Mia Freedman: "There are two Australian mothers in jail tonight. My heart breaks for one of them."

Two women are in jail today. Two mothers. Both are charged with committing crimes against their children.

But the crimes could not be more different, nor the reasons for them. The outcomes are worlds apart.

And so are my feelings for the two mothers.

Sofina Nikat killed her daughter. The little girl’s name was Sanaya Sahib and Sofina suffocated her daughter before throwing her tiny dead body into a creek. Sanaya’s body lay there, partially submerged in the water for almost 24 hours while her mother pretended to cry and blamed a drunk man with dark skin. We know this because she confessed her crime to police. She told them she’d murdered her daughter.

What we don’t know is why. The only person who knows that is Sanaya’s mother. Her murderer. One and the same.

Really, it doesn’t matter why Sofina killed her daughter. The outcome remains the same. The little girl is dead.

Across the other side of the world another Australian mother sits in jail. In Beirut. Sally Faulkner tried to abduct her two small children, according to authorities in Lebanon. She sees it differently. She says she was trying to bring them home. She is their mother.

The names of Sally's kids are Lahela and Noah and they are six and four. So small. But old enough to understand what it means to be separated from a parent you love and miss desperately. They slept one night in her arms after they were reunited with her in Beirut before the police came the next morning to return them to her father.

Even the judge is a bit confused by how to categorise this. He said it’s not the same as your average abduction because it was not a crime committed for a ransom but for love. Even the judge seems to understand - at least we hope he does - that desperation and love are different to criminal intent.

Like, say the intent of Sofina Nikat. Did she love her daughter? Who knows. But she did kill her, that we know.

Sally Faulkner loved her children so much she was willing to risk her own freedom, perhaps her life, to get them back from their father who took them to Lebanon for a visit and, she claims, refused to bring them back to Australia.

He disputes this but again, does it matter?

What’s undisputable is that a mother was so desperate to be with her children than she risked everything and may now pay a terrible price. She may never see her children again. She may remain in jail, just like the mother who killed her child with her bare hands and tossed away her lifeless body like it was trash.

Would I have done the same as Sally Faulkner? Payed a fortune to a man who promised me he could get my children back? Would you? Without question my answer is yes. It may not be logical or even legal but the thought of being forcibly separated from my children induces fear and panic inside my heart. I cannot imagine Sally Faulkner’s desperation.

Two women in jail. Separated by oceans and by intent. By circumstance and by design.

One woman had a choice and she made it, ending her daughter’s life. What the other woman would give just to hold her children again. Smell them. Whisper into their ears.

One woman had control over the fate of her child's life and she chose to end it. The other has no control. No power. She doesn't know how her story will end.

Today, my heart breaks for one of these women and for all the children who never got to choose their parents but who must live - and die - according to the choices of those parents.