Social, legal, religious barriers hinder adoption

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.