A person of unknown parentage is not necessarily of no parentage at all

Regarding what are called foundlings, there are important statistics, Their number in 2014 was 500 children in Syria, and the number is constantly increasing, In    Aleppo  , it was said that there were 1,826 children of unknown parents, There are other figures, and there are areas that are difficult to provide statistics on, However, there were 4,000 women and 8,000 children in the self-administration area, i.e., in the Abu al-Hol camp,As for Aleppo, it is said that there are 36,357 widows because of the war, Then, in 2018, it was said that there were 189,980 orphaned children, meaning that for every mother there are approximately 6 children, compared to every 100 fighters, there are 250 widows and 300 orphaned children.

From a social perspective, children of unknown parentage are a significant problem that patriarchal societies have failed to address ethically, rationally, and humanely. For example, a child born out of wedlock as a result of rape or captivity in war is branded with the stigma of “shame ” Were it not for this stigma, the problems would be greatly reduced and could be resolved constructively and honorably, Customs, traditions, and inherited beliefs based on the concepts of shame, sin, and permissibility have stood in the way of most honorable solutions, such as adoption, In Europe, the number of children of unknown parentage increased during the Industrial Revolution and the era of women’s liberation, with many children born without knowing their biological father, It was precisely at that time that society accepted the presence of an unmarried woman with a child, and the concept of family changed from father, mother, and child to mother and child without a known father, The stigma was no longer attached to this dual structure—the family composed of a mother and child without a known father, Adoption has alleviated the phenomenon of homelessness, which affects 2% of the Egyptian population, known as street children, How egregious was society’s injustice when it obstructed adoption, thus contributing to… Homelessness.

In Europe, children and mothers without fathers are treated with the utmost respect and care to ensure a normal life for every mother with a child, regardless of whether the father is known or unknown, The state provides the system of mother and child without fathers with many material and moral privileges, which it does not provide to the three-person family, i.e., mother, father and child, in complete contrast to what Arab societies do in preventing adoption and attaching the label of shame to the child, his mother and even their relatives.

All of this was reflected in the social, religious, moral, political, and humanitarian patterns, For example, what the so-called Salvation Government did in Idlib, which refused to register these children in schools, in addition to the stigma issued by the general public, Thus, the lack of awareness and the lack of morals were demonstrated, for which religious rulings were the main cause.

The Arab religious system offers nothing but harm and injustice to the innocent child, who bears no guilt, The roots of this evil extend to considering sexual activity outside of a formal, commercialized marriage (nikah contract) in the slave market as a form of “adultery,” which is inherently rejected, even though it is consensual, Consensual sexual relations are not adultery, Conversely, rape and harassment are encouraged by placing the blame on the victim, This barbaric society is indifferent to the psychological trauma and suffering inflicted on innocent children by these criminal acts, which can last a lifetime, Such children are barred from many professions, including that of mufti, judge, or witness. Regarding military professions, there is a profound contradiction: according to general law derived from Sharia, these professions are forbidden to “foundlings.” Yet, the imam of the Abu Dhar Mosque in Idlib saw the necessity of recruiting these children into the military from a young age, essentially creating a Janissary army from among them, The sheikh cited the example of Al-Zahir Baybars, whose lineage was unknown, yet he became a great leader, According to his sick understanding of greatness, and this is what ISIS and its ilk practiced, to the point that ISIS pushed children to carry out executions by shooting, i.e. attaching shame to the child and then turning him into a criminal Janissary killer.

  The crime is not limited to the child, but includes the woman who gave birth to him in the first place, as she is also branded with the mark of shame, and she may pay with her life because of the hypothetical shame, i.e., she is killed, The fear of the stigma of shame and its consequences drives her to throw her newborn somewhere, for example, in front of places of worship, so that he may be picked up by a passerby, This is the extent of the social savagery in the barbaric male society.

How much rationality and concern for her child lies in this woman’s head when she makes sure that her newborn is in safe, non-disabled hands, and how great is the rationality in her head, the greatness of love in her heart, and the greatness of morality in her conscience, She is compensating for a failed society that is incapable of providing solutions to the simplest individual problems, especially general social problems.