“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
Muslims take this seriously and imitate Muhammad in this. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine: “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”
The Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.”
The Qur’an also allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures “shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated” (65:4).
Thus this news should come as no surprise to anyone — except those who have bought the deceptive line of Islamic supremacists in the West, that Aisha was actually nineteen, etc.
“Activists slam marriage of 12-year-old in Malaysia,” from AFP, November 23 (thanks to Lachlan):
KUALA LUMPUR “” Malaysian activists on Friday slammed the wedding of a 12-year-old to her 19-year-old boyfriend, renewing their calls for the government to outlaw child marriages.
Nur Fazira Saad and Fahmi Alias married last week in northern Kedah state after the girl’s father agreed to the union and an Islamic court granted permission, The Star daily reported.
“It is better for them to get married rather than doing something improper,” Saad Mustafa, the girl’s father, was quoted as saying.
But Ratna Osman, executive director of activist group Sisters in Islam, described the young couple’s marriage as “shocking”.
“I don’t understand why this is allowed in a country like Malaysia… We are talking about a developed country,” she told AFP. “The concern is that this is a child being married off… No parents should be doing this.”
Child marriages are not uncommon in the conservative Southeast Asian country, where 60 percent of the population of 29 million people are Muslim.
Two years ago, the marriage of a 14-year-old Muslim girl to a 23-year-old schoolteacher triggered similar calls for reform.
Girls below the age of 16 must obtain the permission of Islamic courts, which regulate civil matters for Muslims. But activists say such permission is too readily granted.
There was another outcry in October when two men, aged 19 and 22, were released on probation after courts convicted them of statutory rape.
In both cases the girls, aged 12 and 13, had not been forced, lawyers said….
Oh, well, then!