of families with both husband and wife and an
increase in the number of single women; for many
of them creating a family was only possible through
adoption or fostering of children from large fami-
lies of close relatives, and in rare cases from chil-
dren’s homes (no statistical data available).
During the modern period, the process of adop-
tion and fostering in the countries of Central Asia
and the Caucasus has been regulated by law; the
family and civil codes have corresponding chapters
and articles, reflecting the order of adoption and
guardianship and the rights of adopters and
trustees, as well as the rights of potentially adopted
children. In all the post-Soviet countries there are
bureaus that regulate the legal order of adoption,
fostering, and trusteeship. Although under the leg-
islation the relative rights of men and women in the
family to guardianship or adoption are not speci-
fied, the material and economic status of adopters
influences the decisions of the Commission for
Adoption and Fostering. Thus in Muslim families
where in most cases the sole bread winner is the
man, the woman has no independent means to
maintain a child and consequently cannot apply for
adoption or custodianship independently.
In secular states, children who are left without
parental care are handed over for education to a
family for adoption, trusteeship, or guardianship.
If no such family is available, children are placed in
an institution (educational or medical establishments,
establishments for the population’s social protection).
Under the family legislation, both spouses have
the right to adopt. “Upon the adoption of a child by
one of spouses the consent of the other spouse to
adoption is required unless the child is adopted by
both spouses. The consent of the spouse is not
required if this spouse has discontinued family rela-
tions, has not lived with the family for more than a
year, and the residence of the spouse is not known”
(Family Code of the Republic Uzbekistan, Section
IV, Chapter 19, 157).
Adopters can be adult citizens of either sex. The
difference in the age between the adopter and the
adoptee varies within the limits of 15 and 16 years,
except in cases of adoption by a stepfather or a
stepmother.Bibliography
The family code of the Republic of Uzbekistan [in Rus-
sian], 1996.
The family code of the Republic of Azerbaijan [in
Azerbaijani], 2000.
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on marriage and fam-
ily[in Russian], 1998.
V. Nalivkin and M. Nalivkina, A sketch of the domestic
life of women in a settled local population of Ferghana
[in Russian], Kazan 1886.4 adoption and fostering
G. Rakhimova and J. Nuriev, A Turkmen family. Tradi-
tions, customs, and rites[in Russian], Ashgabat 1988.Marfua Tokhtakhodjaeva
and Almaz KadirovaNorth AfricaThere is a consensus in formal Islamic jurispru-
dence that adoption is prohibited. Adoption here
means the canceling of birth affiliation and the cre-
ation of fictive kinship by a non-related party where
name, succession, and inheritance rights of the
child are legally created as though the non-related
party were a biological parent. It is the absence of
the biological bond with such a child that makes
this practice dangerous, as explained in Sunnìrites;
it alienates these legal heirs, it may lead to incest,
and it may also cause havoc to the structure of the
family. Islam as a religion, as a source of legislation,
and as an ethos advocates and protects the rights of
orphans because they are bereft of the protective
net that a family and a clan give to their individual
members. Islamic jurisprudence is, however, quite
clear about not mixing between registers: orphans,
children born out of wedlock, and foundlings
(laqì†) cannot be adopted by a family, but can only
be the recipient of the gift of care (kafàla) and good
deeds.
This position finds its root in the episode com-
monly known in the Sharì≠a as that of Zayd b.
£àritha, formally known as Zayd b. Mu™ammad
after the Prophet adopted him in keeping with pre-
Islamic traditions. The Prophet married Zaynab,
Zayd’s former wife, a marriage that was considered
incestuous by the standards of the time and that
thus constituted symbolically a definite rupture
with pre-existing beliefs. Today in most nation-
states where family laws are inspired or influenced
by the Sharì≠a, there is a prohibition on adoption. In
North Africa, with the exception of Tunisia where
secular family law (majalla) gives full legal status to
adoption, family codes (mudawwana for Morocco
and qànùn al-usrafor Algeria) only recognize affil-
iation within legally established marriages, though
they do offer the possibility of kafàlato foundlings.
In this patriarchal social order, it is formally the
name of the father and the father’s affiliation that
are considered to be legally important while
women’s agency is viewed as instrumental and not
important in and of itself. Although adoption is
officially prohibited in North Africa, there are
extensive and culturally legitimized forms of secret
adoptions, fostering practices, intra- and extra-
family exchange of children, swapping of children,