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Hamburg (dpa) - Susanne Osthoff, 43, the woman whose behaviour since her release from captivity in Iraq has puzzled Germany, met Monday in a Hamburg television studio with her daughter for the first time since the hostage-taking ended.
The 12-year-old daughter, Tarfa, attends a boarding school in Germany.
A spokesman for a German television talk-show, Beckmann, said the moment as the two hugged in a VIP anteroom of the studio was not filmed. He said Osthoff went on to deny during the pre-recorded show that she was unfeeling towards her daughter.
"My child is very well looked after. She is better looked after than some children in German who are left to just watch TV," said Osthoff, a freelance archaeologist and independent aid worker who was formerly married to an Iraqi and has converted to Islam.
She said she was initially psychologically incapable of meeting with her child after three weeks in the hands of abductors, but she felt strong and stable again after her trauma. "Tarfa is the meaning of my life," she said.
German all-news TV channel N-TV aired last week an interview in which Osthoff was asked why she had not phoned her daughter since her December 18 release by a group that has still not been identified.
Osthoff, a longtime resident of Iraq, said she had tried "but this was technically not possible."
Germans have been puzzled by Osthoff's varying state. She gave an Arabic TV station an interview fully veiled, but wore ear-rings and makeup on German TV, and it remains unclear where she plans to live in future. The terms of her release have not been disclosed.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
