muslim marriage

MUSLIM MARRIAGE

The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death) (Bukhari 7.62.88).

The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girlfriends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).

Iraqi women fear rise in child marriages as lawmakers consider giving conservative clerics more say

STELLA MARTANY and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Tue, September 3, 2024

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Shaimaa Saadoun is haunted by her memory of being forced into an abusive marriage to a 39-year-old man just after she turned 13.

Her impoverished family near the southern Iraqi city of Basra hoped that the dowry of gold and money would help improve their circumstances. Her husband presented a bloodstained piece of linen to prove her virginity after their wedding night.

“I was expected to be a wife and mother while I was still a child myself. No child or teenager should be forced to live what I have lived and experienced,” said Saadoun, who divorced her husband when she was 30 and is now 44.

Saadoun’s marriage was illegal, though a judge — who was related to the husband — signed off on it. Iraqi law sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases.

But such child marriages of girls might be state-sanctioned soon. Iraq’s parliament is considering controversial legal changes that would give religious authorities more power over family law matters, a move that rights groups and opponents warn could open the door to the marriage of girls as young as 9.

Law would let clerics rule how young a girl can be married

The push for the changes comes mainly from powerful Shiite Muslim political factions backed by religious leaders that have increasingly campaigned against what they describe as the West imposing its cultural norms on Muslim-majority Iraq. In April, the parliament passed a harsh anti-LGBTQ+ law.

The proposed amendments would allow Iraqis to turn to religious courts on issues of family law, including marriage, which currently are the sole domain of civil courts.

That would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law, as opposed to national laws. Some clerics interpret Shariah to allow marriage of girls in their early teens — or as young as 9 under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.

Many Iraqi women have reacted with horror, holding protests outside parliament and campaigning against the changes on social media.

“Legislating a law that brings back the country 1,500 years is a shameful matter … and we will keep rejecting it until the last breath,” Heba al-Dabbouni, an activist among dozens at a protest in August, told The Associated Press. “The Iraqi parliament’s job is to pass laws that will raise the standards of society.”

Conservative legislators say the changes give people a choice whether to use civil or religious law, and argue they are defending families from secular, Western influences.

Human Rights Watch Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the changes prioritize the husband's preference. "So, yes it’s giving a choice, but it’s giving a choice to men first and foremost.”

Not all religious leaders are on board

The often furious debate has spilled into Iraqi media — even among clerics. On one recent news show, a Sunni cleric argued against a younger marriage age, calling it damaging to girls and saying there was no problem under Islam with the existing laws.

In a lecture posted on social media, Shiite cleric Rashid al-Husseini insisted Shariah allows marrying a 9-year-old girl. “But in practice, is this something that actually happens? … It might be zero percent, or 1% of cases," he said.

The proposed amendments are backed by most Shiite legislators in a bloc called the Coordination Framework that holds a parliament majority. But disputes continue over the draft. Parliament was meant to hold an initial vote on the law Tuesday but could not reach a quorum and had to postpone it.

Iraq’s personal status law passed in 1959 is broadly perceived as a strong foundation largely protecting women and children’s rights. It set the legal marriage age at 18, though it allows girls as young as 15 to marry with parental consent and medical proof that the girl has hit puberty and is menstruating.

Marriages outside state courts were forbidden. Still, enforcement is lax. Individual judges sometimes approve younger marriages, whether because of corruption or because the marriage has already taken place informally.

Parliamentarian Raed al-Maliki, who presented the proposed amendments, said the state would still provide protections and that discussions were still taking place about a minimum marriage age.

The age will be “very close to the current law,” al-Maliki told the AP, without elaborating.

Iraqi women are leading the fight against the changes

Al-Maliki and other proponents depict the changes as a defense against Western secularism.

He said the original law was influenced by “communists and Baathists,” the latter in reference to the secular pan-Arab nationalist party that ruled the country with an iron fist from 1968 until its rule under Saddam Hussein was toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

“In the West they take children away from their parents for the simplest reasons and accuse them of violence, then they change their culture and create homosexuals out of them,” al-Maliki said, referring to Iraq’s law passed in April that criminalized same-sex relations and the promotion of LGBTQ+ rights. “We cannot imitate that or consider it as development.”

Criticism of Western culture has gained new strength since the latest Israel-Hamas war broke out, with most Iraqis sympathizing with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Many see statements about human rights by the United States and others as hypocritical because of their support of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

But the most vocal opponents of the changes are Iraqi women, said Sanbar of Human Rights Watch.

“It speaks volumes to the fact that this is what Iraqi women want, not foreign organizations dictating what Iraq needs to do,” she said.

This wasn't the first such set of amendments to be proposed over the past decade. But now, Shiite parties are more unified behind them.

Harith Hasan, a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, says Shiite parties previously had different priorities, focused on the many conflicts rocking the country the past two decades.

“Now there is sort of a consensus" among them on cultural issues, he said, adding that the new amendments would create “institutionalized sectarianism” in Iraq and could weaken civil courts.

“When they say it is the right of religious officials to handle marriage, inheritance, divorce, and the court cannot challenge this, you create two parallel authorities,” Hasan said. “This will create confusion in the country.”

Saadoun, who now lives in IrbiI, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said she fears for women and girls in Iraq.

“The new amendments in the personal status law will destroy the future of many little girls and many generations,” she said.

A race against time: the new law putting Somalia's children at risk of marriage

Child marriage in the country has increased during coronavirus – and now a newly-tabled bill would allow children as young as 10 to marry

The Guardian

September 3, 2020

Fardowsa Salat Mohamed was 15 when her cousin asked her parents for her hand in marriage. Her father did not hesitate to say yes. When Mohamed objected, her father asked her to choose between “a curse and a blessing”.

