A baby in danger of becoming the victim of an 'honor killing' because she was born as the result of her unmarried Muslim mother's secret affair must be adopted to keep her safe, the Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday.
Three senior judges rejected an effort by the one-year-old girl's natural father to have her live with him and his wife. The child's natural mother is in favor of adoption so that her own family will not find out about the birth. The judges imposed wide-ranging reporting restrictions banning the publication of all names and locations linked to the case because of the continuing dangers faced by mother and child.
The appeal court rejected an appeal by the father "F" against the decision last July refusing him a residence order allowing the baby to live with him. The judge ordered that "baby Q" should be adopted by a couple, also Muslim, from the same country as the mother, but from a different community.
She ruled there would be "a very significant risk of two and two being put together" if the child went to the father because Q was obviously not the child of his wife, who had a child of her own. If the child's maternal grandfather discovered the affair "it would be a matter of intense almost unimaginable shame to him and his family," said the judge.
On Wednesday, the appeal court said, "It was plainly the judge's view that this might provoke action to preserve the family's honor."
The mother had consented to the adoption by the couple, who had been looking after her since December 2010.
The appeal judges said Baby Q was conceived in a relationship "which was unacceptable to M's traditional Muslim family and conducted in secrecy."
Both the unmarried mother and her lover were from abroad and moved to Britain in the last decade. Although both Muslim, there is a "profound cultural difference" between them.
When M realised she might be pregnant she ran away from home. She was "terrified" over how her family would react. As soon as Q was born, she gave her daughter up for adoption because she "genuinely feared for Q's safety should (her father) become aware of, or forced to acknowledge, her existence."
Q's grandmother had told the police that, if her husband found out about the child, "he would consider himself honor-bound to kill the child, the mother, the grandmother herself and the grandmother's other children."
Because nothing restores honor like a good old-fashioned family massacre.
Upholding the first judge's decision to make an adoption order, the appeal judges said: "The mother's evidence, supported as it was by her actions, and the evidence of (the father) and an experienced police officer, drove the judge to conclude that refusal of the order would carry with it a significant risk of physical harm. In our judgment this conclusion cannot be criticised."
The adopting couple were Muslims who had been advised by their imam that they could adopt Q.
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