The Problem of Depression Regarding the Namement of Illegitimate Children's Lineage to Abdullah: National Fatwa analysis

Abstract

The issue of naming an illegitimate child’s (Anak Tak Sah Taraf, ATST) lineage becomes a hot topic in Malaysian media when a judge allows the biological father to be legitimised. This is because it contradicts the National Fatwa, which determined that the ATST was incorrectly attributed to the biological father and was replaced with Abdullah. It aims to keep the child’s psychological effects and social problems at bay. However, when the children allegedly showed negative effects when their names were attributed to Abdullah, the objectives and goals were not as desired. In relation to that, the purpose of this article is to look at the symptoms of depression experienced by ATST who are named after Abdullah to replace the mother’s name as a legitimate line of descent. This study’s philosophy is interpretive, and the research strategy is a case study. This study, too, used a qualitative design and a data collection method that combined document content analysis techniques and semi-structured question interviews. After obtaining the document and interview data, the document content analysis method is used again in the process of analysing these data, and the results are categorised using the thematic method. According to the findings, six symptoms of depression have been identified as a result of the ATST lineage naming Abdullah, namely, being alone, speaking less, losing interest, low self-esteem, frequently brooding, and losing focus. Therefore, this study suggests that the use of Abdullah’s name to replace the mother’s name as a legitimate line of descent to ATST be refined to reflect current reality.