“That was not a choice for me, I was basically forced,” she says. “No girl would ever choose to be cursed by her parents so I had to accept the marriage,”

Mohamed, who is from the town of Baidoa in south-central Somalia, was at school, dreaming of becoming a doctor. She had to drop everything and become a wife. Three years later, Mohamed was divorced with two children. She is now back living at her parents’ house.

According to the latest government figures, 34% of Somali girls are married before they reach 18, and 16% of them before their 15th birthday.

While children are married off for different reasons, such as the economic benefit of a dowry, and an increase in child marriage cases has been reported during the coronavirus pandemic, early marriage is rooted in Somali culture. An old Somali saying goes: “Gabadh ama god hakaaga jirto ama gunti rag,” which loosely translates as “a girl should either be married or in a grave”.

Marriage under 18 is not illegal, although Somalia’s constitution prohibits it and the country is signed up to several international treaties promising to tackle it. In July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020. But in August, the Somali parliament tabled a controversial bill that would allow a child to be married once they reached puberty, which can mean 10 years old. The sexual intercourse related crimes bill would also allow marriage if parents consented. The UN has called the bill “deeply flawed”.

The new bill has been fiercely criticised after MPs realised that it was different from a sexual offences bill unanimously adopted in 2018 by ministers but not enacted, which sought to prevent child marriage, and effectively criminalise a wide range of sexual offences.

Last year, the speaker of the house returned the draft bill, which has been in development since 2013, to the cabinet requesting changes. It remained dormant until two weeks ago when a new version was introduced under a new name: the sexual intercourse related crimes bill.

“It is completely unacceptable,” says Sahra Omar Ma’alin a member of the parliament’s human rights committee. “We have to protect the rights of our children. We have asked the deputy speaker to bring back the original bill, which we had been working on for so many years. It was such a comprehensive document that provides women the dignity and protection they deserve.”

Somalia’s current political instability and the forthcoming general electionsmakes it difficult for Ma’alin and civil society organisations to keep the pressure on for human rights.

The country is now run by a caretaker government after prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire was ousted in a vote of no-confidence in July.

“It is a race against time as the parliament’s mandate is going to end in a few months,” says Ma’alin. “The fate of our children is being politicised. Some politicians are using the bill as a campaign tool. They attempted to carry out the voting in the same manner they used to remove the former prime minister – in just a seven-minute debate – but we will never allow that to happen.”

In 2015, Somalia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UN applauded as a significant achievement for the country’s 6.5 million children.

“It is a shocking development, given that 2015 was a watershed moment for Somalia,” says Brendan Ross, chief of child protection at Unicef Somalia.

“Unicef has been supporting the Somali government in domesticating that convention. To see a piece of drafted legislation which allows for the marriage of young girls once they are ‘sexually capable’ is astonishing in 2020. We are certainly opposed to that and the UN is unified on that.”

It took Mohamed five months to convince her parents to allow her to get divorced. Her former husband was addicted to chewing khat , the stimulant leaf common in east Africa.

“He would spend the little money he gets on khat instead of buying milk for our hungry children,” she says. “He took advantage of the support he had from my family. But I was relentless and kept on demanding until I was finally relieved.”

Although her parents welcomed her home, Mohamed has to support her children. Her father can only do so much, as he is already struggling to put food on the table for his other 10 children and two wives.

Mohamed now ekes out a living selling tea on the street, putting up with the stigma associated with being a single mother. “My priorities in life have changed. My main mission now is to build a better future for my kids so that they never experience what I went through.”

23 Million Girls in Nigeria Are Victims of Child Marriage

3 Dec 2018

Breitbart

Over 23 million girls in Nigeria are victims of child marriage, the country representative for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women revealed Sunday amid a campaign against gender-based violence in the African country.

Nigeria’s Leadership newspaper cited Comfort Lamptey, the U.N. Women’s country representative to Nigeria, as indicating on Sunday that “one in three women and girls aged 15-24 has been [a] victim of violence while one in five has experienced physical violence which is the highest in Africa.

She also said for too long, many women and girls have been subjected to various forms of violence, yet have remained silent due to impunity, stigma, and shame, among other inhibiting factors, Leadership noted.

With women and girls bearing the brunt of abduction, forced marriage and being used as human bombs [by Boko Haram]. Gender-based violence is evident also in the political realm, where women have reported numerous cases of victimization, intimidation, and harassment, in order to sideline them in the upcoming 2019 General Elections, Lamptey said.

Violence against women takes many forms in Africa. Last month, Kenyan authorities sentenced a mother to six years for forcing her 13-year-old twin daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) “to avoid a curse from her deceased grandfather,” Reuters reported.

Referring to the recent conviction in Kenya, Mercy Chege, the director at the Plan International charity that rescued the twin girls, told Reuters, “A community member alerted us when they had heard the mother was organizing the girls to undergo the cut, so we informed the local authorities. Unfortunately, we were not able to prevent the circumcision as by the time the police conducted the raid and rescued the girls, they had already been cut.”

Last Tuesday, a federal judge in Michigan deemed a federal ban on the heinous practice in the United States unconstitutional, arguing that while state laws against FGM are valid, the federal government lacks the authority to outlaw the procedure.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman’s ruling against the federal ban on the practice came a few months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that “more than 500,000 women and girls in the United States are at risk of or have been subjected to FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting).

In the United States, 27 states including Michigan have reportedly passed laws that criminalize FGM.

The U.N. believes about 200 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, 18 African nations, including Kenya and Nigeria, and 13 industrialized countries prosecute FGM practitioners.

FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of genitalia, can come at a tremendous cost to many girls who bleed to death or perish from infections.

