From Facebook

Some of you will see this post twice but since the post to her timeline was set to be only visible to her friends, I wanted to put it here, too.

Friends of Dzenana, if you have not yet had the privilege to meet her fabulous son, be certain that when you do meet him, you will love him very much. He mirrors his lovely, late mother's humor, charm, generosity, intelligence and radiance.

If you happen to already be a friend to Zayn Ali, you should know that I am his kuma.

If he asks for "Kuma", he is asking for me.

I make this announcement so you can greet him appropriately if you happen to cross paths. He lost his young mother, whom he adored, on December 21st, suddenly and unexpectedly.  We were all scheduled to spend the day together on the 23rd.  Instead, since her death, he has been denied any contact with me, up to and including this very minute.

It's important to know that he was neither removed from his mother's custody, nor placed by the cabinet. Last January, former foster parents failed to return him from a visit that Dzenana allowed, trusting them against advice from her own sanity, temporarily lost to the serious mental illness that, soon to be, but not yet diagnosed, was then untreated.

In fact, demonstrating uncharacteristic clarity, the cabinet and CASA claimed not to believe the false narrative of abandonment created by the foster parents for an emergency petition (used principally to justify the defiance of Dzenana's demand that they return Ali to me, his godmother, while she completed her treatment).  Their recommendation was reunification which as we all know, is always subject to delays that, in the life of a child, seem to take forever...

Dzenana relayed to me everything she knew about the confidential case.  But although she requested it regularly for months, no copy of the file was produced. In one of our last conversations we agreed that she might as well wait until after the holidays to ask again.

Of course, as godmother, it was Dzenana's wish that I would take custody in the event of her death or incapacitation.  Unlike the people he is with, I am not overwhelmed by the complexity of his dual-citizenship, nor flabbergasted by the concept of loving kin who exist in spite of not being Americans.  Nor would I exclude anyone he invited to celebrate with him his sixth birthday, the first after the tragedy of his mother's death.

He did invite me to his sixth birthday party when I was with him on the 12th of December, the last day he saw his mother alive.

I break my silence today not because of the birthday I missed but because he has therapy today, although I don't know with whom.  This matters because a moment of hope was created yesterday by notification of a reply to months of unanswered messages to his "foster parents".

What I found, however, was a terse message that unwittingly confirmed what I suspected. The only reason a therapist wouldn't recommend contact with his godmother, friend to the mother he lost and his lifelong companion is because they don't know she exists.

This begins my testimony. It is only that, a testimony.  I would present it first to the record in the upcoming trial of Zayn Ali, TBA, but since neither of us are invited to that proceeding, I will be employing alternative venues.

Ali will be encouraged by my telling of his truth even if all you can do is simply add your good will to my efforts to defend him. He is gifted and sensitive, and will sense that he is not now, nor was he ever, nor will he ever be abandoned.

I will tell everyone his story until he is allowed to tell you himself.

Dzenana, duša moja draga, I will never forsake my vow to God, to you, but most importantly to our Zayn Ali. You were right to think that you had birthed a hero. And he is right to know that I will never betray him.

☮️❤️🏴

Ali is powerless to inform anyone of his whereabouts or wellbeing. I, his kuma (or "godmother") am performing my duty to protect this child, always and forever, as I swore in my oath to God, to his late mother and to him.

Since Dzenana's death, those adults in whose home he currently resides responded only twice to messages requesting, out of concern for his welfare, phone or video contact my godson. One reply on March 20th contained one picture from March 16th, the second reply, on March 21st, was a request that I cease direct communication with them, so I did.

I find this turn of events very worrisome.

 I am doing all I can to gain access, even lay eyes on Ali.