1. Can the category 'culture' (or religion) be used?	​Yes. Both the culture and religion categories are usable. The Islamic kafala, besides being considered a religious 'good practice', is a legally institutionalised formal child protection system in which a person (kafil) agrees to care, educate and guide a child (makfoul) on a voluntary basis, without establishing a filial bond. In fact, unlike Western adoption, in kafala the child does not renounce his or her family of origin and does not acquire a kinship bond with his or her guardian.
2. Description of the cultural (or religious) practice and group.	The kafala is a child protection institution that exists in Islamic countries and traditionally responds to two different situations:   the protection of orphaned, abandoned or neglected children through the judicial assignment of guardianship to a Muslim family meeting certain requirements, and family care by assigning guardianship of a child to a member of the extended family.   The term kafala had several meanings in classical Arabic including: guardianship (daman) and care (from the verb root ka-fa-la). The concept of guardianship is divided into: guardianship that focuses on the provision of goods (money and property) and educational guardianship (morality and spirituality). The education of Islamic values is emphasised in the kafala and, for this reason, kafils must be good Muslims, as only in this way can the education of the makfoul be entrusted to them. The kafala is divided into two types: notarial kafala and judicial kafala. Notarial kafala is established when the child has not been abandoned, nor is there a court ruling declaring the child as such; here, parents who cannot afford to take care of the child hand over their child to a kafil by means of a deed. A judicial kafala is established by a judge because the child has been declared abandoned or orphaned. In Islamic culture, there is a ban on adoption, which finds its origins in the Q’uran (verses 4 and 5 of Sura XXXIII) and this is linked to the social construction of the family in the Muslim religion. The kafala is therefore a response to the Qur'an's ban on adoption, and has become the most important legal institution for the protection of abandoned or troubled children. It has several differences from Italian adoption mainly in that the child retains ties with the biological family and the institution is not permanent. According to the dictates of the religion, kinship is transmitted to men through blood and to women through marriage, and for every Muslim there is an obligation to preserve this continuity. This explains why a Makfoul child is not allowed to acquire the surnames of the new family: a change of surname would symbolise a fictitious link and a break with the biological family, with the past and with consanguinity. The influence of the religious factor is also reflected in the requirements for obtaining the kafala, as the kafil is required to profess Islam and to undertake to diligently educate the child in Islam. It should be noted that the duration of the kafala is not permanent, as it ceases when the makful reaches the age of majority, although this provision does not apply in the case of an unmarried daughter or a son who is unable to provide for his own needs, nor in cases of the death of the makful, the death or incapacity of the kafil, or the joint incapacity of the two spouses responsible for the kafala.
​3. Embedding the individual practice in the broader cultural (or religious) system.	The origin of the prohibition of kafala is found in the Qur'an, and has to do with aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s life, who was an orphan and had an adopted son, Zayd. The law, in fact, was changed and adoption was forbidden on the inspiration of a verse in the Qur'an in which it says that the Prophet adopted Zayd, giving him his surname, and Zayd married Zaynab; but the Prophet fell in love with Zaynab, and Zayd decided to leave his wife out of gratitude to Muhammad, who later married Zaynab. This led to a moral conflict over incest, and explains why adoption is forbidden in Islam: if adoption had been recognised, Muhammad could never have married Zaynab, as he would have married his son's wife. Despite the fact that adoption is not recognised, the Qur'an emphasises the importance of maintaining orphanages as a primary social responsibility, which must be respected and which concerns all members of the community. The holy text of Islam, therefore, regulates the care and protection of the material and moral rights of destitute youngsters in the figure of the kafala as a social, religious and legal institution of permanent protection and assistance. It is important to note that although Muslim legal systems are based on spiritual law, most Muslim countries do not directly apply Islamic law, as they have their own codes of law that, although inspired by Islamic law, vary from country to country. This means that the formal requirements and functioning of the kafala also vary from country to country. For example, Pakistan allows international kafala, as does the Kingdom of Morocco, whereas Mauritania, Iran and Egypt do not allow international kafala. Moreover, other countries with an Islamic tradition, such as Indonesia and Tunisia, allow not only kafala but also other traditional adoptions.
4. Is the practice essential (to the survival of the group), compulsory or optional?	The practice can be of great help to children in difficulty and, while not binding, is considered a religious 'good practice' in order to be a 'good Muslim'. Orphaned children living in Islamic countries, as they are not legally adoptable, are orphans 'forever'; however, the existence of a protective figure such as the Islamic kafala means that many of these children are integrated into families, and find a life path of protection within a new family unit, thus proving kafala to be a valuable tool to help children in need.
​5.     Is the practice shared by the group, or is it contested?	The practice of kafala is widely shared in the Muslim world. It is used both in Islamic countries and, in recent years, by European families as an alternative to international adoption and by Muslim families immigrating to Europe as a migration strategy based on inter-family solidarity.
​6.     How would the average person belonging to that culture (or religion) behave?	Kafala is a widespread and accepted practice, so it is common to see its application in many Islamic family groups.