Although adherents of Islam and Christianity both practice FGM, the procedure is prevalent in predominantly Muslim countries, particularly in Africa.

Child marriage survivors say UK law legitimises 'terrible' abuse

by Emma Batha

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Tuesday, 23 October 2018

Nearly 2,000 young people in Britain, the vast majority of them girls, were wed before the age of 18 between 2010 and 2015

By Emma Batha

LONDON, Oct 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Zee was 13, she returned from school one day to find an engagement party under way at her home in northern England, but her excitement at the celebrations quickly turned to shock.

"I asked my mum who's getting married. She said, 'It's you'," Zee told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Her betrothed was represented by a photo – an older cousin she had never met who lived in Afghanistan, her parents' country of birth.

"One day I'm not even allowed to talk to boys and the next I'm told I'm getting married," Zee said.

"I was dressed up to look like a Christmas tree - very sparkly, very bling. Everyone was happy. The only person who was miserable was me."

Child marriage - defined internationally as marriage under 18 - remains legal in Britain. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent. In Scotland, they do not need consent.

Zee, who did not want to give her full name, escaped by running away from home, but she says many girls are still being pushed into marriage.

Campaigners say it is time that Britain - which has been vocal about ending child marriage in developing countries - got its own laws in order.

They were particularly dismayed when Bangladesh changed its law recently to allow marriage at 16 - and cited British law as a justification.

"The UK should practice what it preaches," said Mabel van Oranje, chairwoman of global advocacy group Girls Not Brides.

"Britain's delay in reforming its own marriage laws is increasingly counterproductive."

British parliamentarian Pauline Latham agrees. She has introduced a bill to raise the marriage age to 18 which is set to receive its second reading later this year.

She said it was "crazy" that Britain still allowed child marriage when it was spending about 39 million pounds ($51 million) over five years to support efforts to end it in developing countries.

Changing the law was also crucial for protecting girls at home, she said.

Woman Forced to Sleep With Father-in-law Under Nikah Halala, Faces Death Threats for Speaking Out

Shabina, who lives in Bareilly, said she received threats to her life from “members of her community” after she revolted against the practice.

Qazi Faraz Ahmad | News18

Updated:July 16, 2018

Lucknow: Just when the Supreme Court is gearing up to hear arguments on Nikah Halala, another victim has come forward saying she was given divorce multiple times and was forced to consummate marriages with several men.

Shabina, who lives in Bareilly, said she received threats that she would be declared an outcast and also threats to her life from “members of her community” after she revolted against the practice.

Narrating her ordeal, she said that her husband had first given her instant talaq. Thereafter, she was forced to marry her father-in-law and consummate the marriage as part of Nikah Halala as she had to marry her first husband again after getting a divorce from her father-in-law.

However, her ordeal did not end there. After marrying her first husband again, Shabina was again given divorce and this time she was being forced to marry her brother-in-law. But this time, she decided enough is enough.

TOT FORCED TO WED

New figures show scale of forced marriages in the UK with one child as young as two rescued

Britain’s youngest victim of forced marriage in Britain last year, aged two, was among almost 1,200 helped by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit

By Lynn Davidson, Whitehall Correspondent

11th May 2018

The Sun

A TOT aged TWO was Britain’s youngest “victim” of forced marriage in Britain last year, shock official figures revealed yesterday.

The Home Office revealed the toddler was one of 1,196 cases dealt with by officials investigating potential forced marriages by expat families in the UK last year.

The oldest involved a 100 year-old pensioner.

The infant was one of 355 children under 18 helped by the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit last year.

One in five cases related to male victims.

More than a third of cases related to Pakistan but the number of Somalian cases has increased by a massive 100 per cent year on year.

The FMU dealt with 1,196 cases last year - a decline of 19 per cent on 2016.

But experts said that did not represent a reduction in the number of forced marriages in Britain.

Forcing someone to marry against their will is a criminal offence which carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

A forced marriage is defined as one in which one or both spouses do not consent to the marriage and violence, threats or any other form of coercion is involved.

Established in 2005, the FMU is jointly run by the Home Office and Foreign Office.

Since 2012, the facility has provided support in between 1,200 and 1,400 cases per year.

But a report published by the two departments on Thursday stressed that the statistics only represent cases reported to the unit.

It added: “Forced marriage is a hidden crime, and these figures may not reflect the full scale of the abuse.”

Germany Moves To Ban Child Marriages After Finding 1500 Cases Among Refugees

The Daily Caller

April 5, 2017

The German government agreed on a proposal Wednesday to outlaw child marriages after finding more than 1,500 cases of immigrant minors having adult spouses.

The Central Register of Foreign Nationals has documented a surge in child marriages in recent years. As of July 2016, 1,500 minors of non-German background were registered as married, including 361 under the age of 14.

The largest group of child brides, 664 minors, come from Syria followed by Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Children do not belong at the wedding altar, they belong in school,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday. “We cannot tolerate any marriages that might harm the natural development of minors.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet wants to annul all marriages where a participant was under the age of 16 at the time of the wedding. Courts would further have the power to nullify marriages involving a person between 16 and 18 years of age.

The current age of consent for all marriages is 16 in Germany. Since the country doesn’t recognize “religious marriages,” authorities can’t do anything to stop the practice from taking place in many cases.

Schools across the country have warned that young girls frequently stop showing up to school after getting married.

“There are frequently cases where a girl, usually between 13 and 15 years of age, suddenly no longer come to school,” an anonymous teacher told newspaper Welt am Sonntag last August.

