A 31-year-old Jewish mother in Moscow has appealed for help to the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) because she says Soviet authorities are trying to take her nine-year-old son away from her. Mrs. Sophia Dembina’s appeal was made public by Jewish sources in the Soviet Union.
She said she had applied for an exit visa 15 months ago and heard nothing from the Moscow visa bureau until recently when she was told that her divorced husband, Boris, 35, has demanded legal custody of the boy. Mrs. Dembina said she was given custody of her son at the time of the divorce but she fears that the boy, Yuri, may be taken from her just as Alexander Tiemkin’s 13-year-old daughter Marina was taken away from him after he had applied for an exit visa. Marina Tiemkin was abducted after her mother, Tiemkin’s divorced wife, refused to grant permission for her to leave the country.
Mrs. Dembina wrote to the women’s group, “I am terribly worried. Please help if you can. Please don’t let them take my child away from me. Perhaps you could also enlist the help of other women’s organizations.”
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