Adoption In Egypt
Adoption in Egypt
Breaking the stigma one household at a time
A woman really wanted to have a child and be a mother but unfortunately, she can’t have children so, she decides to adopt. But the problem is she lives in Egypt, and she is scared of what people might say so tells everyone she is pregnant and disappears for the standard duration of a pregnancy and then she appears again with a newborn adopted baby, but she tells everyone it is her biological child. This is not a dramatic movie plot, this is the reality that many women struggle with. It is a scenario that so many adoptive mothers choose to spare themselves and their new child the social stigma that comes with orphans and adoption.“Families in Egypt fear telling people that they are adopting due to the social stigma, so they often lie and tell people that the adopted child is biologically theirs,” said Emma Essam, Marketing and public relations manager in Yalla Kafala, an NGO that promotes the system of Kafala. Adoption in Egypt has always held a social stigma that often carries shame with it. Orphans are often referred to as “children of sin” or “originless.” However, in recent years, adoption has been slowly gaining popularity.
More recently, a series named “Leh La’a 2” which was aired in 2021, it was directed by Mariam Abou Ouf, written by Mariam Naoum and starred Menna Shalaby, and the
show received a lot of attention due to the grace with which it handled such a frowned upon issue such as adoption in Egypt while also showing the reality of the process and the struggles a single woman adopting would face. There was an increase in the number of adoption requests to 2700 requests, an unprecedented number, the highest number in the year 2021. According to Heba Abo Al Amaim, counselor to the Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity, 11,500 children were adopted in Egypt in 2021.
Children of sin
Being ready for adoption in Egypt is just the first step on a bumpy road navigating what society accepts and what is religiously allowed.In Egypt adoption as commonly practiced in various countries doesn’t actually exist, the system that is applied here is “Kafala”, which is kind of different from normal adoption. “Kafala” is an Arabic term for guardianship, and it could be defined as the commitment to voluntarily take care and protect a minor as if it was your biological child. There have been a lot of misconceptions regarding the acceptance of Kafala under Islamic jurisprudence.However, Kafala is encouraged by Islam and is viewed as a religious duty. It is the only way of adoption in Islamic and Arab countries, where the adoptee cannot get his adoptive parent’s full name and cannot inherit unless it was mentioned in the adoptive parents’ will in order to avoid any mixing of lineages. “Egyptian society still has the misconception that orphans are literally children of sin because they were abandoned by their parents as they were born out of wedlock, so they [Potential families] often view going through the process of adoption simply not worth it,” said Essam.The children of sin concept also leads to another fallacy, that orphans’ parents are often criminals and their children inherit their genes that will ultimately turn them into criminals as well. So, that also results in the fear and paranoia for families who might consider Kafala.
There is another misconception regarding the religious beliefs of Egyptian society where there is a big taboo concerning mothers adopting boys due to religious restrictions. Women cannot coexist with a malestranger who is not their “Mahram”, who is a biological member of the family with whom marriage would be considered haram.“Al Azhar has exerted so much effort in the past few years in changing their speech, which became more compatible with the modern society, and regarding this issue they said that it’s against nature to have these kinds of feelings towards your kid that you have raised,” said Yasmin El Hagry, the executive director of Wataneya Society an NGO that promotes Kafala as well as creating equal opportunities for orphans who don’t get adopted. Some prefer to breastfeed the adopted child, as by establishing a milk production between the woman and the boy would grant the adoptee the status of a “Mahram”. However, Al Azhar stated that breastfeeding is a personal choice and is not required for Kafala. Although Al Azhar is changing in order to support the changes in modern society, the societal view towards single parenting, especially single women, who have never been married before, is very harsh. It is inconceivable to many in society for a woman to have a child on her own without a husband by her side for financial reasons and so on.One of the biggest problems that resulted from such misconceptions is hiding the true identity of the adoptee from the child himself and the society. Such a problem stems from the fear of facing
society. However, “It is the kid’s right to know his real identity,” said El Hagry. Hiding the adoptee’s identity would lead later on to serious psychological harm on the child. The fact that many families try to hide that they adopted leads to a huge gap between the ages of orphans who get adopted, where newborns until the age of three are much more likely to get adopted for the mother to breastfeed the adopted child and to conceal their identity and present them as their biological children. This age gap problem lessens the opportunity for older orphans to have a normal family and house.
