Broken wings

'The wings of a person are his children' goes the Egyptian proverb. But what about those who have no wings with which to fly? Amira El Noshokaty investigates
"That child changed my life," said a father. "I fostered him a year ago after both my wife and I discovered that we were infertile. I was visiting an orphanage during Ramadan and I immediately liked him," he explained. But it took the couple a year and a half, before finally being granted the foster rights to the boy. "My relatives are thrilled for us, and everyone is very happy that I finally have a son," the proud father told Al-Ahram Weekly.
In a society that measures marital success by the number of children a couple have, childlessness is a crisis. Relationships end in divorce, a husband may demand a second wife or couples may embark on endless medical quests. But fostering a child is an increasingly popular solution to childlessness. The Ministry of Social Affairs says that, in the past few years, the number of Egyptian foster families has risen to about 4,000.
Is it good news for Egypt's registered 7,364 orphans? Well, that is a tough question. Fostering a child in Egypt is a procedure fraught with difficulty. Prevalent interpretations of Islam prohibit adoption and so the only alternative is to foster -- namely to raise a child as your own, but without giving him or her your family name. Consequently, a foster child cannot claim inheritance rights.
"There are no adoption laws as such in Egypt," explained Mufida Abdallah, director-general of Family and Child Administration, at the Ministry of Social Affairs. "However, chapter 12 of the Unified Child's Law does codify a procedure for fostering."
Chapter 12 covers all aspects of child welfare and specifies in Article 87, 12 conditions that any potential foster family must fulfil (see box). If a couple fulfil these criteria, then the next step is to apply for fostering rights at their local branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
However, in article 88 of the same law, the committee in charge of granting custody to fostering parents may make exceptions to both articles 2 and 4; specifically in relation to socially charged issues such as marital status, age of the candidates.
"The fostering family is usually granted a child of unknown origin or an orphan. We do not allow lost children to be fostered for fear their original family returns," explained Iman Serag, alternative care specialist at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
But these are not the only complications involved. As Nasamat El-Ghandour knows only too well. El-Ghandour is a divorced house wife living in Zagazig. She has three children: two sons, who have already left home, and a 24-year- old daughter who tragically died a year and a half ago. When she applied to foster a baby girl, her application was denied because she is not currently married. "Though I wanted to give her all my life," El-Ghandour said to the Weekly, as she fought back her tears. "I do not understand why society denies me that right."
El-Ghandour's case is one of many where the responsible committee refuses to use its right to make exeptions in favour of applicants who lack a strictly socially acceptable profile. Recently, a woman with two daughters wanted to adopt a seven year old boy but was forbidden, because it is deemed contrary to Islam to foster a male child, whilst there are two females living in the same house.
Article 88 of the Child's Law states that the fostering committee must insure that the fostering family is a good one. Meaning that any foster parents must be a married couple who are between 25 and 55 years old. They must not have more than two natural children already. In practice, however, the committee seems to have established its own codes -- restricting further those who want to foster a child.
"Exceptions are practiced on a very limited level. Should a family have children and want to foster another child, the child may be of the opposite sex as long as there is a large age difference between their own child and the orphan," said Susan Abdel-Moneim, a deputy administrator at the Ministry of Social Affairs and member of the Regional Committee for Alternative Care. Regarding the prospective parents age, Abdel-Moneim explains that "the limits may be extended by a few years in both directions. But as far as the age of the fostered child is concerned, they should be aged between birth and three years." The age limit is imposed for fear that families trying to foster a seven year old girl, for example, may want to use her as a maid.
"Islamic jurisprudence was very clear on the matter of adoption," claims Abdel-Salam Mohamed Abduh, head of the Faith and Philosophy Department at Al-Azhar University. He quotes the Prophet Mohamed as saying that those who claim the kinship of a child to other than his father "shall not even smell the scent of heaven." But, he argues, Islamic jurisprudence does not include any stipulations regarding the age or sex of a foster child or its new parents. "Fostering a child is known to be greatly rewarded in Islam. And when children reach the age of puberty, each sex ought to have their own separate bedrooms." Abduh explained. "However, the foster child should be treated like any relative or cousin and he or she can therefore marry the 'brother' or 'sister' of the foster family," he continued.
Furthermore, Abduh believes that "There is no religious restriction to prevent a widow, a widower, a non-married man or woman from fostering a child, but for fear of child abuse, the child has to be of the same sex as the foster parent."
In popular opinion, the matter is simple enough. Ahmed Hassan, a taxi driver, confided that "If I cannot have children, I would consider fostering a child. I do not think that my relatives would object."
Official interpretations of religious rulings with regards to fostering a child are one thing; the perceptions of the general public altogether another. And, interestingly, the latter are much less stringent. Hassan gives the typical answers to such ticklish questions as what happens when a child reaches adolescence -- technically making the child a 'foreigner' to the foster family -- by replying: "That is easy to deal with. There is an instrument that can make non-lactating woman produce milk and so a mother can breast feed her foster child. The child will therefore become her own."
But what if the child is a girl? Then, Hassan reasoned, "she would be the woman's daughter and thus the step- daughter of the foster father. Therefore the child would fall into a category of women he cannot marry." That's family ties for you.
The ministry's Serag has the job of investigating potential foster families prior to granting custody of a child. "We have to monitor where they live. Families must be well educated. They must be Egyptians, and their monthly income should not be less than LE500," Serag told the Weekly. "We pay monthly visits to foster families once an orphan is in their custody. When a child is placed in a home, we are introduced as family friends so as not to hurt the child's feelings. We see the child's room and check up on his or her health and education."
These are necessary procedures said Serag. "There was a case where the foster father died and the mother had a breakdown. She abused the child and so we took him away from her," she explained. "Then there was the 15-year-old girl who ran away from home. The foster family contacted us and complained of her bad conduct. It turned out she was pregnant and we let her marry the father," she added.
But how much does the system really care about the best interest of orphans within the framework of the foster family? When Hager Abdalla was found on the streets of the working-class Mataria district, she was only a few days old. She was taken to Al-Nour Al-Mohamedi Mosque, where a social worker, I'timad Mohamed, took care of the girl. She took her to a hospital, where her life was saved by an incubator. Seeing Hager so weak and vulnerable prompted I'timad to take the girl home to her parents and the orphanage agreed to let the Mohamed family keep the baby girl.
And so baby Hager was raised within the loving family of Eid Mohamed, chief electrician at the workshops of the Cairo International Airport and his wife Shadia Ali, along with their four children aged between 32 and 17. Four years later, the orphanage asked for Hager back. Since the child was requisitioned by the orphanage, Shadia Ali has been prevented from seeing her "daughter."
"They forbade us to visit her," remembers Ali, " We just wanted to make sure she was all right, perhaps look after her until she recovered from her illness that resulted from her separation from us." She continued "When Hager first came to our home, she was very weak and the orphanage thought that she would not make it. She did and grew into a beautiful, healthy and happy child. It's like watering a small plant that bloomed into a beautiful flower -- then they took her away."
Shadia Ali and her husband were prevented from becoming Hager's legal foster parents because they are too old. Mohamed is 63 and Shadia Ali is in her early 50s. Following an appeal, Shadia Ali's four children were asked to sign a declaration promising to care for baby Hager in case their parents died. They are still waiting for the committee's response.
In the meantime, what of Hager's fate?
Recommend this page
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor