Compared with medieval Europe, orphanages
have never been common in traditional Muslim
societies. With changing social norms and the
weakening of the extended family under the pres-
sures of modernity, however, orphanages have been
established in greater numbers in Muslim societies.
It is also possible that the establishment of orphan-
ages, like the establishment of public schools, hos-
pitals, and other modern state institutions, was a
factor that led to the weakening of the traditional
extended family in Muslim societies, and subverted
widespread informal arrangements for the care
of children. Increased regulation of adoption and
fostering arrangements has had similar results. For
example, in 1993, after there was a highly pub-
licized case of a center for abandoned babies
allegedly selling them, Morocco made it a crime to
abandon a child, and set up a special procedure that
a woman must follow to give up her child.
Obviously, few women feel comfortable meeting
with a state bureaucrat to discuss their need to
abandon a child because of poverty or an illicit rela-
tionship. Consequently, more Moroccan women
have resorted to infanticide, abortions, or secret
adoptions since this law was established (Bargach
2002, 38–41). Additionally, poor people often find
it difficult to negotiate the bureaucratic procedures
necessary to adopt a child, and some states permit
only married couples to adopt. In Morocco, for ex-
ample, unmarried women have not been permitted
to adopt individually, but can only work as state
appointed “mothers” to groups of orphaned chil-
dren in the internationally affiliated SOS Children’s
Villages (Bargach 2002, 41, Glander 2001, 97).
In modern times, the establishment of orphan-
ages has increasingly been considered an appropri-
ate solution to the problem of large numbers of
children displaced or orphaned by war. Many
Muslim countries reject international adoption as a
way to provide homes for these children, arguing
that they have a right to be under the guardianship
of individuals who share their culture and religion.
Over the two decades of conflict in Afghanistan,
for example, all Afghan leaders rejected interna-
tional adoption, but accepted foreign aid to pro-
vide better services within their communities for
needy children. Increasingly, Islamic charitable
organizations operating internationally have adopted
Western-style sponsorships for the support of poor
or orphaned children.
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Central Asiatic Journal38:2 (1994), 235–43.Ingrid MattsonCentral Asia and the CaucasusThe attitude to adoption and fostering varies
according to the historical moment. During the
Islamic period, the act of adoption was equated
withsavab, an act of generosity that would be
rewarded by God. In periods of wars and natural
disasters, this attitude is reinforced. During the
Soviet period there was a solicitous attitude toward
children abandoned or left without parents. This is
exemplified by the celebrated case of the Uzbek
family of Shoahman and Bahry Somjuradov who
adopted 14 children of different nationalities dur-
ing the Second World War. As the male population
was away from home fighting during the war, the
basic responsibility for fostering during this period
lay on women’s shoulders. Many families adopted
or gave temporary shelter to children during the
postwar period in the Soviet Union.
In the republics of Central Asia and the Cau-
casus, women’s participation in decision-making
about adoption and custodianship has taken new
forms during the post-Soviet period. An increase in
divorce and demographic and gender imbalance in
the postwar period led to a reduction of the number