Author: Mark Duff
Publication: BBC News
Date: October 10, 2002
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/2317267.stm
Religious rights activists are urging
King Abdullah of Jordan to intervene in the case of a Christian widow who
has gone into hiding after being ordered to surrender her children to her
estranged Muslim brother.
The London-based organisation Christian
Solidarity Worldwide says the woman, Siham Qandah, was told on Monday that
she had seven days to hand over her teenage son and daughter.
It is the latest round in a bitter
custody battle that highlights the pitfalls awaiting Christians caught
up in the workings of Jordan's Islamic courts.
It is a complicated story that combines
religion, law and family loss.
Conversion questions
Mrs Qandah's troubles date back
to the death of her husband - who was a UN peacekeeper in Kosovo.
When Mrs Qandah applied for the
transfer of his army pension, an Islamic court stepped in to halt the process
saying that he had converted to Islam before his death, and his children
had therefore automatically become Muslims as well.
The family argues to this day that
Mr Qandah had given no indication of converting - he had baptised his children
and was given a Christian burial and death certificate.
Be that as it may, the court ruling
meant that the children would only be able to receive their inheritance
through a Muslim guardian.
Mrs Qandah's brother - who converted
to Islam as a teenager - agreed to act as their legal guardian so they
could get their money.
But he later applied for full custody
of the children, even though they had only met him once.
In hiding
During the three-year custody battle
that followed, another court ruled that Mrs Qandah had proved herself unfit
to be the children's custodian because, it said, she had distanced them
from Islamic ritual and doctrine.
Eventually her brother - who is
now a Muslim cleric - won custody of his nephew and niece.
It is that ruling, confirmed by
Jordan's Supreme Court, which has led to the family's plight today.
They are now in hiding somewhere
in Jordan.
They want to leave the kingdom -
but even that could be complicated by the fact that the children have been
blacklisted on immigration computers.
