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Yemen: Girls as young as three being married off to much older men

Mar 5, 2019 8:00 am By Robert Spencer

Why is this even considered an option? Because child marriage is sanctioned in Islam.

Islamic tradition records that Muhammad consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and the resultant fact that child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world. Child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law.

Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) said in January 2018 that under Islamic law, girls as young as nine can marry.

“Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this” — Ishaq Akintola, professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Nigeria

“There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.” — Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-‘Ubeidi, Iraqi expert on Islamic law

There is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” — Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council

“Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.” — Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology

Hadiths that Muslims consider authentic record 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.

“Girls as young as THREE are being married off in Yemen as starving families try to ensure they have one less mouth to feed – and use dowry payments to buy themselves food,” by Sara Malm, Mailonline, March 4, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Girls as young as three are being married off in war-stricken Yemen because their families are unable to afford to feed them, according to charity Oxfam.

Starving Yemeni families have revealed how they have had no choice but to force their young daughters to marry much older men, in order to use the dowry for food and shelter to save the rest of the family.

The war in Yemen has triggered what the United Nation [sic] has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than ten million people at risk of starvation.

A recent UN report suggests that more than two-thirds of girls in Yemen are wed before the age of 18, however the five-year conflict is reportedly forcing families to marry them off at a much younger age.

Oxfam said their representatives had met with families in the northern Amran governorate who had been forced to marry off their daughters – in one case as young as three years old – to buy food with the dowry.

Younger girls are usually spared consummating the marriage until they have reached the age of 11, but before that are made to do household work in their husband’s home.

Nine-year-old Hanan, from Amran, used to go to school but since she was married, she has had to stop.

‘My mother in law keeps beating me, and when I run away back to my father’s house, my father beats me again for running away,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be married. I just want to go back to school.’

Hanan’s parents, who also married off her three-year-old sister, said they knew marrying off their daughters at such a young age was wrong, but felt they had no choice because the dowry paid in return was the only way of keeping the rest of the family alive….

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Filed Under: child marriage, Featured, Yemen Tagged With: Oxfam


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 8:13 am

    Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, “even if they are in the cradle,” and that the only criterion is that “they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men.”

    Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.”

    Fawzan concluded his fatwa with a warning: “It behooves those who call for setting a minimum age for marriage to fear Allah and not contradict his Sharia, or try to legislate things Allah did not permit. For laws are Allah’s province; and legislation is his excusive right, to be shared by none other. And among these are the rules governing marriage.”

    • jimjfox says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 8:21 am

      How utterly absurd is islam? About as stupid as Scientology or Mormonism but far more lethal, of course.

  2. mortimer says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 8:20 am

    Child abuse is normative Islam, sanctioned by Islam’s top religious authorities, rather than an aberration.

    The ‘chaplain’ of Al Qaeda, Yusuf Qaradawi, married a 14-year-old girl.

    Such forced child marriages often end tragically … consider the 13-year-old girl who died while her much older husband was copulating with her (it was later revealed that, due to her reluctance, he was tying her up and “raping” her—as if there is another way to describe sex with children); or the 12-year-old who died giving birth to a stillborn; or the 10-year-old who made headlines by hiding out from her 80-year-old “husband.” She walked into a court room and asked a judge for a divorce.

    • jimjfox says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 8:24 am

      Be fair, now: muhammad was very considerate of Aisha, merely ‘thighing’ her from age 6 to consummation at the ripe old age of 9…

      • Jean (old) says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 9:09 am

        jimjfox

        The stress she suffered after the marriage made all her hair fall out, as she herself reports in a hadith… and that was even before the penetration. Poor Aisha! What fate could be worse for a girl than to fall into the hands of Muhammad?

        • gravenimage says

          Mar 8, 2019 at 7:10 pm

          Grimly true, Jean.

      • FYI says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 5:55 pm

        What little girl could ever want to be bethrothed to the likes of the “prophet” muhammed,the “Perfect Man”?

        muhammed:-

        A FAT,WHITE,CROSS-DRESSING,MIDGET.

        That’s according to official islamic sources….
        {Abu Dawud 40:4731,sahih bukhari 2442}

        “Do not injure me regarding Aisha.The revelation does not come to me in any garment of any woman except Aisha”
        Sahih Bukhari 2442

        When Ubaydullah saw him he said:”that muhammed of yours is a dwarf and fat”
        Abu Dawud 40:4731

        “{muhammed} was….a white man..”
        Sahih Bukhari 63

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 9:14 pm

      And there was the poor little girl who bled to death in Afghanistan after being raped by a Muslim cleric:

      “Afghanistan: 8-year-old bride of mullah bleeds to death on her wedding night”

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/afghanistan-8-year-old-bride-of-mullah-bleeds-to-death-on-her-wedding-night

      God, I hate Islam.

