Xanthippa's Chamberpot

In Part 1 of ‘Marriage under Sharia’, I explained the types of marriages which Sharia (Islamic law) permits: Nikah (‘permanent’ marriage), Nikah Mut’ah (temporary marriage) and Nikah Misyar (traveler’s marriage).  I also explained the Mahr – the ‘marriage present’ or ‘bride price’ which is paid by the groom at the time of the marriage.

Here, I would like to look at who is and is not eligible to enter into a marriage contract well as the rules of divorce under Sharia.

3.  Islamic Divorce (Koran, Chapter 65)

In Islam, divorce is not considered sinful, as it is in some forms of Christianity.  To the contrary, it is perfectly acceptable and there are very specific rules under Sharia which regulate it:  both the husband and the wife (through her guardian) can request a divorce.

In practice, it is much easier for the husband to obtain divorce than it is for the wife, as in some schools of Sharia, women are sometimes not allowed to address the court (and thus request divorce) without her husband accompanying her there.  Other times, women may be allowed to go to court, but a a male relative intervene on their behalf or the divorce will not be granted against the husband’s wishes (this may be difficult, as in many cases, the husband is in full control of whom the wife may or may not contact – including her relatives).  There are even cases where young married women are told they are too young to request a divorce:  to come back when they ‘reach maturity’!

The wife must observe a ‘waiting period’ (iddah) of three menstrual cycles following the divorce, to see if pregnancy resulted from the marriage.  (The ‘waiting period’ for a widow is 3 lunar months and 10 days.)

Special Case 1:  Pregnancy

If the marriage resulted in pregnancy, the husband must support the wife for the duration of the pregnancy.  Once the child is born, it is the father’s choice to either take custody of the infant right away, or to continue to support the mother (ex wife) while she nurses the child.  Once the child is weaned (or a specific time period set by the father is up), the child will be handed over to the father and his obligations toward the mother will end.  (This will also end any claim – legal (guardianship) or moral – that the mother has towards the child, including visitation rights.)

Special Case 2:  Infertile wives

There is a special provision in Koran for divorce from women who are not fertile, because they are either too old or too young to have their ‘monthly courses’.  Their ‘waiting period’ cannot  be ‘three monthly courses’ – because they do not have them.  Therefore, their ‘waiting period) is set at 3 months.

Special Case 3:  Unconsummated Marriage

If the marriage has never been consummated (and this ‘consummation’ is up to the will of the husband – he has up to 1 lunar year to ‘consummate’ the marriage from the date of the marriage contract), the ‘waiting period’ following divorce is cut down to 1 lunar month.

4.  Who may marry whom

There are very, very specific rules over who is – and who is not – allowed to marry whom.

A man may marry any female except those who are

• direct blood relatives:  mother, sister or daughter
• direct ‘nursing’ relative:  his wet-nurse (she is considered to be his ‘milk mother’)
• a female child who is a direct blood relative of his ‘milk mother’ (that is, anyone a woman who was nursed by his ‘milk mother’
• a female who is a ‘milk mother’ relative of (was nursed by) his wives or his mother
• not ‘of the book’ – that is, not Muslim, Christian or Jewish  (all children resulting from this marriage MUST be Muslim) – this prohibition does not apply to female slaves.

In addition, a woman may never marry any man who is not a Muslim, because it is not permissible for a non-Muslim to be the ‘superior to’/’in the position of power over’ (in business, politics – or marriage, where the husband is the superior of the wife) a Muslim.

A man may re-marry his ex-wife, provided she had been married to another man in between the marriages to him.

In order to get married, the terms of the marriage must be negotiated by the groom and the bride’s guardian.  The bride must then formally consent to the marriage – silence is considered to be ‘consent’.  In practice, this ‘consent’ is often forced by threats – and if the bride refuses, the alternative is ‘honour killing’ or the ‘ever-growing-in-popularity’ honour suicide!

Islam does NOT set any age limits on the age of the bride or groom.

However, the Koran states that onlywomen are to be veiled:  men and children (including female children, before they are ‘ready for marriage’).  It is up to the father to decide when his daughter is ready for marriage.  When he judges that she is available for an Islamic marriage, he signals that fact to the community by having her wear the veil (hijab)  in public.

(If you take nothing else away from this post, please, understand this: when we see little girls, as young as 7 or 8, wearing hijabs to school, we are allowing their fathers to advertize that they are actively seeking a suitor for their daughters!)

There are many Islamic experts who assert that it is ‘not recommended’ that a female should ‘reach her first course [of menstruation] in her father’s house’, but rather that she should do so in her husband’s house!

