Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity announced on Tuesday that an orphan child is now permitted to include the names of foster parents in their birth certificate, after receiving the approval of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, local media reports.
Dr. Heba Abul-Amayem, advisor to the Ministry of Social Solidarity for monitoring, noted that the fostered child does not have a legal ability to inherit, since adoption is not accepted in Islam.
The Ministry of Social Solidarity shares on its official website the steps that need to be taken for a parent to adopt a child as part of an alternative foster family.
After submitting a request on the Ministry’s website, the Family and Childhood Committee reviews the information and prepares a memorandum to present it to the the High Committee for Alternative Families to agree on the final decision.
In January 2020, Egypt allowed single women over 30 and divorcees to foster a child, and also reduced the minimum level of education required in an attempt to increase the number of prospective foster parents and make it more socially accepted.
After the airing of this year’s popular series ‘Why Not?’ starring Egyptian actress Menna Shalaby, which tells the story of a single woman who decided to adopt an orphan child, Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity announced that it had received the largest number of child adoption requests in one year in the history of the ministry, receiving more than 2,700 requests.
According to data by the UNICEF in 2015, there are 1.7 million orphaned children in Egypt. However, Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity announced, in late 2018, that all orphanages would be closed by 2025 due to the terrible living conditions that existed in orphanages, which included child abuse, neglect and overcrowded environments.
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