Fixing the problem
Multiple NGOs have been trying to promote the system of Kafala in Egypt while changing the stigma surrounding orphans. The main struggles that such NGOs face is debunking the multiple myths and misconceptions surrounding it. “Yalla Kafala” is one of those organizations that works on addressing the stigma surrounding adoption in Egypt and debunking the many misconceptions, in order to decrease the numbers of children in orphanages. One of their main goals is to encourageadoptive families to be honest about adopting and that the child is from an orphanage.“One of the things that we try to tackle is the stigma of Kafala and to make sure that families who adopt understand that adoption is not a taboo and that it is something positive,” said Essam.They also work on increasing the number of Kafala for children who are 4 years and older. “Many families believe that children who are older have trauma and won’t be able to be integrated in a family after living in an orphanage, which is completely false. Many children are very responsive to the idea of being adopted and are excited about being welcomed into a family,” added Essam. There are no statistics concerning the number of adopted newborns in comparison to those who areolder. Since the institution responsible and in control of all the data regarding Kafala in Egypt is the ministry of social solidarity and according to Essam they don’t reveal any statistics regarding multiple areas of Kafala in Egypt. Wataneya Society has enforced many strategies through developing services relating to the care of orphans, one of them being collaborating with the ministry of social solidarity on the Kafala system. They provided workshops that teach parents positive parenting and ways to deal with orphans as well as programs to integrate children who reach the age of 18 and need to leave the orphanages into society. “We offer these young adults job opportunities and [advice] on how to be able to stand on their own after leaving the orphanage,” said El Hagry. Wataneya is well aware that one of the main strategies to change misconceptions is portrayal of kafala in drama, which is why they served as the technical advisors for the "Leh La'a 2" series.“We offered them the reality of Kafala and real stories that they can use to address such a sensitive topic,” said El Hagry.
El Hagry asserted that the show had a very powerful message and discredited some of the misconceptions of foster children such as showing that bad behavior has nothing to do with genetics where the series showed a child who grew up with his biological family and lived a “normal” life but had behavioral issues such as stealing at school. The show gained a lot of media attention on how it offered a fresh take by showing a single motheradopting a child who is not a newborn. The show also offered a realistic look into adoption that displayed the struggles of a single woman wanting to adopt in an Egyptian society while also exposing how unfair the stigma surrounding orphans and adoption in Egypt.Adoption requests increased almost to 2700 requests, after the series, that are being processed, but how much can we attribute such outcomes to a TV series? “The show was aired on Shahid, so we need to question ourselves how many of us are a subscriber to shahid in Egypt from the target audience to know how much it actually changed in the perspective on adoption” said El Hagry. She also added that the increase in the rate of adoption hasbeen happening before the show aired, in the past three years adoption rates in Egypt have increased by 40%.Essam, said that the attention given to Kafala lately does not necessarily have to do the series but with the multiple organization including Yalla kafala and the government focus on the system of Kafala which garnered the media attention and therefore led to a space where a series such as “Leh La’a 2” to be produced.Adding to this, S.B a “Foster mother” who works at an orphanage belonging to “Resala” foundation, an NGO philanthropic organization that has orphanages across Egypt has stated that she thinks the show's impact was mostly on single mothers in Egypt rather than on society as a whole and that the numbers that actually increased were the number of single mothers who started going through the process of Kafala.S.B added that adoption has been on the increase for the past decade, ever since the revolution to be exact. As per S.B, Resala has been receiving an escalating number of adoption requests due to inflation and lowered number of marriages, causing women to turn to adoption. The highest number of adoptees were women aged 35+, wanting to adopt baby girls. The past year though, 2021, saw the highest number of adoption requests in one year.
Adoption as a trend, the good, the bad and the evil
Although adoption rates have increased, and a discourse on adoption was created, certain negative byproducts appeared after the release of “Leh La’a 2”. Going from shame to quickly becoming a trend.The trend of adoption quickly led to the returning of children to the orphanage. S.B said that as much as the show raised awareness on the matter of adoption, they failed to raise awareness on the responsibility it entails and how life changing it can be.
Egypt Independent
“I saw multiple families when they visit the orphanage to decide which child to adopt, they act as if they are grocery shopping not choosing a child to raise and care for,” she said. The organization has received requests to return some of the children previously adopted. The foster mother attributed the phenomenon to the new parents not understanding the responsibility ofadopting children.According to El Hagry, “The numbers have indeed been on the increase before the series, but the thing is adoption is a long and hefty process.”She also emphasized on the fact that the irresponsibility of adoptive parents is an issue the ministryof social solidarity is trying to address and accordingly, the process is more complex, mandating evaluations and assessments for the parents to evaluate if they are responsible and capable of adopting a child. The procedures also now include getting the approvals of first-degree relatives to ensure a smooth process for the child and parents later on.“There are a lot of rules and policies regarding which parents are eligible to adopt that are enforcedby the ministry of social solidarity to ensure that the child can move to a stable and healthy environment and that the family understands the responsibility and can actually accept him fully,” said Essam. While the stigma surrounding adoption is alive and well, individual and group efforts are shatteringthe social taboos little by little, but perhaps more effort is needed to offer post-adoption help to parents struggling with their new reality.