There is no limit on how young a female should be upon marriage:  the Ayatollah Khomeini unequivocally stated that a man may ‘enjoy’ a girl – a suckling –  as young as 1 day old – he just should not ‘penetrate’ her ‘right away’…

Here is a YouTube video of an Islamic expert, being interviewed on the topic of Islamic marriage with ‘underage girls’:

What is more – Islam dictates that in order to live a righteous life, men must emulate the actions of Prophet Muhammad.  He is well documented to have married his ‘only virgin wife’, Aisha, when she was 6 years old, and he consumated the marriage when she was 8 years old (sometimes reported as 9:  this discrepancy is due to the use of Lunar callendar to measure age in Islam – as Allah is the name of the Arabic Lunar God, not the Arabic word for ‘God’ as it is often stated to – and the lunar and solar years do not line up perfectly).

Therefore, it is ‘pious’ for Muslim men to marry females who are as young as Aisha was when Muhammad consumated his marriage with her:  8 or 9 years old!  And, a Muslim woman must submit to her husband’s sexual desires and preferences at his whim:  there is no option for her to say ‘no’ to anything her husband may desire.

The Prophet Muhammad is even reported to advise one of his friends that it is better to marry a child-bride, rather than a grown woman, so he can ‘have sport with her’…

I suspect I have left out a lot that really ought to be said…but, it is a beginning at bringing about an understanding of what Marriage under Sharia truly means!

Sometimes, it takes us a while to recognize things for what they are.

For example, when Britain adopted Sharia as a parallel, not state-controlled legal system, the publicity spin on the whole thing was – to some people – palatable.

Not to me – I consider it a matter of principle that a government must exercise control over its judiciary, just as the judiciary must exercise control over the government:  the two are parts of the ‘checks and balances’ of our legal system.  Therefore, I consider any legal system parallel t0 – yet independant – of the government and its judiciary to be a serious breech of our governance structures, and therefore unacceptable.  It is a threat to the very foundations of the way we govern ourselves!

Nor can I ever accept the principle that there ought to be different classes of citizens, with different sets of laws for each class.  To me, that very concept is highly repellent!  No longer are citizens equal to each other in the eyes of the law – they no longer even share the same law…  NO!  A person’s a person, no matter how small!  (or of which religion…)

These are two very powerful reasons why I could never support a judicial apartheid:  whatever form it may take!

These two reasons alone would make any parallel legal system 100% unacceptable to me – no matter how good they might be.   Yet, my rant  has not even touched on what I find unacceptable about Sharia…

Yet, the outrage many of us expresses at Britain’s official acceptance of Sharia as the legal system for its Muslim citizens was shrugged off by much of the MSM who assured us that Sharia was just a traditional way of doing things, that it really was a question of cultural preference, and that Muslims in Britain want it anyways, so we ought to butt out and shut up.

It’s not really all that long ago that Ontario’s Premier, Dalton McGuinty (his name – and track record – always makes me think of ‘bodymaster McGuinty’ from ‘The Valley of Fear’), almost instituted Sharia in Ontario.  And, before he considered it, he had commissioned a study, to make sure that Sharia would not be harmful to any Ontarians.  Marion Boyd, a lifelong feminist (as well as an environmentalists) and former NDP member of provincial parliament, authored the study which found that Sharia law was just fine, and fully compatible with feminist principles…

And let’s not even mention France… Muslim feminists, like Wafa Sultan advise women who are attempting to escape from oppression under Sharia law not to go to France, as they would not be safe there.

And Barak Obama, the higly popular US President, had (August 2006) campaigned in Kenya for his kinsman, Raila Odinga, whose election platform included the imposition of Sharia!

It seems to me that we have rather normalized the idea that ‘Muslims want to live under Sharia’ and that it is not our place to interfere…

In the last few days, many of us (myself included) have sharply criticized the new proposed law in Afghanistan, which would strip women (among other things) of parental rights, the freedom of movement and would legalize marital rape.  This ‘new law’ would govern the Shi’a minority (about 20%) of the Afghani population.

Please, indulge me in a chain of logic here:

• The Shi’a minority in Afghanistan is ‘very conservative’ (some would say radicalized)
• This Shi’a minority recognizes Koran as the only authority on law
• This Koran-only-derived law is called – yes – Sharia
• Therefore, this law which advocates ‘marital rape’ and strips women of basic human rights is – Sharia!!!

Perhaps we ought to thank the Afghani President, Hamid Karzai, for actually spelling out in this new Afghani law exactly what Sharia truly means!

As the following video shows:  women’s rights must never be subject to a referendum: