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YANBU: Like many Saudi women, Amani dreamt of becoming a mother, but was unable to have children of her own after many years of marriage. Therefore, she decided to spend her time taking care of orphans with special circumstances in Makkah.
However, things took a turn for the worse when she came across seemingly unfair difficulties in adopting one of the children she had been caring for at the orphanage.
Since her very first visit to the center, Amani spent her days nursing orphan babies. When the time came for her to try and adopt a child for her and her husband, she was asked to present personal identification papers and a salary slip for herself and her husband, and did just that. A committee came to the house to double-check her circumstances, and after six months she obtained approval to foster a boy named Rami.
Shortly after this, she tried to foster another girl, called Raneem. Amani prepared herself and her home to receive Raneem. She bought her new clothes to join her foster brother, Rami, but she was surprised when the center refused to assign her the girl. She then complained to the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Amani said that before she adopted Rami, she saw Raneem and asked to nurse her at the center with the intention of adopting her eventually, but said that the staff told her to nurse Rami first and to then begin with Raneem. Nonetheless, Amani said: "I was able to feed the girl five times with the presence of witnesses, and with the proper breast feeding technique. I filed for her custody with the social office in Makkah, and after the application, the society prevented me from nursing Raneem, and instead told me to continue with my application to adopt Rami, first. Subsequently, the society decided to give Raneem to another family at this time, but the family brought her back to the society anyway."
"After the family brought Raneem back, I breastfed her upon the society's request again. I stayed in the society from eight in the morning until midnight to finish feeding her. I got ready for Raneem's arrival in my home, only to discover that she had been given to a single woman," she added.
Amani received specialists in her house to follow up on Rami's progress, who was only 15 months old. "I remember them telling me at the time that they would follow up on awarding Raneem to me, and I called the administration. They told me they were waiting for the ministry's response to my case," she said.
Amani demanded the return of Raneem, especially after she found out that the girl had been given to a single woman, and requested that the ministry review her case in addition to looking into her breastfeeding history with the child, which was undertaken according to Shariah procedures.
Amani's complaint was filed to the chairman of the board, Hussein Saeed Hussein Bahri, who confirmed that according to the Ministry of Social Affairs, giving two children to one family in less than two years violates their regulations. He confirmed that Amani already has custody of a boy who isn’t yet two years old, and therefore recommended the awarding of the girl to a family that did not yet have a child. He further said that Raneem will not be awarded to another family until Amani is fully aware of the ministry's rules in this regard.
He added that the society deals with an independent center that is supervised by Modi Baterjee, called "Bidaya (beginning)" that specializes in stimulating barren women to breast feed when they wish to adopt a child. This is done in one of two ways: the first is by natural means such as herbs, and the second is done by using mechanical tools to stimulate milk. The second method was approved according to a recent fatwa, which means that the child can grow in a family environment and can become a son or daughter to new parents. He added that the society has awarded 40 children in this manner so far.