From Compass Direct
A lawyer who has fought for the past year for Christian widow Siham Qandah to retain custody of her two children expects the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan to rule against her in the next few days. After filing a final appeal on July 18, attorney Rateb al-Dhaher told Qandah that her legal options have been exhausted. .... If Qandah loses the appeal, she will be ordered by the court to surrender her daughter Rawan, 15, and son Fadi, 14, to their Muslim guardian, Abdullah al-Muhtadi. If she refuses to do so, the children will be taken from her forcibly, and she will be jailed for contempt of court for 30 days.
Although al-Muhtadi is the children's maternal uncle, he has been estranged from them and the rest of his Christian family since he converted to Islam as a teenager. He was named their legal guardian in 1995 at his sister's request, after her late husband's alleged "conversion" certificate was produced in an Islamic court. According to the document, Qandah's Christian husband had secretly converted to Islam three years before his death. But the uncle soon began to appropriate the children's monthly orphan benefits, and in 1998 he filed a case to take custody of them away from his Christian sister, so that he could raise them as Muslims. Although baptized and raised as Christians, the children are considered Muslims under Jordanian law until age 18 because of their father's alleged "conversion." Their Christian mother is not allowed by Islamic law to handle their financial affairs.
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