Yasmina El Habbal long dreamed of giving birth to a daughter and planned to name her Ghalia, Arabic for “precious.” She never got married, and never did.
But in an Egyptian orphanage at age 40, she finally found her Ghalia: a fussy baby girl with large brown eyes who promptly fell asleep in her arms. “God has created her for me,” El Habbal said. “There’s no way I could have loved her more or become more attached to her had I given birth to her myself.” Adoption in the strict sense of the word, with children taking on all the legal rights of biological offspring, is not allowed under Islam, which emphasizes the importance of preserving blood lineage.