Few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the 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).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
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 girl friends. 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 Allright, 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).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.
Marrying young girls was not all that unusual for its time, but because in Islam Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur’an 33:21), he is considered exemplary in this unto today. And so in April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light: “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge.” He added a threat: “Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.” The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage.
Likewise the influential website Islamonline.com in December 2010 justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:
The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur’an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur’an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.
Other countries make Muhammad’s example the basis of their laws regarding the legal marriageable age for girls. 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.”
Iran’s 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 to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.
And so this news item is no surprise, even in “secular Turkey” that is rapidly de-secularizing: “More than 500,000 child brides married in Turkey in the last decade,” by Meltem Özgenç for Hürriyet Daily News, March 8:
More than 500,000 girls under the age of 17 were married in the past 11 years in Turkey, according to Family and Social Policies Ministry data, which does not include unofficial marriages.
In the past 11 years, 504,957 girls between the ages of 16 and 17 got married in Turkey according to the official marriage data.
Girls between 16 and 18 can get married with their parents’ permission according to Turkish law. However, it is known that many underage girls are getting married with only a religious ceremony either if their age is younger than 16 or if official marriage is not common in the areas where they are living. The ministry said it would work against child marriages via schools, mosques, health centers and even by visiting people in their houses in places where the phenomenon is most common.
According to the ministry’s data, the number of girls between the ages of 16 and 17 who married officially was 37,263 in 2002, 45,981 in 2003, 49,280 in 2004, 44,919 in 2005, 50,366 in 2006, 50,720 in 2007, 49,203 in 2008, 47,859 in 2009, 45,738 in 2010, 42,700 in 2011 and 40,428 in 2012.
The ministry also said it had given safety buttons to women who were victims of violence in two pilot cities. In Adana, 73 women received safety buttons with a court decision, along with 53 women in Bursa. The ministry also said in the first two months of 2014, more than 3,000 women and children had stayed at shelters in different cities of Turkey.
This number was 12,648 in 2013, according to the ministry’s data.
Buraq says
Divine approval of pedophilia? Bizarre!
Clowns!
mariam rove says
this is exactly why Turkey should not be accepted into EU. M
eib says
Yes, yes, yes. Slam the door on Turkey. How dare the Turks pretend to be Westerners.
They are not!
sidney penny says
Turks regard themselves as Europeans.
I suppose they do this to distinguish themselves from Arabs and or other Muslims.
I suppose you could say they are cultured Muslims as opposed to non European Muslims.
One women said on TV during the last election said she did not support Erdogan ,current prime minister who is responsible for the rapidly de-secularizing state ,because she did not want Turkey to be like Iran.
Defcon 4 says
Tell that to the families of the victims of 26 people incinerated when two synagogues were blown up simultaneously, in Turkey, in the early 21st century and the perps let off w/sentences more appropriate to a misdemeanor than mass murder.
Salah says
Video
11-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Nada Al-Ahdal Flees Home to Avoid Forced Marriage
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2010/03/pedophile-muhammad-mahomet-le-pedophile.html
anonsos says
You didnt do any research at all regarding this video… If you did, then you wouldve found that this video is a fake concocted by her uncle ..
It seems that you will run with anything that puts Muslims in a bad light.. Believe anything on the net that says anything bad about the false prophet.. (Not that there’s anything good to say about him) He was a pedophile by every sense of the word.. But, using fake information to get your point across makes you no batter than a Muslim performing taqiyya…
Please, research the information next time before you begin to make yourself look like a deceiver and a liar..
gravenimage says
anonsos wrote:
It seems that you will run with anything that puts Muslims in a bad light…
……………………………
What absolute crap. This story was covered by many reputable news sources. It was only later that any doubt arouse as to any of the claims made in this specific case.
Meanwhile, forced child marriage is rife in the Muslim world.
And in Yemen itself, more than half the marriages are to underage girls, some as young as eight.
This, from the respected publication The Lancet:
“Child marriage in Yemen”
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62653-7/fulltext
There are many others. This phenomenon is *widely* documented.
Ralph says
ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on Tuesday ruled that Pakistani laws prohibiting marriage of underage children are un-Islamic.
