A desperate mother dressed head-to-toe in Islamic dress and hid her face behind a veil to carry out a daring mission to snatch her daughter back from the child's Egyptian father.
Alex Abou-El-Ella, 29, of Slough, Berkshire, risked everything to rescue her daughter Mona, three, two years after her husband spirited the girl out of Britain and took her to his home country.
She ignored Foreign Office warnings not to travel to the country, which is gripped by civil unrest, tracked down the child and disguised herself as a local to carry out the audacious rescue.
Her success was in large part thanks to the help of British author Donya Al-Nahi, who has been nicknamed Jane Bond for her efforts in helping a string of women rescue children snatched by Arab fathers.
Mrs Abou-El-Ella, who is still married to Mona's father, Mustafa, told the Sunday People of the dramatic moment she snatched back her daughter in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Dawwar. With the help of Scot-born Mrs Al-Nahi she had tracked down the nursery where Mona was enrolled and the block of flats where she was living with her father's family.
The pair, who had enlisted a trusted driver, sat staking out the block early in the morning until Mona appeared with an aunt and a boy just before 9am. That's when the desperate mother seized her moment. Moving awkwardly in the unfamiliar Islamic dress in which she had disguised her self, she got out of the car and followed them.
