Palestinian orphans suffer discrimination
The tribal nature of Palestinian society frowns upon abandoned children whose parents are unknown.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – “I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know who I am or how I got into the world.” With these words, Louay, 24, started his interview with Al-Monitor, expressing his anger at his unknown parents who left him outside a mosque one night, never to return.
Louay, not his real name, is a young man who grew up in an orphanage in Gaza City, and was considered an orphan until a family adopted him at age 6. Louay has encountered negative perceptions from society, an issue he has failed to grasp.
About 160 persons of unknown parentage are in the Gaza Strip, according to Hazem al-Nuaizi, the supervisor of the Mercy Orphanage Association, the only Gaza Strip shelter that accommodates orphans.
Those children are generally born out of casual relationships, and abandoned largely because of shame and the cultural taboo of sex outside of marriage.
