An Amman Islamic court has ruled in favor of Christian widow Siham Qandah, revoking legal custody from her children’s Muslim uncle and ordering him to repay misspent funds withdrawn from their orphan trust accounts.
Judge Mahmud Zghl handed down his verdict in Amman’s Al-Abdali Sharia Court against Abdullah al-Muhtadi, who has been fighting a seven-year legal battle to wrest custody of his underage niece and nephew from their Christian mother. “I still can’t believe it!” Qandah said, laughing and crying. “I am so happy; I am just speechless. I can’t even describe my emotions.”
Source: [Asia News]
An Amman Islamic court has ruled in favor of Christian widow Siham Qandah, revoking legal custody from her children’s Muslim uncle and ordering him to repay misspent funds withdrawn from their orphan trust accounts. I have been following this story for a while now and I’m glad it is over. I’m happy to see the children reunited with their mom. I believe the verdict was just and fair.
Natasha, that means I really have to learn to cut and paste! I’ll work on it. 🙂
Kinzi,
Please feel free to post the history of the custody battle as a comment here. I don’t know much actually. Maybe you can also answer some of the readers questions. Thanks:)
Natasha, would you mind posting some of the history of this case for those who didn’t now?
I don’t know the particulars of the case but when it comes to child custody in Jordan the shari3a courts handle muslim parents and the christian courts, christian parents. They differ very very little and the laws are designed to give the custody to the mother unless certain conditions are not met. In this case you have the death of a muslim, and by law then the children are muslim as well.
Considering however that the father died 11 years ago and the children at the time where therefore 5 and 4 (girl and boy respectivly) then they were under the custody age of 9 (boy) and 11 (girl), which opens the door for a male relative to take them in.
The issue at hand however, the one im guessing the courts took in to consideration the most, was the upbringing of the children. Can the mother raise them as muslims and in all liklihood thats a no, which is probably why the uncle (being a strong canidate as a convert) probably got a hold of them. At this point the courts probably assumed this was the best thing for kids so young. When he started in with the money thievery the courts probably saw he was messing about and the kids were brought back.
Again, the details are unavailable to anyone, so assumptions will remain assumptions. Though in my opinion the father really put the family in a jam by the “convert in secret” thing, which is why it stipulates that they declare their religion publically to avoid such matters. im guessing death came as a suprise though
Incidentally, what was the latest ruling based on? Did the judge consider extraordinary conditions, or did he disagree with the notion that the kids were Muslim?
What do custody laws say? Are they faith-based? If the kids were considered to be Muslim it’s perfectly legit for the court to give them to their uncle. Children custody runs in the paternal side of the family. Now imagine the plight of Muslim women who don’t get an international media campaign for the king to interfere :/
Tash, I don’t know much about this story so please enlighten me 🙂 Why did it take so long? And have the kids been with the uncle for the past seven years?