Muslim

CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For Immediate Release

10 April 2002

JORDANIAN CHRISTIAN WIDOW ORDERED TO SURRENDER HER CHILDREN TO A MUSLIM

An Arab Christian widow and mother of two has been told by Jordan’s Supreme Court that she must surrender custody of her children to a Muslim guardian.

Siham Qandah, 36, from Husn, 50 miles north of Amman, has taken her daughter, Rawan, 13, and son, Fadi, 12, out of school and into a secret location.

Her brother, Nabeel Qandah, told CSW in a telephone interview: “She is very afraid. She has taken the children out of school because they could be snatched. They are hiding now, but the authorities could come at any time. It is a terrible situation.”

The Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision which noted that Qandah had proved herself “unfit to be a custodian of her children” by “distancing them from Islamic rituals and doctrine”.

The earlier decision added that “her registering them in a Christian school and her insistence on Christian education and accompanying them to church is contrary to what trustworthiness and reliability means”, according to news agency Compass Direct.

Written notification of the decision arrived at the Civil Court in Irbid, where the case was first heard, on March 31, empowering local authorities to transfer her children to the guardianship of an Imam (a Muslim cleric) who is Qandah’s brother.

Qandah’s fight for her children first began when she applied for the legal transfer of her husband’s army benefits to herself and her children.

To her surprise, the local Shari’ah court produced a document stating that her husband, who died in 1994, had converted to Islam three years previously.

Under Islamic law, if a father converts to Islam, his minor children automatically become Muslims and they would only be able to receive their inheritance through a Muslim guardian.

Having been advised that under Jordanian law it would be hopeless to contest her husband’s conversion certificate, Qandah decided to ask a long-estranged brother to become the children’s legal guardian rather than accept a court-appointed Muslim guardian for them.

Abdullah Al Muhtadi, their Muslim uncle, converted to Islam as a teenager, but Rawan and Fadi have only seen him once and have never met his wife or children.

However, Al-Muhtadi did not forward the allotted inheritance as required, according to Middle East Concern. He began to object to the children’s attendance at the local Roman Catholic School and demanded that they be transferred to a Muslim school and take Islamic religious instruction.

Eventually, Qandah began court proceedings to change the guardianship but in May 1998 Al-Muhtadi opened a court case requesting full custody of the children.

In June 2001, the Irbid Civil Court Of First Instance ruled that custody of Siham Qandah’s children be handed over to their Muslim uncle. The judgement criticised Qandah for enrolling her children in Christian religious classes at school and taking them to church services. The decision said she was “trying to change their religion” and “insisting that her children were Christian”, whereas by law they were Muslim.

Qandah filed an appeal, but in January 2002, the local Appeals Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. When Qandah appealed to the Supreme Court in Amman, the case was rejected on February 28.

In the weeks following, Qandah appealed to Jordan’s top judicial experts and religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian, seeking a solution to her predicament. She was told that her choices were either to become a Muslim or to leave the country. However, both her children have been blacklisted on immigration computers, so she cannot take them with her.

CSW’s Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, said, “Siham Qandah has suffered a terrible injustice which has unthinkable implications for her and her children. The decision that she is unfit to be a mother because of her desire to raise her children as Christians is a severe breach of the most basic human rights standards.

“We are calling on Jordan to reconsider these actions which are contrary to the country’s obligations under international human rights treaties voluntarily entered into.”

For more information or pictures of Siham Qandah and her children, contact Richard Chilvers at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on email