There is no formal adoption mechanism in Egypt, the most populous Arab country with a population of 107.8 million in 2022, where fostering options are only reserved for Muslim families.
The case of a 4-year-old boy fostered by a Coptic Christian family in Egypt then forcibly removed by the state has reopened a debate about fostering rights by non-Muslims and Coptic Christians in this predominantly Muslim country with at least 10 per cent of non-Muslim population.
Egypt’s Coptic Christians are now driving the social change by calling for an overhaul of the country’s fostering rights and adoption laws in light of the 4-year-old’s case which has shocked the world.
Child forcibly taken from a loving Christian home
In 2018, a baby boy Shenouda (later renamed Yusuf by the state) was found on the doorsteps of a Coptic Christian church. The priest consulted with the congregation and asked a childless couple from his parish to help this boy.
In Egypt, children under 14 account for almost 35 million people (34% of the overall population). In 2021, just over 11,000 children were provided with foster families, out of at least 1.7 million orphaned children. Official orphanages—mostly ran by approved non-governmental organisations and overseen by the Ministry of Social Solidarity—cater for only about 10,000 children. While the Egyptian Government has officially declared that it wishes to eliminate orphanages by 2025 due to a myriad of problems, the grim reality of Egypt’s growing orphan crisis underscores the need for more flexibility and legislative changes in the future.
Peter Tadros, Founder and Spokesperson for the Australian Coptic Movement Association (ACM), said ahead of the official Coptic community meeting with the Egyptian Consulate in Sydney that many Australian Christians are appalled with the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity’s response to Shenouda’s case.
The need for a new national framework on fostering rights in Egypt
Giving birth outside of wedlock remains a social stigma in Egypt among all religious groups, and socially unacceptable. Furthermore, children without an established paternity, or when fathers suddenly die, are often forced into orphanages due to poverty and discrimination faced by the mothers of fatherless children.
Shenouda’s forced removal by the state caused immeasurable grief to a couple who regard themselves as his foster parents, and to the local Coptic Christian community within which he grew up. It underscores the need to have an urgent national conversation about adoption and fostering rights for all social and religious groups in Egypt, in order to find better solutions to the growing orphan crisis in the country.
Recent changes
In September 2018, the Egyptian government made formal amendments to the Alternative Family System, opening up options for single and divorced Muslim women to foster children. The system was first introduced in 2014 (despite being originally approved in 1996), allowing only married couples aged 60 or over to raise non-biological children.
In 2020, the Ministry for Social Solidarity received the highest ever number of fostering applications.
During the time when all eyes are on Egypt during COP27 United Nations climate summit (6-18 November 2022), it is pivotal to think about the Egypt’s most vulnerable social groups such as orphans, and institute a new national framework that would allow non-Muslims to become foster parents.