This guest post was written by Bahjo Mahamud.
Rachel Zoll wrote the article Muslim Orphans Caught Between Islamic, Western Law, for the Associated Press. It was published in November of 2010. The article covers adoption from the Islamic perspective and the guidelines and procedures that are associated with adopting Muslim children in the Western world.
It is useful to have a little background history about Islam and why the Western concept of adoption does not align well wit its concepts. There are many Afghan and Iraqi orphans in the United States who cannot find a permanent place in an Islamic household because of the Western procedures of Adoption. For instance, the adoptive family is barred from giving the child the family name due to naming and Inheritance laws in Islam. Allowing the child to keep their original name also helps them maintain their identity and lineage. This law can be bypassed if the child is breastfed by the mother, which produces a familial bond according to Islamic Law.
Another important aspect of adopting Muslim children is the prohibition against intermingling of the sexes inside the their guardians’ home. Muslim men and women are prohibited from being alone with those they can potentially marry from the opposite sex. Women must cover their hair from these men. Because of this fact, children of the opposite sex are not biological family members unless the mother breastfed the child in early age.
The article gives the reader a snapshot into the world of Islamic law and adoptions in the Western world. There is an understanding of the barriers of this type of adoption and what steps need to be taken to move beyond it. Although they give some understanding of the topic, the piece does not go into detail about those that don’t already have much knowledge of the Islamic Law. The article goes back and forth on whether to motivate the Muslim families to adopt or not to adopt. It leaves the reader confused on which stance they should take in this issue.
The myth still remains the same that Muslim countries are rarely open to adoption. This has occurred because families are in a conflicting point of view on whether they can adopt or not, due to the differing interpretations of some Islamic rulings.
In conclusion, this article is beneficial to my colleagues and other audiences who are currently or in the future will be working with Muslim families. However, it should not be used as a sole resource to the topic. I encourage them to make an extra effort to learn the broader details on the intricacies of Islamic law as it applies to adoption. Overall, this is a decently written, informative article for those who know little or nothing on the topic of Islamic adoption.
To read the article, click here.