Lost childhood and education: Child marriages in Bangladesh

Sumon Corraya

Poverty and traditional Islamic culture are the main causes. 55% of brides are under 18 years of age; 18% under 15. A new law would allow the wedding in "special circumstances" to save the honor of the girls. Three stories of child marriages.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - "I lost my childhood, I wanted to go to school. I loved studying, but my parents received a good proposal and organized the wedding despite my opposition”, Sumi Akter, 17 year old Muslim girl married off when she was 14 tells AsiaNews. Hers is one of many cases of child marriage, a scourge that afflicts the whole of Bangladesh society.

Poverty and traditional Islamic culture are the main factors driving families to arrange marriage for girls at an early age. The phenomenon cuts across all religious communities, except for Catholics who do not support early marriages.

The practice is especially widespread in the Islamic community. Sumi today is the mother of a two year old, has two sisters and two brothers. She said that her father, a simple worker, "could not carry on maintaining the family. So they made me marry hiding my real age. " She risked her life at birth, due to severe bleeding. She's was care of, but the child was born under-weight and has had several problems. For all these reasons, she says, "I strongly oppose the passage of the law authorizing the marriages before age 18".

The reference is to a law approved last month by the Dhaka authorities. According to the draft of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act - 2016, the juvenile marriages will be permitted only in "special circumstances", such as "accidental or illegal pregnancies", so as "to save the honor of the girl."

According to current provisions, the legal age for marriage is 21 years for males and 18 for females. Several activists complain that the bill would legalize forced marriages to repair for pregnancies that are the result of sexual violence, which is widespread in the country.

Official figures show that Bangladesh is the Asian country with the highest rate of child brides. 52% of brides are under 18 years old and 18% under 15 years old.

The juvenile marriages also affect the Hindu community. Bristy Rani was married at 16 years with a boy of 25. Her parents have chosen marriage as a means to "ensure my safety. When I was in school I was the target of several guys who made me marriage proposals and insulted me. Given the situation, my family members agreed. " According Bristy, poverty and insecurity would push parents to arrange the marriage of their daughters. "Bangladesh is not a safe place for girls - she says - and we cannot move freely. Government and associations must reduce poverty".

In the Catholic community in general there are few incidents of early marriages. Church authorities do not support the marriage of minors. The rare exception is to Probitro Rozario and Pronoti Gomes (fictional names), spouses at age 16. The local Church has allowed their marriage because Pronoti was pregnant. Irrespective of their case, Probitro believes that "juvenile marriages are wrong. The Church has to transmit good values to pupils, teaching Christians not contract marriage in childhood.

UN Voices Alarm At Growing Number Of Child Marriages In Iran

Agence France-Presse

February 05, 2016

GENEVA: A growing number of young girls are being forced to marry in Iran, UN rights experts warned Thursday, decrying laws permitting sexual intercourse with girls as young as nine.

Following a review of the situation in Iran, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged the country to "repeal all legal provisions that authorise, condone or lead to child sexual abuse."

The committee, which is made up of 18 independent experts who monitor the implementation of international children's rights treaties, said it was "seriously concerned" over reports that child marriages in Iran were on the rise.

A growing number of "girls at the age of 10 years or younger ... are subjected to child and forced marriages to much older men," CRC said.

Compounding the problem were laws allowing sex with girls as young as nine, and a lack of criminalisation for sexual abuse of even younger children, it said.

The committee also lamented a law obliging wives "to fulfil sexual needs of their husbands at all times," which it stressed "places child brides at risk of sexual violence, including marital rape."

Stressing the devastating effects child marriage can have on the physical and mental health of young girls, the experts called on Tehran to introduce national laws clearly banning and criminalising the practice.

The committee also raised a range of other disturbing issues, including the fact that boys in the country are considered criminally responsible at the age of 15, and girls at nine.

This means children down to those ages can be subjected to "sentences involving torture or cruel, degrading treatment of punishment," it said.

Most distressing perhaps is that some crimes committed as a minor in Iran are punishable by death, and that the country occasionally executed children.

"A small number of children have been executed in Iran," committee member Bernard Gastaud told reporters.

His colleague Benyam Mezmur described the situation as being "of very serious concern."

Bill banning child marriage fails in Pakistan after it’s deemed “un-Islamic”

By Ishaan Tharoor

The Washington Post

January 15, 2016

Pakistani lawmakers had to withdraw a bill aimed at curbing the practice of child marriage after a prominent religious body declared the legislation un-Islamic.

The bill, which proposed raising the marriage age for females from 16 to 18, also called for harsher penalties for those who would arrange marriages involving children. Despite the laws in place, child marriages, particularly involving young female brides, are common in parts of the country. It's estimated that some 20 percent of girls in the country are married before they turn 18.

But the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body which gives advice to parliament on the compatibility of laws with Sharia, appeared to slap down the legislation after deeming it "un-Islamic" and "blasphemous," according to Agence France Presse. It had already handed down a similar ruling in 2014.

The council has garnered opprobrium in the past. In 2013, reports AFP, "it suggested making DNA inadmissible evidence in rape cases, instead calling for the revival of an Islamic law that makes it mandatory for a survivor to provide four witnesses to back their claims."

Girls Not Brides, an international coalition of civil society organizations working against child marriage, cited this religious body as an obstacle toward reform. A number of provinces in Pakistan have pushed for legislation cracking down on child marriages, but implementing the law is more difficult.

Clerics on the council object to minimum age requirements, arguing instead that an individual can marry once reaching puberty, which can be as early as the age of 9.

Women must give husbands sex “even on camels”, Islamic scholar says

BY IDA LIM

Malaymail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 While insisting that the concept of marital rape does not exist in Islam, religious scholars say it is sinful for a Muslim man to force his wife to have sex when she is ill or menstruating.

Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria said that men can always have sexual intercourse with their spouses even if the latter do not agree, saying that a Muslim woman has “no right” to reject her husband’s demand.

Even the Prophet says even when they’re riding on the back of the camel, when the husband asks her, she must give.

