[topsgtsgirls]

I am looking for any help that any one can give me and my husband on how to go about adopting an Iraqi child. My husband is in the military and currently serving in Iraq and would love to bring an Iraqi child in to our home. I have tried many searches and tried many organizations so far to no avail. I have through this site found that there are military benifits to help fund this.
Many children in Iraq have been left orphaned by the war. So if any one knows of an agency that deals with the Iraqi families please help..

Thank you and God Bless all of you..

Candace Mefford

[Chantale]

At this point in time, there is no way to adopt an Iraqi child. However, there are many children in other parts of the world that are orphaned due to war, disease, starvation, extreme poverty, etc. For example, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Haiti, Colombia, Eastern European countries (and the list goes on)...

[lashicks]

The Iraqi government has no way of legally ascertaining that a child is truly an orphan, with no relatives to provide care. Therefore, an adoption cannot be recognized legally at this point in time. Frustrating and sad, but our government makes us play by the rules, usually (hopefully) to the advantage of the children.

[spaypets]

Formal adoption as we know it, usually isn't practiced in Islamic countries: (http://islam.about.com/cs/parenting/a/adoption.htm)

"However, the Qur'an gives specific rules about the legal relationship between a child and his/her adoptive family. The child's biological family is never hidden; their ties to the child are never severed. The Qur'an specifically reminds adoptive parents that they are not the child's biological parents:

"...Nor has He made your adopted sons your (biological) sons. Such is (only) your (manner of) speech by your mouths. But Allah tells (you) the Truth, and He shows the (right) Way. Call them by (the names of) their fathers; that is juster in the sight of Allah. But if you know not their father's (names, call them) your brothers in faith, or your trustees. But there is no blame on you if you make a mistake therein. (What counts is) the intention of your hearts. And Allah is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful."

(Qur'an 33:4-5)

The guardian/child relationship has specific rules under Islamic law, which render the relationship a bit different than what is common adoption practice today. The Islamic term for what is commonly called adoption is kafala, which comes from a word that means "to feed." In essence, it describes more of a foster-parent relationship. Some of the rules in Islam surrounding this relationship:

An adopted child retains his or her own biological family name (surname) and does not change his or her name to match that of the adoptive family.
An adopted child inherits from his or her biological parents, not automatically from the adoptive parents.

When the child is grown, members of the adoptive family are not considered blood relatives, and are therefore not muhrim to him or her. "Muhrim" refers to a specific legal relationship that regulates marriage and other aspects of life. Essentially, members of the adoptive family would be permissible as possible marriage partners, and rules of modesty exist between the grown child and adoptive family members of the opposite sex.
If the child is provided with property/wealth from the biological family, adoptive parents are commanded to take care and not intermingle that property/wealth with their own. They serve merely as trustees.

These Islamic rules emphasize to the adoptive family that they are not taking the place of the biological family -- they are trustees and caretakers of someone else's child. Their role is very clearly defined, but nevertheless very valued and important."

[topsgtsgirls]

I have a question, I understand that the Koran is very straight forward on the laws of adoption, but from what I am gathering there is no way for an american couple to adopt and Iraqi child is this correct???


Candace Mefford

[spaypets]

Right, and it's doubtful there ever will be because Islamic law would not permit it.

[tobeafamily]

Right now, no, and it's unlikely that it will ever come to be. This is because of the social and cultural nature of these people. Children are more likely to be cared for by large extended family members, tribes or clans than placed in orphanages. Even if they are placed in an orphanage, the culture would find it highly offensive for a child to be placed with a foreigner, especially if the foreigner is not a follower of their faith. Even if you are Muslim, if you are not of their 'sect' then they may reject.

If you wish to help Iraqi children now, donate to nonpartisan relief organizations such as the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, etc. These organizations can use any and all support.

If you're interested in adopting an orphan from a foreign country, there are many options available to you.

HTH

Regina

[sak9645]

... you will NOT find it possible to adopt an Iraqi child.

It is truly special how many Americans try to reach out to the victims of war or natural disaster overseas. Unfortunately, adoption immediately after such an event is almost never possible.

For one thing, it is often difficult to know who is an orphan. Yes, a child may be living in an orphanage or refugee resettlement center. But he/she may be there because Dad, a soldier on the losing side, has fled across the border temporarily, and Mom -- who has become separated from her child in the commotion -- is living in a refugee camp somewhere, praying that her child is alive and that she can find him/her.

The orphanage or welfare workers may not know if the parents are dead or alive, since communications among centers and orphanages is almost impossible. It would be terrible to place a child for adoption overseas, if his/her parents were alive and trying desperately to be reunited with him/her. And, in any case, the U.S. government will not grant an adoption visa to a child without proof that he/she is an orphan or has been totally and permanently relinquished or abandoned.

