成人快手

It was a child's cry that propelled Aicha Shanna to set up an organisation to help single women in Casablanca. She was in a government office when a young woman walked in with her baby feeding at her breast. Shanna recalls how the woman "was hunched from the weight of her shame" as she signed a document to give up custody of her illegitimate child to the state.

"A nurse then came and snatched the child while sucking, some milk was sprayed on his face and he cried out loud. That cry rang in my ear all night, and I couldn't even feed my own baby," she recalls.

That was in the 1980s, and so much has changed since then, in terms of dealing with single mothers and so-called 'illegitimate' children, but Shanna, now the director of Solidarit茅 F茅minine - which has been supporting single women for 20 years - says the stigma remains, and her organisation's services are very much in demand.

I can't come back home because of the social stigma, I can only return if I find a husband. It's so unjust, who is going to marry a single mother? Amima, single mother, Casablanca

The problem of illegitimate children exists in several Arab countries but is hardly ever talked about. There are no exact figures; however, scattered data proves that numbers are rising and, in a region where pre- and extra-marital relations are forbidden, the existence of such children becomes a serious problem.

In Jordan, for example, there are 1,300 orphans living in 24 orphanages. Half of them are labelled 'abandoned' - which means they were found either on the street or in dumpsters, most likely because they were born to unmarried mothers - and 25% are identified as illegitimate - because only the mother's identity is clear.

In other cases, pregnant women are in prison at the time of giving birth. The baby is taken to an orphanage, and it's then up to the woman to claim her child after she leaves the facility. But, according to government official Saud Barrari, no single woman has ever attempted to claim her child as most do not want to be tied to their past. Lawyers and medical experts in Jordan say the state actively discourages single mums from claiming their children, and offers hardly any support.


Morocco, on the other hand, is one of the few countries that admits to the problem. Two in five births in Casablanca are outside marriage, says Shanna; however, there is an emphasis here on empowering single women to keep and provide for their children. Many of the women I met there were young girls in their twenties, some of them were housemaids who were raped. One girl, Amina, was raped by her fianc茅, who then threw her off the third floor of his building when he found out she was pregnant. But both she and the baby survived.

Amina's mother visits her, but doesn't allow her to return home. "She says I can't come back home because of the social stigma, I can only return if I find a husband," Amina told me before she broke into tears. "It's so unjust, who is going to marry a single mother?"

Dima Hamdan is a producer with the