“So there’s no such thing as rape in marriage. This is made by European people, why should we follow?” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday as he cited the hadith or reported teachings of Prophet Muhammad.

Harussani claimed that Europe itself did not regard women highly before creating the concept of marital rape after the 18th century when Europeans came into contact with the Muslims and were attempting to improve Islamic laws.

According to Harussani, a woman’s agreement to marry will be sought when her father gives her away to a man in marriage. Subsequently, she can only refuse her husband sex if she is menstruating, sick, or has just given birth, he said.

“Once she got married, the dowry is paid, she can’t refuse unless when she’s [on her] period,” he said, saying that the Quran clearly states that it will be “haram” or forbidden to have a sexual intercourse with a woman who is menstruating.

Independent Muslim preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin said that rape is defined in Islam as an act between two unmarried individuals.

“That term (marital rape) is not accurate in the practice of Islam because rape in Islam is defined as forced sexual intercourse outside of marriage,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.

While stating that husbands cannot force their wives to have sex, he said the key issue is not about getting consent, but revolves around how men can show love and create a romantic atmosphere to change their spouses’ minds to willingly agree to sexual intercourse.

“That means if the husband does not seek consent, it cannot be considered rape, but that action is considered not polite (beradab) in Islam,” he said, adding that it would not be considered “haram” or sinful, but would be “makruh” or frowned upon by Islam.

Wan Ji said women have the right to refuse sex when they are either sick, menstruating or old, insisting that men having sex in such cases are considered sinful.

During the fasting month for Muslims, both men and women are not allowed to have sexual intercourse and wives must reject such requests by their husbands, he said.

Women may opt to either turn down their husbands’ requests or cancel their fast during optional and additional fasting days, he said, adding that women can even refuse sexual intercourse if they are in a bad mood or were exhausted from work.

Both Harussani and Wan Ji said that using violence to force a wife to have sexual intercourse would be clearly criminal, with the former saying that the wife can call the police or a religious judge as it would be an offence in both the civil and Shariah legal systems.

Wan Ji said the use of actual violence would fall under the “qisas” system of Islamic offences that would allow retributive punishments, explaining that the threat to harm a wife would not be an offence but would be considered a sin as it could affect her emotions.

In Malaysia, marital rape is not a legal offence, but a husband may be prosecuted and imprisoned up to five years for forcing his wife to have sex by threatening violence or by harming her.

Following the launch of DAP lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin’s joint rape awareness campaign with the All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) last week, some Muslims have disagreed with a poster that said “Without her consent, it is rape. No excuse” and claimed that rape does not exist in the context of Islamic marriage.

Pakistan's religious body endorses underage marriage

PTI | May 22, 2014

ISLAMABAD: In a retrogressive step, a religious body in Pakistan has declared girls as young as nine years old eligible to be married "if the signs of puberty were visible", a media report said today.

Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said after a meeting yesterday that media and 'some other segments of society' were not taking the council's decisions seriously.

He said laws that defined a minimum age for marriage were not Islamic and should be repealed, adding that the council would recommend that the Parliament amend these laws to bring them in accordance with Islamic principles, Dawn news reported.

He also criticised the Sindh Assembly which last month passed Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Bill, banning underage marriages.

The CII chief said marriages that were solemnised at a time when both individuals were minors were only binding if they were arranged by the 'wali' (father or grandfather) of the two individuals.

In cases where marriages were solemnised by someone other than the 'wali', both individuals had the option to refuse or reconsider the match upon achieving adulthood.

Clarifying the decision, Sheerani said that a 'nikah' could be performed at any age, but the bride could only start living with the groom after reaching puberty, the report said.

The CII chief also said that most of the clauses of the existing Muslim Marriage Law, 1961 were un-Islamic.

He said that section 6 of the law, which required men to seek permission from their wives before entering into another marriage, was not in accordance with Islamic principles.

Civil society took strong exception to the statement.

"Women and children are the most vulnerable groups in the country. If such legal cover as a minimum age prohibiting child marriages are done away with, then exploitation of women and children will increase," human rights commission of Pakistan chairperson Zohra Yousuf said.

Afghan parliament upholds right to marry children

By Cheryl K. Chumley

The Washington Times

Monday, June 10, 2013

Afghanistan's parliament has rejected a measure that would have barred men from marrying girls younger than 16, saying the proposal ran counter to Islamic ideology.

The measure also would have banned “baad, [the] traditional practice of buying or selling women to settle disputes,” and outlawed criminal charges being imposed on rape victims, Breitbart reported. Rape victims in Afghanistan often are charged with fornication or adultery.

President Hamid Karzai reportedly supported the measures, but opponents said they “violate[d] Islamic principles,” Breitbart reported.

The failure of parliament to act in accordance with Mr. Karzai highlights a deep rift among the nation’s politicians. And it comes at a time when elections are set for April 2014 for a new president.

There is “a rift between conservative and more secular members of the community,” Sky News reported.

Teenager exposes India's 'one month wives' sex tourism

A 17-year-old girl has exposed the scale of Islamic sex tourism in India where Muslim men from the Middle East and Africa are buying 'one month wives' for sex.

By Dean Nelson, Hyderabad

5:19PM BST 14 Apr 2013

Campaigners for Muslim women's rights said while short term 'contract marriages' are illegal in India and forbidden in Islam, they are increasing in Hyderabad, in southern India, where wealthy foreigners, local agents and 'Qazis' “government-appointed Muslim priests” are exploiting poverty among the city's Muslim families.

The victim, Nausheen Tobassum, revealed the scale of the problem when she escaped from her home last month after her parents pressurised her to consummate a forced marriage to a middle aged Sudanese man who had paid around £1,200 for her to be his 'wife' for four weeks.

