the girl.”
Alex disagrees, though. She said: “Donya kept me calm and without her I’d still be lost and Mona may never have come home.”
She added: “I’ve barely slept since we got back and I find myself watching Mona sleep.
“I’m petrified someone will take her again – but I’m determined she will grow up free.”
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