Also good adoption practice requires that, even if a child's parents are known to be dead or to have legally relinquished their child, attempts be made to keep the child with other members of his/her birth family or in his/her birth country before making an international placement. In the immediate aftermath of a war or natural disaster, many people are scrambling to rebuild their homes, find work, put food on the table, and so on. They cannot even think about adoption until these things are done, yet they may be more than willing to adopt a child who is a nephew, a cousin, a grandchild, a neighbor, or just someone from their village in six months to a year or so. So it is often in the best interest of the child to wait until it is clear that he/she is not going to be taken in by a relative or community member, and that overseas adoption is an appropriate alternative.

Further, adoption is a legal process. In any adoption, there must first be an official determination -- usually by an entity such as a state or provincial government, or by the federal government of a country -- that a child is orphaned, abandoned, or legally relinquished and, thus, legally free for adoption. There must be laws that define who qualifies for adoption, who qualifies to adopt, and how the adoption must be carried out. There must also be a formal adoption proceeding in the child's home country, or a formal issuance of a decree of guardianship that would allow a child to be taken out of the country for adoption in the U.S.

After a war or natural disaster, a government is often in tatters. It certainly is in Iraq. And even if there is a government in operation, it may be preoccupied with such matters as burying the dead, providing safe drinking water, getting food supplies to starving people, setting up temporary shelters, preventing looting, quelling outbreaks of violence, and so on. It is unlikely to pay a whole lot of attention to adoption issues, or even to have an adoption process in place.

With Iraq, there is an additional consideration. Iraq is basically a Muslim country. And Islam does not have the same concept of adoption as the one Americans, and American laws, recognize. Basically, the concept of adoption in Shaaria, Islamic law, is more like what Americans consider foster care

Under Shaaria, the rights of the birthparents are never terminated in an adoption. To the extent that the birthparents remain alive and competent, the adoptive family is expected to consult them on such topics as how a child should be educated. The child retains the surname of his/her birthparents, and continues to have the right to inherit his birthparents' estate. If the birthparents' circumstances change, or if the child does not do well with his/her adoptive family, he/she may return to the home of his/her birthparents.

Muslim countries generally follow Shaaria to some extent. When those countries follow Shaaria, they almost never allow adoption by anyone who is not Muslim, since they want Muslim children to remain within their religion. And they may not even let Muslims who are citizens of other countries adopt children, fearing that the religious leaders in those countries, and especially the U.S., are not strict enough in their observance.

The issue of the nature of adoption is critical in terms of U.S. law, as well. U.S. law defines adoption as requiring the total relinquishment of a child by his/her birthparents. It also defines adoption as giving the same rights to an adopted child as a child born to the adoptive family. As a result, the U.S. won't grant an adoption visa to a child that it considers to be merely foster parented, not adopted, under foreign law.

The U.S. has been able to work with a few Islamic countries to enable American Muslims to bring home children. What basically happens is that the foreign country gives the adoptive family guardianship of the child, including the right to take him/her out of the country. The foreign government conveniently overlooks the fact that the foreign family will to go through an American adoption process to make the child a citizen and so on. And the U.S. government accepts the guardianship agreement, even if it does not explicitly state that the child has a right to be adopted in the U.S.

Unfortunately, in most cases, adoption from an Islamic country remains impossible -- definitely for non-Muslim families, and most of the time for Muslim families.

If there are non-Muslim children living in a country -- and some Muslim countries have significant numbers of non-Muslims living there -- it may be possible to adopt children from the non-Muslim population. But the number of non-Muslim children available for adoption is usually relatively low. In most cases, these children will be adopted by relatives.

So the bottom line is that, even if Iraq were to get, in the near future, good information on who is eligible for adoption, it probably would not allow adoption in the American sense of the word, especially by non-Muslims.

If you want to help the children affected by the war in Iraq, I would urge you to get involved with a reputable organization providing humanitarian aid in that country. The children are likely to need the basics of living, plus books, school supplies, and so on, and some of the relief organizations do a good job in seeing that such items get to their intended recipients.

On the other hand, if you really want to be a parent, I would urge you to explore the possibility of adopting from other countries and the U.S. There are enormous numbers of children needing parents in various countries of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. And, of course, there are large numbers of children in U.S. foster care programs.

Sharon

[teranga]

There is also one additional, very basic, reason why you would not be able to adopt from Iraq. Clearly the Iraqi and U.S. gov'ts have not had a good working reltaionship the last few years (to say the least). They would have to have worked out all the legalities of allowing Americans to adopt. Muslim or not, current war or not, Hussein and George Bush were not sitting down at a table working through how Americans can adopt Iraq's children! And now, with an interim gov't in Iraq, setting up a U.S. adoption program is not, shall we say, the top priority.

