News

The parents of a two-year-old boy are suing a nursery after staff allegedly used duct-tape to restrain their son during nap time.

A former employee of the Heart2Heart daycare centre in Texas took a widely-circulated picture showing a small child wrapped in a blanket and apparently bound to a mat by duct-tape. The employee then gave it to parents Kristi and Brad Galbraith, who are suing the centre for negligence, fraud, breach of contract and injury to a child. The couple are seeking an undisclosed sum in damages. (Source: NBC News and The Independent)

Comment

Due to the financial demands on many parents the only option for working families is a Day Care centre or crèche facility to look after their young children. Children from a few months old to school starting age are often left for long hours at the mercy of nursery staff. In this case, it is also alleged that staff at the centre only allowed children two short water-drinking breaks of a few seconds as they did not want to change diapers.

Incidents like this bring up a lot of different issues and opinions. Parents in the modern capitalist setting feel they can only provide a good standard of living if both parents work. Parents are actually pressurized by the media and the system to see many things as a necessity when in fact they are actually luxuries. This leaves parents with the dilemma of how to provide for their children yet ensure that in the meantime they are taken care of. It is a Catch-22 situation as those very children that are a reason to push both parents to work and provide a better life are often deprived of the time and nurturing of their parents at this young age. Whether or not a good childcare facility is found, mothers often feel severe guilt for leaving children without knowing what is happening while their backs are turned and when things go wrong they usually face blame for not looking after their children themselves.

The capitalist system values people according to their financial worth and monetary contribution to society. In some cases women are the sole breadwinners and lack support or any choice but to use childcare facilities so they can work to provide for their children. In both cases a mother can argue she has no choice. Given this constant message that women as well as men should work and provide for their family is not easy to ignore.

The Islamic system values the role of motherhood and makes the mother accountable for looking after her children and does not allow any situation where her role is compromised. For example a father, if he divorced his wife, does not have the right to take the children away from their mother at a young age thereby compromising her ability to carry out her responsibility.

For single mothers, Islam has obliged her family; father, brothers and male relatives to provide for her even if she is able to work and if she is without this then the Islamic State is responsible to provide for her. This allows her to meet her needs and look after her children. And she is never made to feel a burden unless she has the ability to work and earn herself.

Delegation of the primary role of mother for the woman in this current system is a perilous task and Islamic social system, where roles are defined along with the implementation of the Islamic economic system and the other systems respectively is the only solution to the daily struggle to manage the responsibility of providing for families and looking after one's children.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Nazia Rehman