Dawn reports that a meeting of The Council of Islamic Ideology in Islamabad on Tuesday ruled that the laws related to minimum age of marriage were un-Islamic and that children of any age could get married if they attain puberty.
At the conclusion of two day meeting, Chairman CII Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani noted that the laws related to marriage too were unfair and there cannot be any age of marriage.
However, he explained that there were two segments of marriage – nikah and ruksati, while nikah could be performed at any age.
“Even the minors can have nikah but that has to be executed by the guardians,” chairman CII said adding, “But ruksti could be executed only after attaining the age of puberty.”
He said that the age of puberty varies from individuals to individuals and it was the responsibility of guardians to have ruksati soon the child attains the age of puberty.
“The laws limiting the age for both the segments of marriage are unIslamic and needed to be rectified,” he added.
If I understand that correctly he’s saying that marriage is mandatory for everyone. I take that to be the meaning of “it was the responsibility of guardians to have ruksati [as] soon [as] the child attains the age of puberty.”
A world with no freedom for anyone. You’re either a child, subject to guardians, or an adult, married off. Independence and autonomy don’t exist.
The officials were asked if the international conventions signed by Pakistan related to child marriage would be violated after this ruling by CII.
Responding to the query the official said that the international conventions cannot be in contradiction to the constitution of the country or Islam and if they were, those particular clauses would not apply on Pakistan.
Right. None of your pesky international human rights treaties; get out of here with that shit.
The CII had on earlier day suggested the government to change Muslim marriage laws as it required Muslim male to seek permission from the previous wife or wives for another marriage.
Oh hell yes. You can’t have a Muslim male asking any wife or wives for permission for anything. That would be totally UnIslamic.
Yemen attempted to raise the marriage age for girls, but the motion was rejected. Iraq is now trying to get on the child-bride bandwagon as well
Shariah Law has provisions that acknowledge pre-pubescent wives:
Qur’an 65:1 O Prophet, when you [and the believers] divorce women, divorce them for their prescribed waiting-period and count the waiting period accurately . . . 4 And if you are in doubt about those of your women who have despaired of menstruation, (you should know that) their waiting period is three months, and the same applies to those who have not menstruated as yet. As for pregnant women, their period ends when they have delivered their burden.
How could there be a “wife” who can be “divorced” if she hasn’t yet had a single period?? This scenario is supposed to be illegal within Islam, we’re told, and yet, there are the rules for dealing with a prepubescent “wife”.
Numerous tafsirs and hadiths have clarified that this passage refers to “those who have not menstruated YET”, in the sense of having not yet reached menarche (the first menstruation period, which Muslims tell us is the sign that a female is ready for marriage yippee let the par-tay begin – for the guys).
“There is a third type of divorce, which is neither a Sunnah nor an innovation where one divorces A YOUNG WIFE WHO HAS NOT BEGUN TO HAVE MENSES…” – Ibn Kathir
“The same applies to the ‘idaah for girls who do not menstruate because they are too young, if their husbands divorce them after consummating the marriage with them.” – Tafseer al-Tabari
“Therefore, making mention of the waiting-period for girls who have not yet menstruated, clearly proves that it is not only permissible to give away the girl at this age but it is permissible for the husband to consummate marriage with her. Now, obviously no Muslim has the right to forbid a thing which the Qur’an has held as permissible.” – Abu-Ala’ Maududi
So it’s not that it’s just young girls who have already begun to menstruate that are being said to be fair game to marry; it’s that Muslim men want the freedom to marry small children and have sex with them before they have even begun to menstruate. Waiting 3 months is a mere technicality for a child who will not begin her menses for 6 or 7 more years, after all. Muhammed got child-bride Aisha’s father’s permission to marry her when she was only 6 and he consummated the marriage with her when she was just 9 years old (he was 52), and she had not yet begun to menstruate at that point. Thus, marrying pre-pubescent child brides is perfectly *FINE* in Islam, though actually a horrendous crime that any decent and proper legal system will punish harshly.
Blanche nicely demonstrates why we cannot limit our criticism of Islam to “Islamism.” The doctrinal misogyny of the religion is at its beating heart: the Quran and Mohammed.
Or maybe handing the inerrant revelation of the one true god to a sadistic serial rapist and warlord is some profound test of faith.
Personally I am going to say Mohammed is what in literature would be called an ‘unreliable narrator.’