Paying the price for Afghan adoption

By Graham Satchell  BBC News

When I first met her two years ago, the girl's life looked fairly bleak.

She was eight, her father had been killed in a rocket attack and she had a terminal heart condition.

Her mother, who could no longer cope with her own eight children, had put Zamzama in Kabul's huge government-run orphanage.

But in the summer of 2002, Zamzama's life was about to change.

Two people from different cultures, different countries and different continents had both started to take an interest in her.

In the US state of New Jersey, playwright Bill Mastrosimone had seen Zamzama's photo in a newspaper.

"My children asked me to read the story about the orphanage in Kabul," Mr Mastrosimone said.

"My youngest daughter said we should adopt her. And my other daughter said we should get in our car and drive there and bring her home."

At the same time, Seema Ghani had also discovered Zamzama. Ms Ghani had lived in London through the Taleban years and had regularly given money to the orphanage.

She returned to Kabul and set up her own small orphanage with 15 children - and tried to help Zamzama.

Zamzama would need a heart operation within two years to survive, she said.

So she organised the heart surgery in India some months later. Then, with her mother's blessing, Zamzama went to live with Ms Ghani.

Everything looked as fine as life can in Kabul - until February this year.

Ms Ghani came home from work one day to find Zamzama had gone. Days later, she discovered the girl had been adopted. Ms Ghani was furious.

"In our legal system, adoption is not allowed," she said.

"In Sharia law, adoption is not allowed. In the US system, the adoption of Afghan children is not allowed. How did this whole thing happen?" she asked.

Mr Mastrosimone said he had managed to adopt Zamzama because of goodwill - and luck.

"Maybe this happened because of a vacuum of law," he said. "I don't know. But it happened with good intention."

Afghanistan may be emerging from civil war and the Taleban, but the legal system still functions fairly well.

The laws on adoption are clear - it is not allowed. There is a system of guardianship, but the US State Department says that is not sufficient to adopt an Afghan orphan.

A senior official in the Justice Ministry in Kabul, Yususf Halim, said adoption is "explicitly a violation of the law".

Mr Mastrosimone is on the board of advisers of a US-based charity, International Orphan Care - and he asked for their help.

The charity director in Kabul, Sayed Qadeer, first located Zamzama in the government orphanage. He also found Zamzama's mother, Arifa, who was happy for her daughter to go to the US. Arifa said Mr Mastrosimone had paid her $300.

The charity also put Mr Mastrosimone in touch with a man calling himself Dr Babrak, who acted as Mr Mastrosimone's middleman.

Tracked down in Kabul, he said Mr Mastrosimone had paid him $5,000 to gather some legal documents. He said adoption is possible - with enough money and the right contacts.

"It is possible to create legal documents to satisfy the authorities in the US, like Zamzama's case," he said.

"In Afghanistan, if you want to get a legal paper they want some money."

The BBC learned that Mr Babrak got permission for Zamzama to go to the US from a high-ranking official in Kabul, in spite of the law.

The BBC also found out that the director of International Orphan Care in Kabul has been sacked. The charity has admitted he broke the law. They also say he had tried to arrange other adoptions.

In the US, Mr Mastrosimone now says he was misled by Mr Babrak. He says he did not know Zamzama was living with Ms Ghani and denies breaking the law.

Mr Mastrosimone is an extraordinary man. He is currently working on a project with film director Steven Spielberg. He went to Afghanistan in the 1980s and spent time with the mujahedeen, who were then fighting the Russians.

He truly believes he was acting in good faith when he adopted Zamzama. He has given a lot of money to International Orphan Care over the years. He would not say how much. But he did say that in monetary terms, he had a choice between Zamzama and a yacht - and he chose Zamzama.

Mr Mastrosimone claims that Afghanistan needs to change if adoption in the country is illegal.

"Look at those children and decide," he said. "Adopt them, take care of them - or bury them. That's what the choices are."

Back in Kabul, Ms Ghani is still seething.

She says that at first she was inactive because she thought it might be better for Zamzama to live in the US. But she changed her mind after a conversation with Mr Mastrosimone, she says.

"It seems she will not have contact with her family. She will become a little American girl - a little American doll," she said.

"She'll forget about her original language and culture - and everything else.

"Do I actually think it's good? Is it best for Zamzama? No."

Ms Ghani has a high-powered job in Afghanistan's Finance Ministry as director-general of the country's budget.

She has started to make waves. She has complained to the US embassy about the adoption and it seems as if she may not let the issue go.

And what about Zamzama?

Every time I have met her she has been bubbly, noisy and happy - in both Afghanistan and the US. There is little doubt she will have better opportunities in the US, but will she remember where she has come from or who she is?