At the end of its two-day session on Tuesday, the CII said that according to Islam there is no minimum age of marriage. Islam does not forbid marriage of young children, the council said. However, the rukhsati (consummation of marriage) is allowed only in the case that both husband and wife have reached puberty.
The CII’s ruling comes a day after its chairman, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani said laws regarding second marriage of a man in the presence of the first wife were against religious principles.
“Sharia allows men to have more than one wife and we demand that the government should amend the law,” he told reporters after a CII meeting.
The laws require a man to have written approval from his existing wife or wives for another marriage. Sheerani urged the government to formulate sharia-compliant laws related to nikah, divorce, adulthood and “will”. According to the constitution, the CII is a recommendatory body that advises parliament in the law-making process, but cannot enact laws on its own.
On Monday a meeting of the CII held under the chair of Maulana Sheerani discussed exhaustively the Islamic Family Laws 1961. The CII declared one section of the law un-Islamic under which a man is bound to seek explicit approval from his first wife for second marriage. “Under shariah a man is not bound to seek approval for second marriage from the first wife,” declared Maulana Sherani.
bikeboy says
This is just sick. A how can feminists stand by this?
AZ says
Only a roaring silence is to be heard from feminists regarding islam…..
Mirren10 says
”More than 500,000 girls under the age of 17 were married in the past 11 years in Turkey, according to Family and Social Policies Ministry data, ** which does not include unofficial marriages.** (my emphasis: Mirren)
In the past 11 years, 504,957 girls between the ages of 16 and 17 got married in Turkey according to the official marriage data.”
If that’s the ”official marriage data”, how many ”unofficial marriages” are there ? And how old are the children who are married ‘unofficially ?
10, 9, 8 … ?
Wellington says
No person at any time in history who, when in his fifties, marries a six-year old girl and then consummates the marriage when she is nine (perhaps only eight when the Muslim calendar is taken into consideration) has any business founding a world religion. No exceptions. On this basis alone Mohammed is execrable, made all the more so because deluded Mo followers look upon him as the Model Man FOR ALL TIME.
Mirren10 says
”No person at any time in history who, when in his fifties, marries a six-year old girl and then consummates the marriage when she is nine (perhaps only eight when the Muslim calendar is taken into consideration) has any business founding a world religion”.
**Absolutely**.
It never ceases to horrify and amaze me that many civilised people in the West tie themselves into corkscrews, trying to gloss over this horror, and try to put some kind of positive ‘spin’ on it. I experienced this myself, before I retired, and was teaching RE ( religious education) in secondary school. I well remember having an argument in the staffroom with several pc/mc idiots, who tried to argue that it was ‘cultural’, and children in medieval England were married at even earlier ages, blah, blah, blah.
I asked them what they would do if they knew a child in primary school ( about 9 to 10), in this country, in **this** year, had been taken out of school and flown to Pakistan/Yemen/Somalia ( any Islamic hellhole of your choice) in order to be ‘married’ (ie: **raped**) by a 54 year old man. Of course, they argued that was entirely** different**, one must take into account cultural mores in 7th century Arabia, etc, etc.
I was so sickened by this weaselly claptrap. I asked them if a child’s sexual abuse and suffering didn’t count because it happened a long time ago, ”but answer came there none”.
Every time I read this hadith, my heart breaks for that poor child;
”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”
And why did she ”get ill”, and why did her hair fall down ? I would bet a hundred quid, it was because she was **already** being sexually abused by the vile mohammed, and her parents were **complicit** in the abuse.
”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 girl friends. 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 Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. ”
The poor little thing was ”breathless” because she was terrified; no doubt she had already experienced the repulsive mohammed’s attentions in the form of ”thighing”, and other revolting ‘caresses’ which stopped short of full penetration.
And the evil, putrid **mother** washed that terrified child in preparation for the final abomination.
” 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).”
Sick, evil bitches.
” 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. ** ( my emphasis: Mirren ) (Bukhari 5.58.234).
The ultimate betrayal of an innocent little girl.