She told police she had been taken by her aunt to a hotel where she and three other teenage girls were introduced to a Sudanese oil company executive. The 'groom', Usama Ibrahim Mohammed, 44 and married with two children in Khartoum, later arrived at her home where a Qazi performed a wedding ceremony.

According to Inspector Vijay Kumar he had paid 100,000 Rupees (around £1,200) to the girl's aunt Mumtaz Begum, who in turn paid 70,000 Rupees to her parents, 5,000 Rupees to the Qazi, 5,000 Rupees to an Urdu translator and kept 20,000 Rupees herself. The wedding certificate came with a 'Talaknama' which fixed the terms of the divorce at the end of the groom's holiday.

"The next day he came to the house of the victim girl and asked her to participate in sex but she refused. She is a young girl and the groom is older than her father," Inspector Kumar told The Telegraph.

Her parents reassured him they would persuade their daughter and told her she would be punished if she did not. Instead she ran out of their tiny one room home in Hyderabad's Moghulpuri neighbourhood and was rescued by a police patrol. The police arrested the groom, the victim's aunt and the Qazi, and issued a warrant for her parents' arrest. Nausheen is a minor under Indian law and cannot marry until she reaches 18. Her parents are now in hiding but will be charged with arranging a child marriage, 'outraging the modesty' of a woman, and criminal conspiracy.

Inspector Kumar said there are dozens of illegal short term contract marriages in the city, and that the Sudanese man they arrested had come to Hyderabad after a friend in Khartoum told him he had taken a '40 day wife' during an earlier visit.

"If a Sudanese wants to have sex, he has to pay three times more [in Sudan] because there are far fewer girls there, or he takes a second wife. In India the girls are coming for a cheaper rate and they are beautiful. Even if they are only staying for a few days they are doing this kind of illegal marriages for sex," he said.

He said the visitors want to marry because they believe prostitution is forbidden under Islam. Poor families agree to contract marriages because they have many daughters and cannot afford to pay for all their weddings.

Instead, they have a series of one-month contract 'marriages' to fund their own genuine wedding.

Shiraz Amina Khan of Hyderabad's Women and Child Welfare Society, said there were up to 15 'contract marriages' in the city every month and that the number is rising.

"They come to Hyderabad because it has maximum downtrodden families. Thirty to forty per cent of families are going for the option of contract marriages to relieve their poverty. It has to be stopped," she said.

Nausheen Tobassum, who is now living in a government home for girls said in an interview before she was placed in care, that she had filed a complaint to stop the same thing happening to other girls.

"I didn't know what was happening and I agreed in ignorance. They forced me. They changed my date of birth certificate and made a fake one, where I was shown as 24 years old. They exploit girls and that's why I went to police. I had to show courage to go to police against my parents. I don't want to go back to my home, I am scared," she said.

Nearly half Saudi women are beaten at home

Study shows desert people are less violent that other Saudi men

By Emirates Staff

Published Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Nearly half Saudi women are beaten up by their husbands or other family members at home and many of them are hit by sticks and head cover, according to a university study published in local newspapers on Tuesday.

Surprisingly, the study found that the Bedouin men who still dwell the desert in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, are less violent than Saudi men in urban areas.

The study was conducted by Dr Lateefa Abdul Lateef, a social science professor at King Saud University in the Capital Riyadh. It involved female students at the university and some Saudi women covered by the government’s social security.

“The study showed that nearly half those covered by social security and more than a third of the female students at the university are beaten up at home,” Dr Lateefa said, quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily Almadina.

“Husbands were found to be beating their wives more than others”. They are followed by fathers, then brothers then sons with hands and sticks were found to be used mostly in beating women, following by men’s head cover and to a lesser extent, sharp objects.

The study showed that husbands beating their wives included both educated and non-educated men and that “those dwelling in the desert are less violent with their wives than those living in cities or villages.”

The study found that the main reasons for violence against women include poor religious motives, drug addiction and alcoholism, arrogance and a tendency to control, psychological problems, poverty, and unemployment.

Man who divorced his child bride by TEXT MESSAGE could be sacked in Indonesia - as Twitter backlash also claims judge who joked women 'enjoy rape'

The fact both could be fired shows attitudes to women's rights are changing

Government official Aceng Fikri left his wife four days after their wedding

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issues a rare public condemnation

The marriage had sparked outrage and was greeted with angry protests

Judge Muhammad Sunusi joked about rape at supreme court job interview

Judicial commission has recommended he is fired from his high court job

By ALEX GORE

PUBLISHED: 04:46 EST, 18 February 2013

A government official who sparked outrage by marrying a child bride could be sacked after divorcing her by text message four days into their marriage.

Aceng Fikri, 40, chief of Garut district in West Java province, Indonesia, was already married with two children when he wed the young girl.

In another case that highlights attitudes towards women's rights in the Southeast Asian country, a judge joked during a supreme court job interview that women might enjoying being raped.

But both officials are now at risk of losing their jobs, which has been seen as a small step forward by campaigners.

The supreme court has recommended the president dismiss Fikri for violating the marriage law, and police are investigating the case because it involves a minor.

The country's judicial commission has also called for Judge Muhammad Daming Sunusiat to be sacked for his comments about rape.

Unregistered polygamous marriages, such as Fikri's, are common in the archipelago. Although divorce by text message is rare, it is allowed under Islamic sharia law.

His ex-wife Fani Oktarahas, who was the legal age of 16 when she married him, denied his claims that she was not a virgin.

A photo of the wedding last summer was posted on the internet and caused a public outcry in the local media and on Twitter, blogs and Facebook.

Thousands of people took to the streets in December to protest, with student and women's rights activists demanding he resign.