  3. Terry Gain says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 8:40 am

    This has nothing to do with Islam. I came across this wonderful instructional video yesterday.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqnnbcUVMQ&feature=youtu.be

    • Terry Gain says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 8:42 am

      Watch the video (Isis Have Nothing To Do With Islam) before you slam me.

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 9:17 pm

        Sye Ten Atheist is brilliant! Thanks for the link, Terry.

        I would recommend all of his cartoons on Islam–there are several dozen he has done.

    • James Lincoln says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 10:47 am

      Terry,

      I watched the video – it’s, in a crazy way, somewhat comical – while at the same time it’s dead serious.

      But I guess that’s true of Islam in general.

      • Terry Gain says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 11:19 am

        James

        I think it’s both educational and hilarious. Even funnier than AOC. Now here’s a video that’s really scary. Obama in Cairo on June 4, 2009. I’m dead serious.

        https://youtu.be/NaxZPiiKyMw

        • James Lincoln says

          Mar 5, 2019 at 12:46 pm

          Terry,

          The scariest video I’ve ever heard from a US President.

          Thanks for the link.

          Thank God for President Trump…

        • gravenimage says

          Mar 8, 2019 at 7:13 pm

          Yes–this speech from Obama is notorious.

  4. Rumplestiltskin says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 9:32 am

    What can anyone say about this insanity that doesn’t sound ludicrous. It is time Christian men stand up and be counted and scream at the top of their lungs about Muslime men who like to screw children. Yes, they are animals and the only way to get them to become aware of their animal natures is with bullets.

    They must be made aware of the fact that they cannot continue in this vein and still be thought of as men, but if they do they may be impaled on a stake and left to be eaten by a pack of African hunting dogs. It would only take a couple of these to be video taped to convince the Muslime that this will no longer be tolerated by a maturing species.

    • Terry Gain says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 10:36 am

      We cannot shoot bullets from our mouths. Bullets are not persuasive. They are in fact counterproductive. Just tell the truth about Islam. The truth works. Read and share. And mock where appropriate. And oppose the whitewashing. And celebrate those who have the intelligence and courage to leave the satanic death cult posing as a religion.

      • elee says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 11:18 am

        It was not persuasive argument that brought Allah a billion and a half slaves in this world. If one should be foolish enough to tell one’s local imam that his arguments are not persuasive, there is always the fatwa. This tends to make the imam’s arguments quite persuasive.

        You believe in reasoning together, which we Westerners take for granted. This activity, or belief in engaging in it, is foreign to Muslims. Koran 2:1, 33:7 5:102. They don’t even get to decide what to desire and what not to desire, what or whom to love. Koran 81:29.

        This is a primitive and lethal cult of hatred with lots of weapons in their hands. Don’t expect to reason with them. If you believe that’s what you’re doing, it’s probably because that’s what they want you to think.

        • Terry Gain says

          Mar 5, 2019 at 11:25 am

          I am not trying to reason with Muslims, but with my fellow westerners, including would-be apostates. We need to ban further Muslim immigration. If we descend to their level by using violence against Muslims in our midst we will lose for sure.

  5. tedh754 says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 11:52 am

    There is no limit to the filth and degradation that is islam.

    • Heidi says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 12:25 pm

      You are 100% correct but there are enough filthy and degraded inividuals, male and female,, such as politicians, judges, prosecuting attorneys, police, common people, in our own Society who applaud that. If they weren’t it would have been stopped a long time ago. The Airlines should be forced to publish the names of the individuals flying to Thailand and the police needs to stop those driving across the border into another country to get what they’re after and publish their names.

      • Terry Gain says

        Mar 5, 2019 at 12:42 pm

        Heidi

        The lack of opposition to Islam is based on ignorance and cowardice rather than malevolence. Political Correctness is our highest value and most insidious problem.

        • Heidi says

          Mar 5, 2019 at 4:07 pm

          Terry, you are right but I think in Germany and the rest of Europe opposition to Islam is not so much based on ignorance and cowardice, even though I understand the latter because if you aware of the methods used by the Nazis to silence the opponents, well, we are at that stage again. People will Keep their mouth shut in order not invite a friendly visit from the Antifa or the likes, lose their Job, or become the outcast of the neighborhood. Politically correct in Germany and most of Europe is only what the left wants to hear.

