A baby boy was born after a Palestinian prisoner managed to sneak out a sperm sample to his wife, The Jordan Times reported on Monday.
The baby, named Muhannad, was born via Cesarean section in a hospital in Nablus, to Dallal Zieben and her imprisoned husband Ammar Ziben, who is currently serving 32 life sentences in an Israeli prison.
Dallal, 32, is already a mother of two teenage girls, but she wanted a son to carry on the family name, as her husband’s mother, father and brother had died, a second brother was, however, living overseas.
“My husband and I, our two girls and the family have been waiting for this for such a long time,” she told AFP according to the Jordan Times.
“Everyone has the right to be a parent. Prison must not stand in the way of this” explained Dr. Salem Abu al-Keizaran, head of the Razan fertility clinic in Nablus where the procedure was carried out.
The doctor said the sperm was subjected to a gender separation process to guarantee that the couple would have a son.
“The couple wanted a baby boy, so we carried out a gender separation procedure. We tried the insemination process three times from the same sample, but the first two attempts failed,” he said.
“We received a sample of sperm from the husband in a reliable and clinically secure way,” he added.
The details of how the sperm sample was snuck out of prison are kept a tightly guarded secret and none of the family is willing to give any information
“Visits by prisoners’ wives are closely supervised by prison guards and there is no way a prisoner could get time alone with his wife,” a spokesperson for the Israel Prisons Service said.
Palestinians are prohibited from receiving marital visits in prison, and Dallal had not seen her husband for 15 years.
“Praise be to Allah, who has blessed us after a long absence with my husband in prison” Zieben said to AFP just before going in for a caesarian.
Zieben already had an 18 month old daughter, named Basha’er, and was also five months pregnant with her second daughter, Bissan, when her husband, who belongs to the Islamist Hamas movement was arrested and taken to jail reported The Jordan Times.
“I am very happy. This is the first genuine happiness in our house for more than 15 years,” smiles Basha’er, now 16 said to AFP according to The Jordan Times.
“When my mother told us she was going to get inseminated and give us a baby brother, we couldn't believe it,” she added. “We have always wanted a brother and now the dream has come true.”
Standing outside the operating theatre, as the expecting mother was having her Caesarian, a group of women were waiting to hear, everyone burst into celebration when they heard the first cries of the new born baby. The proud grandmother told AFP that her son-in-law named the baby after one of his friends “who was a martyr.”
The grandmother was angered however, when asked if she objected to the way her daughter was inseminated. “We are honorable people who are known for our good reputation and everyone supports us,” she fired back.
Abu al-Kheizaran said he believed strongly that it is a universal human right to have baby, and Samer Samaro, from the Nablus branch of prisoners’ ministry agrees with him, telling AFP that “having the child is a prisoner’s right. We hope to someday reach an agreement with the Israeli side about this issue.”