Protesters trampled and spat on photos of his face before setting them ablaze outside the council building in Garut.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono responded by issuing a rare public condemnation of the 40-year-old official and his illegal marriage.

There has also been anger last month over the comments made by Judge Muhammad Daming Sunusiat at a parliamentary selection panel for a supreme court position.

He said it could be a mistake to impose the death penalty for rape because both the attacker and the victim 'might have enjoyed' it.

The remark reportedly drew laughter from panel members. Sunusi later apologised and said he had been joking.

Not only was Sunusi rejected for the job, but the country's Judicial Commission recommended that he be dismissed from his position on the South Sumatra high court.

But the supreme court would have to agree, and it has said such punishment would be too severe because he made the remark in an interview, not during a trial.

Husein Muhammad,of the commission on violence against women, said: 'Enough is enough!

'Our officials should no longer mess around and issue ridiculous statements even as a dumb joke.'

Women in the social-media-obsessed country have been rallying, online and on the streets, against sexists comments and attacks on women for some time.

The movement in a country of 240 million people, most of whom practice a moderate form of Islam, appears to be having some impact on the largely secular government.

Husein Muhammad added: 'We are living in a different era now. Now we have supporting laws and social media to bring severe consequences and social sanctions.'

But rights groups argue the country remains far behind on many issues involving gender equality and violence. Rape cases often are not properly investigated, and victims are sometimes blamed.

In 2011, after a woman was gang raped on a minibus, then-Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo drew protests after warning women not to wear miniskirts on public transportation because it could arouse male passengers. Bowo lost his re-election bid last year.

A sex-trafficking case involving a 14-year-old girl prompted education minister Mohammad Nuh to say last year that not all girls who report such crimes are victims.

He said: 'They do it for fun, and then the girl alleges that it's rape.'

His response to the criticism he received was that it's difficult to prove whether sexual assault allegations are 'real rapes.'

Growing concern in Indonesia over women's rights reflects that in India, where a brutal and deadly New Delhi gang rape in December has drawn nationwide protests and demands for change. That case also resonated in Indonesia.

'Let's imagine the suffering of women who are treated badly by their husbands and the rape victims. What if it happened to our own families?' said Ellin Rozana, a women's rights activist in Bandung, capital of West Java province.

'We need government officials who will be on the front line to protect women, and judges who can see that violence against women is a serious crime.'

In the West Java official's case, it was the text-message divorce that prompted outrage more than his unregistered second marriage, though such weddings raise issues about women's rights.

They are regularly performed for Indonesians ranging from poor rice farmers to celebrities, politicians and Muslim clerics.

Polygamy remains common in many Muslim countries, based on Islamic teachings that allow men to take up to four wives.

In Indonesia, men are allowed to marry a second wife only after the first gives her blessing. Since most women refuse to agree to share their husbands, unregistered ceremonies, or 'nikah siri,' are often secretly carried out by an Islamic cleric outside the law.

Some of the marriages are simply a cover for prostitution. A cleric is paid to conduct 'contract marriages' as short as one night in some parts of Indonesia, usually for Middle Eastern tourists.

Practices differ slightly elsewhere, with men in places such as Malaysia sometimes marrying outside the country to avoid informing existing spouses and seeking permission from an Islamic court.

Ceremonies in Iraq are often held in secret for the same reason. No approval is needed in the Palestinian territories, but contract marriages are banned.

Without a marriage certificate, wives lack legal rights. Children from the marriage are often considered illegitimate and are typically not issued birth certificates, creating a lifetime of obstacles ranging from attending schools to getting a passport.

However, in another sign of Indonesia's changing attitudes, the supreme court this month ordered all judges to obey an earlier constitutional court ruling granting rights such as inheritance to children born out of wedlock, and to punish fathers who neglect them.

The women's commission on violence is now pushing for a revision of Indonesia's 1974 marriage law to grant more protections to women and children.

'I hope Indonesian women can take a lesson from Fikri's case,' said Ninik Rahayu of the commission.

'At least it has awakened their awareness to not marry in an illegal way.'

Muslim Forced Marriages in Spain

by Soeren Kern 

August 14, 2012

Police in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia have intervened to prevent the forced marriage of a 13-year-old girl belonging to a Muslim immigrant family from Morocco.

The girl was one of nine reported victims of forced marriage in Catalonia during the first six months of 2012. Seven of the reported cases involved minors, but in several instances when police were alerted, they were unable to intervene in time to prevent the marriages from taking place.

Catalan police, known locally as Mossos d'Esquadra, have reported a cumulative total of more than 50 forced marriages involving minors since the regional government began compiling official data in 2009. Police, however, say this figure represents only "the tip of the iceberg"; many victims are unaware of their rights and most of the cases go unreported.

The issue of forced marriage is especially acute in Catalonia, where the Muslim population has skyrocketed in recent years. Catalonia, a region with 7.5 million inhabitants, is now home to an estimated 400,000 Muslims, up from 30,000 in the 1980s.

The Muslim population in many Catalan towns and cities now exceeds 20%; and the town of Salt, near Barcelona, where Muslim immigrants now make up 40% of the population, has been dubbed the "new Mecca of the most radical Islamism" because of efforts by Muslims to enforce Islamic Sharia law there.

According to Catalan officials, the majority of forced marriages in Catalonia involve Muslim girls from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. The majority of the cases involve immigrants from Morocco, followed by Pakistan, Gambia, Guinea and Senegal. Marriages are often arranged with a cousin or another family member to continue the tradition, to prevent the Europeanization of the girls, or to pay outstanding debts.

According to Catalan police, four of the cases of forced marriages during the first six months of 2012 occurred in the Catalan province of Gerona, one of the most heavily Islamized regions of Spain. Police say they were able to prevent only two of the four weddings. Three of the others occurred in the city of Barcelona, and two were within the province of Barcelona. All nine involved Muslim immigrants.