        • gravenimage says

          Mar 8, 2019 at 7:18 pm

          This is generally true, Terry.

  6. register says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 1:19 pm

    just don’t bring them here

  7. Denver says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 1:50 pm

    Girls as young as three have been auctioned off since the beginning of time.

    Besides fueling the othering what message or information, exactly, is the author trying to convey (as if no one realizes that Islam, as sometimes practiced, isn’t housebroke)?

    • Terry Gain says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 2:10 pm

      Denver

      “As sometime practiced”. Your ignorance is awesome. This is Islam as set out in their War Manual aka The Holy Koran.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 9:30 pm

      “Denver”–who I have never seen posting here before–wrote:

      Girls as young as three have been auctioned off since the beginning of time.

      Besides fueling the othering what message or information, exactly, is the author trying to convey (as if no one realizes that Islam, as sometimes practiced, isn’t housebroke)?
      …………………

      Who else is auctioning off three-year-old children? Doesn’t “Denver” know that child rape is *illegal* in the civilized world? What an utterly false attempt at moral equivalence.

      Then we have that term, “othering”–this term is a mainstay on college campuses these days–primarily used by “SJW” to condemn those who dare judge any horrific action (never mind that this is also “othering”).

      I think the real question is why “Denver” *doesn’t* consider those who buy and rape three-year-old children to be other than himself–this is actually terribly damning. Is he saying he is no different from those who rape children–of that he rapes children himself? *Ugh*.

      And this is not Islam as it is “sometimes practiced”–child “marriage” and rape is mainstream Islam, as practiced by the “Prophet” Muhammed himself. Little girls all over the world suffer because of his, which is considered a model for all time.

      “Denver” apparently has no problem with child rape or any other Islamic savagery, but is enraged that we do. *Sickening*.

  8. Valery Vebelfeltzer says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 1:57 pm

    As we speak, Joe Biden is booking his flight .

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 5, 2019 at 9:32 pm

      I am no fan of Biden, but what evidence is there that he is raping pre-school children?

  9. somehistory says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    This is islam…and they “know it’s wrong.”

    I had a friend who was a child when the bombing destroyed the two cities in Japan. Her family lived, I believe near Hiroshima. There were seven girls. The family hardly had any food. The mother of these little girls went without food in order for her children to eat. It was a terrible thing, and hard to listen to when my friend was telling of the suffering and the starvation death of her mother.

    The mother had no thoughts of selling her daughters to feed herself.

    For an adult male and female to sell their children…so they can eat…is islam. How many sons did they have? Selling their two little girls…and beating the older one because she can’t stand the rape of an old moslim creep …so they can eat, is beyond disgusting. It is demonically evil.

  10. gravenimage says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 9:10 pm

    Yemen: Girls as young as three being married off to much older men
    ………………..

    These poor little children.

    And no–Muslims in Yemen are not doing this because they are desperate–child “marriage” was rife before the civil war there.

  11. Art Regan says

    Mar 5, 2019 at 11:55 pm

    Does this anger most men as it angers me ?
    Our prostitute political leaders are bringing these people into our countries as refugees and telling us that multiculturisn is wonderfull.We are loosing our way of life and our freedoms.Our leaders are all owned and controlled by the secret clubs n societies that they have joined.
    What will the end of all of this look like ?
    Art Australia.

  12. J D.S says

    Mar 6, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    Of course the OLD GEEZERS running Islam want the age limit for girls to be Wed as low as they want it to be
    Maybe at birth even….they want young girls for sex only…No wonder with so many rapes among Muslim men with non Muslim and Muslim girls /women that there must be a portion of the muslim make brain that still has animal instinct..has to be because with that much sex ..SICK, SICK, SICK, Sex on the brain of Muslim males….AND THE WORLD STANDS STILL!

  13. Patrice Stanton says

    Mar 8, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    I just pubbed a free 10,000 word satirical fairytale for grownups on Smashwords.com. It was inspired by Richard Dawkin’s “technically advanced aliens could have seeded Life on Earth.” My aliens are inside meteoriods and years ago one of them originally brought Islam to humans, but are now coming back to do-it-better. “Sadly” the swarm gets a little off course and ends up hitting a few million on Hajj. Did I mention the imam-character has a 9-year-old bride? And BHO & Michelle have a knock-down-drag-out fight, LIVE! on CNN? “Attack of the Meteoroids,” by me, Patrice Stanton.

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