And this is the man millions of mohammedans revere as the ”perfect man”, and they have based their entire foul cult on this abomination of a human being.
Do you remember, Wellington, an article posted by Mr Spencer, a few years ago, entitled ”Really, really wishing Aisha wasn’t nine” ? In some ways it was quite funny, but the horror was the number of mohammedan apologists who tried to justify the whole vile scenario.
As you say, what we have here is a paedophile rapist who is revered by a billion mohammedans world wide, who, if he existed, founded a ‘religion’ and raped and abused a little child.
And the mohammedan equivalencers **dare** to attempt to excuse this.
Brian C. Hoff says
There where cases in the Dark Age and Middle age of 11 year old girls being marry to old men. 11 year old girls where consider adult back then.
Buraq says
(@ B Hoff)
You said that it was OK to marry an 11 year old during the Middle Ages. Yes. But why is it not legal or morally acceptable now? Because we in the Dar al-Harb have developed and progressed and realize that such a thing is immoral, abhorrent and unacceptable.
Islam is still in the Middle Ages. Why?
You’re a clown!
gravenimage says
“Brian C. Hoff” wrote:
There where cases in the Dark Age and Middle age of 11 year old girls being marry to old men. 11 year old girls where consider adult back then.
……………………………….
Only a pious Mohammedan would consider the mores of the *dark ages* to be a model for all time. *Ugh*.
sunshineinjuly says
@Mirren….fantastic summation of this wildly insane reality of a neanderthalish mindset still prevalent today. I taught at an all boy school ages 14- 18..muslim turk boys. They told me the story of Muhammed and his marriage to Aisha at six…when I looked horrified at that, the immediately thought they were putting my mind at ease by telling me, “Oh, don’t worry he didn’t have sex with her for 3 years”. To which I said, ‘oh how lucky is that…to live with an older father figure as his daughter for 3 years before he sticks it to you. Sadly these kids due to their sick religion didn’t even understand what I was trying to tell them, that such a mindset is so wrong in so many ways. Disgusting to say the least, but these are the very people who plan on taking over the west and US in time…they see us as a sinful peoples who need the purity and holiness of their religion….their queeran is from my standpoint a creed for queers…no mention of loving women, but lots of references on pump/dump with goats, sheep and poor little boys…sick.
Defcon 4 says
Kinda explains why Turkey is the sexual slavery capital of Europe/Eurabia and the only people punished are the slave girls, because for some reason the Turkish muslime pimps and slavers never seem to face any justice.
gravenimage says
Mirren, here are my illustrations of just the Hadith you cite:
http://s478.photobucket.com/user/gravenimageartist/media/JWswing.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3&_suid=139466841368402704636442940682
The only artistic liberty I took was depicting Muhammed by the swing.
And here is poor little Aisha’s “wedding night” (Caution! Graphic Image):
http://s478.photobucket.com/user/gravenimageartist/media/AishasWedding-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0&_suid=13946685412450012147177010774612
Champ says
True, Wellington, and sex with a child is such a perverse crime for any man to commit; especially for one claiming to be a “prophet” from God. Right! He was a devil prophet from hell and beyond …
voegelinian says
This pedophiliac rapist (and thief, torturer, enslaver and mass-murderer) is honored with a place on a frieze in the U.S. Supreme Court rotunda among noble and honorable men of history like Charlemagne and Justinian: a symbol emblematic not of Mohammed’s greatness, but of our colossal folly.
Henry says
There are just so many grievous offenses against morality inherent in Islam that it boggles the mind to know that it’s survived as a ‘religion’ for more than 1400 years.
AZ says
That is because islam gives power only to men.
Now show me a man that does not want power….
Plus, where are the feminists in this?
Total silence from their camp !!!
RodSerling says
While I agree that girls getting married at ages 16 or 17 is too young, this is not very damning evidence against Islam, when there are many modern countries including Western countries, that have lower age limits for marriage set at between 16 and 18.
More damning is probably the evidence that the Turkish authorities or media don’t present but only allude to here (my emphasis):
“…it is known that many underage girls are getting married with only a religious ceremony either if their age is younger than 16 or if official marriage is not common in the areas where they are living. The ministry said it would work against child marriages via schools, mosques, health centers and even by visiting people in their houses in places where the phenomenon is most common.”