Children, on their own initiative, have even approached the police for help. The situation involving the 13-year-old girl, for example, began in January 2012, when the girl's mother, with whom the child had been living in Gerona, died, and the father, who was residing in neighboring France, took the girl to live with him in Toulouse.

Once in France, the girl discovered that her father was planning to marry her off to a man in Morocco in early July. The girl alerted police in Toulouse, who transmitted the information to the Spanish consulate in the city. Spanish authorities then devised a scheme in which the girl persuaded her father to take her to Gerona on the pretext of completing some official paperwork. Once across the border in Spain, police arrested the father, and the girl was transferred to a foster home in Gerona.

As forced marriage is not an offense under the Spanish Criminal Code, police have been trying to use other legal avenues such as pursuing crimes involving sexual assault, unlawful detention, gender violence and kidnapping. In the instance of the 13-year-old, police determined that the girl was being subjected to physical violence, and arrested the father for child abuse. But as is often happens in Spain, the judge overseeing the case ordered the father to be released from jail.

Many reports of forced marriages of children reach police through schools: victims often confide in a trusted teacher. In one such case in 2011, police in the Barcelona suburb of L'Hospitalet arrested a 27 year old Moroccan man for forcibly marrying a minor.

The case came to public attention after a former teacher of the girl, who lives in the same apartment complex as she, alerted the police. A subsequent investigation found that the girl's family had taken a trip to Morocco where the child was forced to marry against her will. Once back in Spain, the girl contacted the teacher, who then called the police.

Investigators found that the girl was being detained in her new husband's apartment against her will and that she was a victim of rape. Once again, the judge hearing the case ordered the husband released from jail.

In another case, a young Pakistani girl subjected to forced marriage escaped from her husband and wandered alone on the streets of Barcelona for ten days until gathering the courage to report her situation to the police.

In some cases, the trigger for forced marriage comes when young women from Muslim immigrant families find a boyfriend in Spain and angry parents intervene. A 17-year-old girl in Gerona, for instance, was coaxed by her family to travel to her native country for a family reunion. Once there, she was forced to marry her cousin. Although she resisted because she had a boyfriend in Gerona, she relented when her family threatened to prevent her from returning to Spain if she refused to sign the marriage certificate.

Catalan police say they prevented 21 forced marriages in 2011, 13 of which involved minors; 15 forced marriages in 2010, and 13 in 2009. They also say that in 2011, they prevented the genital mutilation of 36 girls aged between two years to 12. Most of the cases (27) occurred in the province of Barcelona, eight in Gerona and one in Lérida. In 2010, Catalan police prevented the genital mutilation of 28 girls, and in 2009, 55 genital mutilations. Catalonia accounts for 80% of the girls in Spain who are at risk of genital mutilation.

Local police say that many Muslim girls in Catalonia live in fear of the so-called family reunion in disguise and that they often speak of friends who left Spain, but never returned.

Soeren Kern is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.

Sordid trade in the 'summer brides'

Arab tourists are 'buying underage Egyptian sex slaves' to serve them for just a few months'

Poor families paid a 'dowry for the temporary marriages

Young victims suffer sexual slavery and forced to be servants

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 04:10 EST, 15 July 2012

Wealthy tourists from the Persian Gulf are paying to marry under-age Egyptian girls just for the summer, according to a report.

These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The tourists pay a 'dowry' to poor families through intermediaries with prices ranging from £320 to £3,200.

The young victims - some under 18 - suffer sexual slavery and are forced to be servants to their 'husbands', claims the U.S. State Department report 'Trafficking in Persons'.

No foreigner can marry an Egyptian girl if there is an age difference of 10 years, according to state laws. But parents and marriage brokers are getting round the restriction.

They will forge birth certificates to make the girls appear older and the men younger. In 2009, a court in Alexandria jailed two registrars for conducting temporary marriages of hundreds of girls under 18.

Sex before marriage is banned under Islamic law and most hotels and landlords demand proof before allowing a couple to share the same room.

But the report found that many parents will marry their daughter without her consent and often the girls agree to the arrangement because their families have no money.

Some of the victims are taken back to their husband's country to work as maids while those left in Egypt are shunned by the conservative society - particularly if they have children during their temporary marriage.

The shame leads many of the girls to dump these youngsters in orphanages or abandon them with thousands of other Egyptian street children.Many of these 'brides' are also targeted by Egyptian men and forced into prostitution.

Dr Hoda Badran, who chairs the NGO Alliance for Arab Women, told the Sunday Independent that she believed poverty was the major cause of the trade.

She said:'If those families are in such a need to sell their daughters you can imagine how poor they are. Many times, the girl does not know she is marrying the husband just for the short term.

'She is young, she accepts what her family tells her, she knows the man is going to help them. If the girl is very poor, sometimes it is the only way out to help the family survive.'

Islamic book on how to beat wives irks UK

Mar 26, 2012

The Times of India

LONDON: An Islamic marriage guide advising men on 'the best ways' to beat their wives has sparked outrage in Britain, especially among moderate Muslims who say that it encourages domestic violence.

The book - 'A Gift For Muslim Couple' - tells husbands that they should beat their wives with "hand or stick or pull her by the ears", the Daily Mail reported.

Authored by Maulavi Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who is understood to be a prominent Islamic scholar, the 160-page book claims to be a "presentation for newlyweds" or couples who have been together for some years.

"The book... deals with the subject of marriage and after marriage relationship, as well as the various pitfalls of marriage, causes of breakdown and their causes," reads the book's blurb.

The book, however, also states that a husband should treat the wife "with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes".

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