AMMAN — Jordanian parents
seeking to adopt children face a barrage of social, legal, and religious
obstacles that prevent them from taking home children in need.
اضافة اعلان
In an interview with Jordan News, adoptive mother
Reem emphasized the deep love and care she feels for her two-year-old adopted
son, Ali. “You have two mothers and two fathers. I carried you in my heart, not
in my belly,” she tells her son.
But despite the intense bonds that link adoptive
families, Reem explained that adoptive parents face a number of challenges in
Jordan. According to Reem, the largest obstacle that faces those who want
to adopt children is the “social rejection” of some Jordanians to the idea.
“I have heard a story of a woman who had begun the
procedure of adopting,” she said. “When she was almost finished, her
mother-in-law had fully refused the idea and prevented her from going ahead
with the plan.”
Reem said that another frustrating hurdle for
adoptive parents is the requirement that an adoptive mother start breastfeeding
the child she plans to adopt while at the orphanage, before even bringing the
child home.
“This step is really hard as some women cannot
breastfeed. They haven’t gone through childbirth, so they need to go through
some medical therapies to be able to breastfeed, and also take some medicines,”
Reem explained. “Some (of the medicines) leave side effects on the women’s
health.”
“I have learned a lot in these two years and I
have gone through a lot. Only a few were ready to help me and give me advice I
desperately needed,” Reem added. She also said that she views it as her duty
and responsibility to explain Ali’s situation to him at an early age before he
grows up.
Reem outlined the support that government bodies
could provide adoptive parents to ease the process. “I hope that the
responsible bodies conduct some training sessions for new adoptive parents who
are about to have a child,” she said. “This will help them know their duties
and responsibilities, and what they should really do to protect this child, either
physically, mentally, or socially.”
Another obstacle to adoption requires married
couples to provide proof of infertility before adopting an orphaned child,
according to an activist, who asked to remain anonymous in an interview with
Jordan News.
Yet, another challenge comes in the form of
religious precepts. Ragheb Al-Kassem, a senior Sharia (Islamic law) lawyer told
Jordan News that, “Islam forbids adoption but supports fostering. It is
forbidden that the adoptive families give the adopted [child] their last name.”
“The state is responsible for giving children of
unknown parentage names that they can use in order to live and survive,” Kassem
explained. “It is impossible that [adoptive] families give their names to these
children.”
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
requires that “alternative care” be provided for a child who is “temporarily or
permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best
interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment.” Jordan ratified the
convention, but maintained reservations to — i.e., refused to accept — Articles
20 and 21, which concern adoption. In most Islamic countries, the system of
“kafala”, a kind of legal guardianship for children deprived of their family,
typically takes the place of traditional adoption systems.
The challenges to adoption may stand in the way of
finding long-term homes for the significant number of children in need in
Jordan. A 2015 study found that 822 children, either orphans, born out of
wedlock, or as a result of broken families, were living in care centers under
the protection of the Ministry of Social Development. There are twenty
orphanages in Jordan, according to Mahmoud Al-Jbour, director of the family and
protection unit at the Ministry of Social Development.
In an interview with Jordan News, Jbour explained
that these orphanages protect both children of unknown parentage and orphaned
children. “We do not differentiate between them. It is our role to protect them
all equally and find them safe homes and a safe living,” he said. “They are all
victims.”
Hussein Al-Mahadeen, dean of the Social Sciences
Faculty at Mu’tah University, told Jordan News that he supports the idea of
fostering or adopting a child, as some couples like Reem and her husband cannot
have children for different reasons.
“Some couples decide to break up when they find
out that they can’t have children,” Mahadeen said, “but others decide to adopt
as an alternative choice for having a child. They give this child the love and
care and treat them as their own.”
“They have to live a safe life, we have to provide
them safe homes and loving families. This will have a positive impact on the
whole society,” he added.
Despite the challenges to legal adoption in
Jordan, it is possible for adoptive families to support their children
financially. Supreme Judge Department spokesman Ashraf Omari told Jordan News that if the adoptive families
want to give their children some of their inheritance, they could easily do it
by creating a financial legacy that guarantees them those rights. “Those
children may get even a larger percentage of the inheritance than the other
heirs if the step family wants to,” he said.
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