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 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).
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.”
According to Amir Taheri in The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (pp. 90-91), 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.
“‘Un-Islamic’ Say Pak Lawmakers, Reject Bill To Raise Marriage Age For Girls,” Press Trust of India, May 5, 2017 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Islamabad: Pakistani lawmakers have unanimously rejected a bill aimed at increasing the minimum age for marriage of a girl from 16 to 18 years, terming the proposed amendment as “un-Islamic”. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Religious Affairs met yesterday and discussed the ‘The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2016’ moved by lawmakers Kishwer Zehra.
The committee called the proposed amendment “un-Islamic”. The committee members also discussed ‘The National Commission for Minority Rights Act, 2015’ at the request of lawmaker Lal Chand Malhi. Christian lawmaker Tariq Christopher Qaiser recommended the number of commission members be increased to give representation to all the minorities….
Barbara Ethel says
Pakistan is a pariah state. It needs to be boycotted on every level. The only reason they are tolerated is those infernal nukes. Sabotage maybe?
Jihadi John says
Pakistan is a pariah state with nukes, from reactor design that it stole from URENCO (Netherlands) and gave that to China in exchange for a bomb design. Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world. They call their nukes the ISLAMIC BOMB!
Barbara Ethel says
Christ Almighty. How was that allowed to happen…this is just crazy.
Oliver says
Since the minimum age for girls is 16 ( SIXTEEN ) – I would think that the assembly WOULD LOWER THE AGE TO NINE, TO BE IN ACCORD.
At 16, they seem (ONLY IN THIS REGARD) not to be too far from the more or less norm in western countries.
gravenimage says
This is just on paper. While not as horrifying as some Islamic hell holes, child marriage is still widespread in Pakistan.
Don Foss says
True. Many Islamic countries will have in their laws whatever please the UN Human Rifghts commission simply to stay in good standing, but with no intention of abiding by it.
Jeanette says
Something they won’t have to worry about for long, now that the UN has put Saudi Arabia partially in charge of women’s human rights.
Like putting the Nazis in charge of building showers for Jews.
Jeanette says
At sixteen, they are getting a little long in the tooth for Muslim men.
mortimer says
Forced child marriage is one of the evilest things in Islam. For some strange reason, this form of child abuse and abuse of ‘women’ (girls) is not on the radar of Western Feminists.
Forced child marriage is one of the MOST MISOGYNISTIC things in the world and Western Feminists are doing not enough about it.
Western Feminists should be working night and day to stop in the way that Abolitionists worked night and day to end slavery through the world.
This perverse, disguised pedophilia must end now.
Oliver says
You say, FEMINISTS ARE NOT DOING ENOUGH TO STOP—-
I DISAGREE-UNLESS UNDER THE RADAR SCREEN, THE FEMINISTS ARE DOING NOTHING TO STOP CHILD MARRIAGES; NOR ARE THEY DOING ANYTHING ABOUT A RAPE VICTIM NEEDING 4 MALE WITNESSES; AND A FEW OTHER THINGS.
Sating Not doing enough– means that they are doing something- even if not very effective.
The feminists are too busy being upset over something that Pres Trump said a dozen or so years ago.
Ted Kennedy could kill a woman; Bill Clinton can make unwanted sexual advances on women and Hillary Clinton can castigate the women Bill had sex with- be it forced or consensual and lie to get a rapist of a 12 year old off- but that is OK- they are liberals. Trump makes a statement- and the world has come to an end.
Jeanette says
AND Hillary Clinton can continue to employ her “aide” Huma Abedin, while the latter’s mother writes and publishes books supporting the forced female genital mutilation of all girls and women in the world.
Don Foss says
They have calculated reasons for doing nothing. And those reasons are not good nor an excuse. Today’s feminists do more harm than good.
Spike1033 says
It’s not child ‘marriage’. It’s child rape. If any of those so-called Pakistani lawmakers set foot in a western civilised country they should be arrested and charged with allowing and abetting paedophilia.
Guest says
What do you expect from filthy little savages? Their entire way of life is only a disease that needs to be destroyed.
Jeanette says
They really are just monsters taking advantage of rules that allow them to behave like monsters – rules which were written by a monster so that he could get away with behaving like a monster.
They are nothing more.
Matthieu Baudin says
Terrible!
Politicianphobia says
If not a forced marriage who would marry them? Sometime a man has to marry a little girl to boost his ego–since his IQ and penis size are far, far below average. In Canada a pedophile is considered a sick person. Shari’ah supports evil.
Don Foss says
Pakistan is right. It’s against Sunnah. Allahu akbar!
Don Foss says
I once, while living in Kuwait, braved a question to a “moderate” Kuwaiti woman who was divorced and actually entertained having a secret affair with me why Muhammad had 11 wives, one of them a small child and another (Safiyya) a Jewess whose groom and father Muhammad had killed so he could take her? Her answer was that it was to prove all females are good enough to marry. She was serious.