Depression likely why woman disappeared in Madinah

Nor Azimah Ibrahim's father says she was diagnosed with depression after her divorce in 2014.

SHAH ALAM: Nor Azimah Ibrahim’s disappearance in Madinah, Saudi Arabia in Dec 2015, is feared to have stemmed from the depression she suffered prior to the incident.

Her father, Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, 55, said she had been diagnosed with the condition after divorcing her husband in 2014.

He added that the family’s decision to go for umrah at the time was also part of their efforts to console her as psychological treatment was not working.

Ibrahim said that was why he and his family members did not ask her anything about it since her return yesterday, and Nor Azimah herself had not told them about what transpired during her absence from home for over a year.

Nor Azimah, 32, who was reported missing in Madinah on Dec 19, 2015, during an Umrah trip with her parents, returned safely to Malaysia yesterday at around noon on a flight from Jeddah.

Relating the incident, Ibrahim said the family had gone to the Prophet’s Mosque for dawn prayers that day, but Nor Azimah did not want to follow them home at the time, and reportedly fainted later.

“Usually, those who are sick or have fainted will be sent directly to the hospital, but when we got there, I was informed that Nor Azimah, who was taken to the emergency ward, had left, and since then, we had not seen her,” he told reporters here today.

He said, however, that knowing Nor Azimah well, he was confident it was not her intention to go missing, but that she disappeared due to the effects of her condition.

When asked whether Nor Azimah was married to a Saudi Arabian citizen, Ibrahim shook his head and said it was only a rumour.

Nor Azimah’s mother, Zamhani Zakaria, 53, said her daughter looked surprised when she saw Ibrahim and herself waiting for her arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday.

“She (Nor Azimah) asked me why I was there, as she did not expect me to be waiting for her. She looked normal, her facial expressions were normal, only when she saw her four-year-old daughter, she looked quite surprised.

“Today, we are all treating her as usual, we do not want to ask her (what happened) because we don’t want her to become emotional. She came out of her room, joined us to eat as usual, I asked her to hang the clothes, she did it, it was all normal,” she said.

Nor Azimah’s return yesterday was confirmed by the Consul General of Malaysia in Jeddah, Mohamad Ali Selamat.

Mohamad Ali said the consulate was contacted by the Saudi Arabian authorities to inform them that Nor Azimah had been found on Dec 13. -FMT