Attorneys for Fathima Rifqa Bary and her parents haven’t agreed on much, but they have settled a couple of small matters in the case of the 17-year-old runaway.
They have agreed that all mail to Rifqa from people who aren’t relatives will be reviewed by her guardian ad litem, the attorney appointed by the court to represent her interests, to “ensure that no inappropriate messages are forwarded to Ms. Bary.”
They also have agreed that Rifqa cannot have any contact with Blake Lorenz, Beverly Lorenz or Brian Williams until her counselor determines whether it would be in her best interest.
The Lorenzes are pastors in Florida whom Rifqa stayed with when she ran away. Authorities have said that Williams, an evangelical in his 20s who baptized Rifqa, drove her to the Greyhound bus station in Columbus when she ran away from home in July.
Rifqa, a New Albany High School student, said she left her Northeast Side home because her father, Mohamed Bary, threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. Mr. Bary denies the accusation, and authorities in Ohio and Florida have found that she was not in danger.
A dependency case to determine where Rifqa should live is making its way through Franklin County Juvenile Court, where the attorneys frequently file motions on minute details of Rifqa’s life and activities.
For instance, Omar Tarazi, the attorney for Mr. Bary and his wife, Aysha, had asked that third-party messages to Rifqa be reviewed by Franklin County Children Services, which has custody of the girl. He was concerned about letter-writing campaigns to Rifqa publicized on blogs that malign Islam.
That resulted in the agreement to have her guardian look at them. The magistrate’s order says “incoming mail” but does not specify whether that includes e-mail.
The two sides also have argued over whether Rifqa’s counselor should be a woman. Rifqa’s attorneys, Kort Gatterdam and Angela Lloyd, have accused the Barys of forcing Rifqa to submit to Islam by making her see a male counselor, because she was raised in a male-dominated home.
Tarazi disputed that, saying Gatterdam and Lloyd file documents “containing baseless assertions that would be characterized as nothing more than religious and cultural bigotry.”
He has asked that monitoring software be installed on Rifqa’s computer because she made comments online related to the circumstances of her running away.
Gatterdam and Lloyd responded that the Barys are trying to invade Rifqa’s privacy and control her.
Tarazi also has asked the court to rule that no witnesses or others in the case should be allowed to mention incidents between Rifqa and her parents that occurred more than 24 hours before she ran away. He also wants to bar any discussion about religious teaching. That could include a discussion about Islam’s rules for dealing with converts.
Gatterdam and Lloyd wrote that the parents’ earlier behavior is relevant, and they noted that the parents themselves have brought up religion as a factor in the case.
The magistrate in the case has yet to rule on those motions.
Gatterdam and Lloyd also wrote, in a document filed Dec. 17, that Tarazi “made himself unavailable” after they had begun to work “toward a settlement of the case where one of the terms would have been that all motions and memoranda would be withdrawn.”
None of the attorneys is allowed to talk about the case, under an order from Juvenile Court Judge Elizabeth Gill.
The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19.