Forced marriage is illegal under Islamic law: the bride’s consent must be obtained. However, the idea of “consent” is a bit elastic:
“Narrated `Aisha: I asked the Prophet, ‘O Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ)! Should the women be asked for their consent to their marriage?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘A virgin, if asked, feels shy and keeps quiet.’ He said, ‘Her silence means her consent.’” (Bukhari 89.7.6946)
Her silence means her consent? It may mean that she is terrified to speak up, for fear of the consequences. What’s more, women are treated as commodities in Islam: they can be beaten for disobedience (Qur’an 4:34), their testimony and inheritance rights are devalued, they can be divorced at a word, and more. This doesn’t create an atmosphere in which their consent is likely to be valued.
“A Pakistani man from Barcelona arrested for trying to forcibly marry off his 19-year-old daughter,” translated from “Detingut un home pakistanès de Barcelona per intentar casar a la força la seva filla de 19 anys,” El Caso, December 20, 2022:
Hard testimony from a 19-year-old girl who this past weekend appeared, accompanied by her father, at a police station of the Mossos d’Esquadra de Barcelona to, at first, and as her parent assured, report that she was the victim of sexist violence by her partner, a young man. After receiving the first testimony from the father and the girl, the Mossos d’Esquadra agents activated a professional lawyer to assist the girl in the complaint, it was then, and as El País details, that the young woman wanted to speak to the lawyer alone and really explained what was going on.
She was not a victim of sexist violence by her partner, with whom she wanted to continue maintaining a romantic relationship despite the firm opposition of her family, who had already chosen another man for her. She was a victim of her own father, who, following one of the traditions imported from Pakistan, where they are all from, wanted to force her to marry a man that he, the father, had chosen. A fact, obviously, that is illegal in our land. The official lawyer spoke to the Mossos d’Esquadra to relate the facts that the young woman had detailed and it was the man who was arrested for the crimes of forced marriage, threats and even illegal detention.
They were holding the girl and wanted to send her to Pakistan
The man, always according to his daughter’s version, had kept her and had threatened to send her to Pakistan, where he had already arranged a marriage for her, with a man much older than the girl. Not only the father is involved in this new case of forced marriage in our land. According to the young woman’s account, the mother and brother also participated in having her detained and in trying to send her to Pakistan to marry the man her family had chosen. Despite this, and the girl’s testimony, the Mossos only arrested the man, who was released over the weekend.The bravery of the girl, explaining her case to the lawyer, who knows if by chance, maybe if she had been a man she wouldn’t have dared to explain the via crucis she was living at home, has avoided a forced marriage, and, who knows, maybe even a murder. It would not have been the first time that a wedding of this type, arranged between families and with the opposition of the protagonist, ended in a crime. At the beginning of the year, two sisters from Terrassa were killed in Pakistan by their family when they refused to marry two men and “hurt the honor” of the family. Although the crime was in Italy, the National Police and the Carabinieri arrested in February 2022 in Barcelona a man, also Pakistani, who had collaborated in the murder of his cousin for refusing, like the sisters from Terrassa, to marry a man whom their family had chosen.
Michael Copeland says
Under Sharia women can be beaten not only for “disobedience”, they can be beaten if the man merely “fears disobedience”.
This brave woman will now be a target for killing by her family. Let us hope she is living in some protection somewhere.
Keith O says
Well done to this young lady.
Standing up for her own human rights against her father and the rest of the family takes guts.
I hope she is able to find real love and a life with her fella and hopefully stays alive long enough to enjoy it.
Watto35 says
Why do we allow these people to stay in Europe? Obviously trying to marry their daughter off to another Pakistani male is just a way of getting the man into the country. They must have contravened several serious crimes. The European death-wish seems to be continuing.