​7.     Is the subject sincere?	In this case, the ascertainment of the subject's sincerity would be aimed at preventing those charged with the care and assistance of the child from using the institution to circumvent the necessary criteria for the adoption of children or other norms envisaged for their protection in the international panorama, by transferring children from one country of origin to another in the absence of any desire for care and assistance but perhaps with abusive, exploitative or trafficking intentions. With regard to this assessment, it must be reiterated that, when it comes to judicial kafala, the assessment of the child's state of need, the child's family of origin's willingness to foster him, as well as the kafil's willingness to provide care and assistance, are first ascertained by a territorially competent judicial authority that issues a proper court order. The problem would also be more present in cases of negotiated kafala, where the approval of the 'custody' by an authority is only optional and in any case has a declaratory function. In this case, as partly indicated by case law, it would be appropriate to investigate whether the best interests of the child exist in the concrete case: - regarding the nature and purpose of the institution invoked by the parties (negotiated or judicial kafala); - regarding the correspondence of the same with the rules of domestic law of the State of origin; - regarding the identification of the actual, pragmatic, legal reason for the kafala (state of abandonment and destitution in judicial kafala; desire to offer the child better care and assistance in negotiated kafala); - whether there is an implicit or explicit agreement between the parties (the family of the child and the kafil); - regarding any pre-existing link between the child's family of origin and the kafil. Other evaluations may be aimed, in doubtful cases, at ascertaining the institution through monitoring by the social services with respect to the relationship between the child and the kafil, the possible maintenance of relations with the family of origin, and generally the non-existence of abusive situations.
8.     The search for the cultural equivalent: the translation of the minority practice into a corresponding (Italian) majority practice. ​	The kafala presents elements similar to those of temporary foster care. In the kafala, in fact, as in the foster family, the full participation of the child in the life of the family must be guaranteed and the obligation to look after him/her, keep him/her company, feed him/her, educate him/her and provide him/her with an integral education must be fulfilled. Also in temporary foster care there is no filial relationship and relations with the family of origin are maintained. From this point of view, therefore, there is a clear similarity between this child fostering measures and the kafala, which is also a formal protection institution, whereby the child is placed in a family with the aim that the foster parents take care of, nurture, educate and protect him/her in the absence of his/her parents, without, however, implying any filial bond between the child and the kafili. To some extent, the institution could also be likened to that particular figure of adoption, defined by jurisprudence as mild adoption, with the difference that in this case the relationship is not temporary, and a filial relationship is generated but at the same time, there is constant maintenance of relations with the child's family of origin. It should be pointed out that forms of co-parenting and family solidarity linked to cultural traditions have always been present in Italy, especially before the interventions of the family law reform (1975) and introduction of today's child protection institutions such as adoption and temporary foster care (Law 184/1983). In Sardinia, for example, the reference is to that form of shared parenting that led the child to be entrusted to another family unit within his or her own kinship or, in any case, within his or her own community, maintaining relations with his or her family of origin but at the same time benefiting from the material and moral assistance of the host family who treat them as 'spiritual kin' and often also heirs. Such practices, traces of which can be found all over Italy, responded to forms of reciprocal family solidarity: the 'host' family was often a childless family, and was therefore alleviated in the suffering of missing offspring or loneliness, in times when a lack of children was seen as a form of social misfortune; the donative family had the possibility of alleviating its own efforts but at the same time guaranteeing decent if not even better living conditions for some of their children.
9.      Does the practice cause harm? ​	No. Unless it is a tool used to facilitate the trafficking of minors to Western countries or is characterised by cases of maltreatment or exploitation of the same, it does not cause any harm because it is an instrument for the protection of minors, as also recognised by certain international conventions on the protection of children. The substantive assessment of the regularity of the institution is ascertained, in the case of judicial kafala by the jurisdictional authority of the places of origin of the minors and approved by public authorities, in some cases, even when it is a matter of negotiated kafala. In any case, dysfunctional relationships can be easily detected through monitoring by the judicial authority and social services. As for the danger of circumventing the rules on international adoptions, sometimes feared in the past by jurisprudence and doctrine, kafala does not create any filial relationship and is not an adoption.
​10.  What impact does the minority practice have on the culture, constitutional values, and rights of the (Italian) majority?	The practice does not have a negative impact on the majority culture. In fact, it takes the form of a kind of family solidarity very similar to those that have always been implemented in communities and social networks; moreover, it has a similar value to the institutions of temporary foster care, guardianship and curatorship. In some cases it enjoys the recognition of an authority competent for the child's place of origin and is therefore easily recognisable as an officialised institution. The kafala is consistent with constitutional values protecting children. In fact, it is an institution that guarantees, in Islamic law, the protection, care and assistance of minors in conditions of abandonment or destitution, which enhances forms of family solidarity built on the basis of voluntariness and the possibility of pre-existing social networks between the kafil and the families of origin of the minors. It therefore makes it possible to favour better living conditions for the minor, facilitating his or her settlement in countries that guarantee greater freedom and prospects than those of origin, for example in the case of reunification; it protects family unity by guaranteeing the maintenance of the relationship with the family of origin and at the same time enhances de facto affective relations even when there is no consanguinity. On the basis of the evolution of jurisprudence and of the norms of international law, the kafala is an institution for the protection of children which is now considered compatible with the Italian legal system, because in the abstract it is aimed at realising the best interests of the child, not in contrast with the adoption and foster care norms established in Law no. 184/1983 and moreover recognised as such by both the New York Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 (ratification law no. 176/1991) and by the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children of 19.10.1996 (Ratification Act No. 101/2015).
​11.   Does the practice perpetuate patriarchy?	No.
12.  What good reasons does the minority present for continuing the practice? The criterion of an equally valid life choice.	This is the only child protection institution for abandoned or parentless children provided for under Islamic law. For this reason, the minority sees the kafala as the only vehicle from which to benefit from the child protection system and to be able to apply what is considered a religious 'good practice'. Its non-recognition as an instrument to care for minors or even for the purpose of family reunification would penalise, in particular, minors from Arab countries and of the Islamic religion (orphans, in a state of abandonment or simply from indigent families) for whom the kafala is the only institution of protection provided for, since there is no adoption. In addition, the fact that the bond is ascertained by the foreign authority's order provides greater guarantees as to the child's actual fostering needs and the suitability of the kafil to take care of the child.