Can you even imagine the outrage of many Iraqis if Americans were adopting children from there? The same children many Iraqis feel are orphaned directly because of a U.S. invasion? America--the country many Iraqis consider the enemy? I don't think it would go over well at the moment, and for good reason!!

[sane]

Originally posted by topsgtsgirls
I have a question, I understand that the Koran is very straight forward on the laws of adoption, but from what I am gathering there is no way for an american couple to adopt and Iraqi child is this correct???


Candace Mefford

my sister in law lives in egypt, once we thought to adopt a child from their: she told me, that egypt doesn't know "adoption" in law: because, religion tells them to help their families, so if a mother dies the brother has to take care for the child. i think this would be similar to iraq.

its possible to adopt from turkey - and there the religion is also the islam.

sorry but for me it seems a little bit cynical. first GWB has the parents killed and then new parents come to fetch away the children ...

[beach4me]

As an American, I respect the Muslum law and the fact that most families take care of their own. It is better than what most Americans do for their own.

However, I think it is unfair to say that GWB had their parents killed.

Freedom is never free. Our own Revolutionary war caused many orphans, widows and dead sons, fathers and brothers. There were many orphanages and children homes for these children. Just because it did not happen in our lifetime, we should not forget the price that was paid for our freedom. Everyone pays the price....women, children, men and even future generations.

Most countries in the world have paid the price for freedom at some point or another. No, it is not pretty but sometimes you have to go thru alot of hell to get to the goal. Take my own adoption journey for instance....

[sane]

Originally posted by beach4me

However, I think it is unfair to say that GWB had their parents killed.

Freedom is never free. Our own Revolutionary war caused many orphans, widows and dead sons, fathers and brothers. There were many orphanages and children homes for these children. Just because it did not happen in our lifetime, we should not forget the price that was paid for our freedom. Everyone pays the price....women, children, men and even future generations.

Most countries in the world have paid the price for freedom at some point or another. No, it is not pretty but sometimes you have to go thru alot of hell to get to the goal. Take my own adoption journey for instance....

the question is: have they asked for help or for freedom? - i think it is not okey to interfere into one's policy or affairs. i think the iraqi did not want this "help". maybe they did not recognize that they are not free.

for example: many autrians think that amercans have a very, very strange electionsystem, and that this is not equitable. or that their are some americans who are not allowed to elect. - but many americans are content with this system. - i wonder you would say, when some austrians came and tell you. - Now we are here, and now we bring you freedom and ecoonomic wealth to ALL american. - i think you would lough to dead, because in your eyes everything is fine and you live good.

other example: have you heard from jörg haider? - he is an austrian politian, who once visited SH. - maybe an other country now could believe, that we are also friends of SH and that we are not free - and so this country could come to bring us freedom.

(sorry my english is not so fine. i hope you can understand what I mean.)

[Chantale]

The assumption that the US is fighting for the individual Iraqi's freedom is erroneous. That is simply how the war is marketed. That and as part of the war on "terror".

Bush has lied/changed his mind several times about his motivation for going to war. Given the business interests in the reason, I think it is fair to say that Bush is having their parents killed. Whether you think that statement is fair or not, it is likely that is how Iraqi children are going to perceive their own situation. We are creating a generation of orphans who are not going to look kindly on the US and this war has created, perhaps, a lifetime's worth of problems.

[beach4me]

I guess you are right....all the Iraqi people were so much better off under Saddam Hussian's rule. We should have let him continued with his great leadership. He and the UN were doing such a great job at defending, protecting and nurturing the people of Iraqi!

We should have just waited until Saddam asked for our help...............................

Of course, you and I would have probably been blown off the face of the earth or died of some chemical gas by then...... whenever that might have been.....

Yes I am being sarcastic! Don't believe everything you read or see on TV. Sit down and talk with the US soldiers who have returned from Iraqi. They have walked the streets and looked into the eyes of the people. They have first hand accounts. Funny, none of their stories match the TV or newspapers.

Now who are telling the lies? Changing the story? Spinning for their own agenda?

[teranga]

I want desperately to respond to this last post. SO desperately because it is so uninformed. However....this is NOT the place for a political discussion. I'd be overjoyed to argue this on a political discussion board though. I think doing it on this board will probably result in us all getting warnings.

The topic here is adoption. And...even if you actually believe that we are over there to do "good", many Iraqis don't, so there won't be any adoptions going on from a country we just invaded--for whatever reason you believe we invaded it.