Wellington says
Huge difference between 16 and 17 year old brides and 6-13 year old brides. Please, spare me the equivocalism.
And, if portions of the West still err in this matter (e.g., with allowance for a 16 year old girl to marry), the Islamic world errs far more grievously. Besides, any error here in the West doesn’t come with a religious mandate backed up by threats of bodily harm or death for opposing such mandates. In short, Western laws can ordinarily be changed without intimidation, contra what goes on in the Islamic world. Really, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for venturing forth, as you have, that there is ANY real comparison between the West and the Least (the Isalmic sphere).
RodSerling says
Wellington,
It’s amazing how you just came up with all of those absurd allegations and aspersions based on my comment.
“Huge difference between 16 and 17 year old brides and 6-13 year old brides. Please, spare me the equivocalism.”
I’m not sure if I understand your claim here. You think marrying a 17-year-old is as bad as marrying a 6-year-old?!
“And, if portions of the West still err in this matter (e.g., with allowance for a 16 year old girl to marry), the Islamic world errs far more grievously.”
I never suggested otherwise.
“Besides, any error here in the West doesn’t come with a religious mandate backed up by threats of bodily harm or death for opposing such mandates.”
What you are saying is both true and irrelevant to my comment, which was simply to point out that, from the perspective of persuasion, Islam is going to be damned (appropriately and justifiably) much more in people’s eyes if the girls are married at younger ages than those for which the stats were provided. Why do you think so many apologists are so desperate to claim Aisha was 18 (or thereabouts) and not 9? The higher age is far less damaging to the image of Islam as presented to the modern West. Indeed, there would be no major objection to Islam on the issue of the marriageable age of brides if the lower limit was set at 18 or thereabouts; it would not even be a significant topic of discussion among Islam critics.
“In short, Western laws can ordinarily be changed without intimidation, contra what goes on in the Islamic world.”
Again, I think you are really out to lunch here Wellington, or maybe looking for a scrap. My point has to do with the kind of information we present for persuasive purposes, and obviously presenting info about marriage to girls under 16 would be more damning than info about girls married at age 16 or 17.
“Really, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for venturing forth, as you have, that there is ANY real comparison between the West and the Least (the Isalmic sphere).”
This appears to be knee-jerk nonsense. From a persuasive standpoint, we aren’t going to get people in the West too riled about girls getting married at 16 or 17 when this happens in the West and is legal and our audience knows this and already has an attitude of disapproval, but not extreme disgust, toward it. The more crucial information from both a moral and persuasive standpoint is that Islam permits much lower ages than this. The lower the age, the more damning it is of Islam.
“Really, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for venturing forth, as you have, that there is ANY real comparison between the West and the Least (the Isalmic sphere).”
Again, this is all irrelevant to my point and has nothing to do with what i actually wrote. If you tell people there is some crazy cult that allows girls to be married at the age of 16 or 17, they’re going to say, hey, wait a minute, we disapprove of that, but that’s not extremely crazy, we have that sort of thing in normal society, what else does this crazy cult do? But if you tell them there’s a crazy cult where girls can be married at puberty (roughly 11-13) or before it (10 and under) to adult men, they’re going to say, wow, crazy is an understatement, this is rape, pedophilia, child sexual abuse, case closed, lock ’em up!
And that is why Islam critics focus on the more egregious (younger) cases; i.e., for moral and persuasive reasons.
Wellington says
I erred, Rod Serling. I thought you were equivocating between Islam’s approbation of very young females getting married (sometimes still in single digits a la Mohammed) with 16 or 17 year old girls doing so (though this is still too young). I misread you and I apologize.
Champ says
You’re a good man, Wellington 🙂
RodSerling says
Wellington,
My apologies to you as well, for my hasty and angry reply. I really didn’t need to go on like that. Champ is right–you are a good man.
gravenimage says
Wellington and Rod, I don’t believe you are really in much disagreement.
gravenimage says
Turkey: More than 500,000 child brides in last ten years
………………………………..
