CHRISTIAN WIDOW’S ARREST ORDERED

JORDAN

28 January 2003

A court in Jordan has ordered that a Christian widow should be arrested and her children taken from her to be raised as Muslims.

The court order issued on 20 January requires Siham Qandah to be imprisoned for 30 days unless she immediately surrenders her children to the care of her Muslim brother Abdullah al-Muhtadi to be raised as Muslims. Siham’s lawyers have appealed against the ruling giving the family several weeks grace before the order can be enforced whilst the court considers the appeal. Siham and her children Rawan (15) and Fadi (13) are currently living in hiding.

The court order is only the latest twist in a tortured legal battle in which Siham and her family have been involved for several years. The case began with the death of Siham’s husband in 1994. When Siham tried to claim her widow’s pension from the army (her husband had been a soldier) she was astonished to be told that he had allegedly converted to Islam and therefore under Shari’ah and Jordanian law as a Christian she could not inherit from him. A certificate of conversion was produced dated 1991 and signed by 2 witnesses but only marked with a cross in the space where Siham’s husband’s signature should have been was produced. The family have always disputed that the alleged conversion ever took place. After his supposed conversion Siham’s husband attended the Christian baptism of his son. Furthermore his death certificate states he was a Christian and he had a Christian burial.

Despite this, Siham was advised that she would never win a case contesting the truth of her husband’s conversion. However, since legally her children were considered to be the children of a convert to Islam, and therefore Muslims, they could claim the benefits entitled to the family if they (as minors) had a Muslim to act as legal guardian. Therefore, on paper only, Siham entrusted them to the legal guardianship of her brother Abdullah al-Muhtadi (who converted to Islam 20 years earlier and is now an Imam) in April 1995. For a number of years Abdullah received the family’s benefits, although he kept most of the money for himself and never forwarded it to Siham and her children leaving them desperately short of money.

As the children became older Abdullah started objecting to their Christian faith and attendance at a Christian school. In May 1998 he applied for full custody on the grounds that they were being raised as Christians despite being Muslims in the eyes of the law. In June 2001 Abdullah’s case was won in the local Civil Court in Irbid, it was later upheld in the Irbid Court of Appeals in Jan 2002 and finally in February 2002 upheld by the Supreme Court in Amman. In April 2002 Siham was ordered to give up custody of her children, so the family went into hiding.

In May 2002 in response to international lobbying Jordanian authorities met with Siham and assured her that she would be allowed to keep her children. However, when she came out of hiding the authorities reneged on this. On 7 October 2002 Siham received a letter stating that unless she handed over her children in five days they would be seized. The family therefore went back into hiding. There are no higher courts to which Siham can appeal and the family cannot leave the country as the children are known to immigration officials. Recently a female Muslim lawyer contacted Siham and suggested that she can keep her children if she simply converts to Islam. There are particular concerns that if Siham’s daughter Rawan is taken from her, as Muslim relatives may force her to marry a Muslim effectively sealing her conversion to Islam in their eyes.

PRAY

Pray for Siham, Rawan and Fadi that the Lord will comfort, encourage, protect, bless and support them at this distressing time.

Pray that the case against the family will either be dropped or that they will be permitted to leave the country.

Pray that this Christian family, who have already been through so much, will be allowed to remain together.

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