500,000 child brides—the population of a medium-sized city. This is almost twice the population of Iceland. That’s a lot of pain and suffering…
Several points, but here are two of the most salient:
Recall that Turkey has spent almost a century under Kemalism, which specifically suppressed Islam. Even Erdogan hasn’t been able to completely dismantle the secular state yet, so these numbers are probably much lower than for the rest of Dar-al-Islam.
And the second, noted by Rod Serling, is that this is likely just the tip of the iceberg, both in terms of whole numbers and in terms of the youth of the girls, given that many of these marriages are not registered with the state at all.
There is a reason for this: legally, a girl can be married off at 17 with parental permission, and at 16 with unspecified “special circumstances” and the approval of a court.
But what are actual conditions on the ground? As the article suggest, much, much worse.
More:
The ministry also said it had given safety buttons to women who were victims of violence in two pilot cities. In Adana, 73 women received safety buttons with a court decision, along with 53 women in Bursa. The ministry also said in the first two months of 2014, more than 3,000 women and children had stayed at shelters in different cities of Turkey.
This number was 12,648 in 2013, according to the ministry’s data.
………………………………..
These are things which go together—child marriage, wife-beating, and “Honor Killing” are all exploitative—and in Islam, they are not just condoned but *sacralized*.
Defcon 4 says
Considering the fact that the all muslime law enforcement of Istanbul was in on the 1950’s Istanbul pogrom and the invasion/annexation/ethnic cleansing of Cyprus in the 1970’s, I don’t think islam was suppressed much at all.
Semeru says
Robert Spencer Bullshitts again
Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight.>/I>
Notice, he does not give a creditable link to prove Kmomeini married a ten year girl
Salah says
Who cares about Khomeini? was he the “perfect man” of Islam? of course not; Muhammad was!
sunshineinjuly says
@Semeru….methinks that Robert Spencer is constitutionally unable to tell anything but the truth…but your bull shiitte degrading his brilliant offerings on this site, only reveals you as one who willingly goes along with pedophilia, rape, and terrorizing young girls. Prove to me that this following is anything but evil. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/australia-muslim-who-married-13-year-old-girl-has-bail-refused-over-child-sex-charges
Buraq says
(@ Semeru) You say that the rightly guided Mr Spencer does not give a creditable link to prove that Ayatollah Khomeini married a ten year old.
You clown! Mr Spencer is the credible ‘link’. How dumb can you be?
Medina says
Khomeni said that a daughter “should not see her first blood in her father’s house.” Also, he stated that one may “thigh” a child but not penetrate vaginally. Sodomizing the child is acceptable in his Qur’an poisoned mind.
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-139510.html
Enjoy, Semenru.
Defcon 4 says
What the hell is a Turkish “safety button”? Does it call the police?
Daniel says
I tried a search and at first all I got was thanksgiving related stuff :). Then I found this:
http://womensenews.org/story/domestic-violence/121109/turkeys-panic-buttons-turn-safety-advocates#.Ux_1K_lLq0c
nabi sange says
Are you a pedophile and want sex with a child? Islam make your desire lawaful.
nabi sange says
Are you a pedophile and want sex with a child? Islam make your desire lawful.
nabi sange says
Are you a pedophile and want sex with a child? Islam makes your desire lawful.
fair_dinkum says
i was just pondering actual figures, when i wrote a comment on one of the other paedophile stories…
graven said: “and have been mostly under Kemilism”
it makes you wonder what the figures from other countries are. and how many actually die. there has been an increase in those types of articles, reporting the grim reality of this crime against all women. please femminists, stand up and say something!
citycat says
Even if the whole world in the seventh century was marrying nine year old girls, it is irrelevant.
Someone said that we evolve, makes sense, the constant change sort of thing, all is aflux.
Progress is.
Except for Islam.
I wonder Islam has not got calcification of the soul by now, what with all that rigidity, fixedness, stubborn attitude et al.
Islam is anti nature because of its sticking to the old ways that should have been long dead in any civilization in these supposedly more enlightened days.
Something has to break soon.
People are saying there’s something in the air.