Myanmar Muslim asylum-seeker jailed for marrying underage Australian girl

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As numerous scholars on Islam have made clear: 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. Robert Spencer elucidates here:

“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:

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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.

“Myanmar asylum-seeker jailed for marrying underage Australian girl,” AFP, September 21, 2017:

SYDNEY (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) – A Myanmar asylum-seeker was Thursday (Sept 21) sentenced to 18 months behind bars for marrying an underage girl in Australia in what is believed to be the nation’s first such prosecution.

The man wedded the 14-year-old at an Islamic mosque in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park in September last year when he was 34.

Parts of the ceremony were recorded and found on his mobile phone, the Victoria County Court was told, with the man giving the girl’s mother gold jewellery worth A$1,480 (S$1,600) as a dowry.

“To say that you come from a culture permissive of child marriage carries no weight and provides no mitigation as regards your offending,” judge Lisa Hannan said at the sentencing hearing.

“While religious tolerance and a firm embracement of multiculturalism are cornerstones of Australian society, it is not mitigatory to say your conduct was permitted within the rules of Islam or any other religion or belief system.

“What you did was legally wrong and morally indefensible. The victim was entitled to a childhood you took from her.”…

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Michelle
Michelle
6 years ago

When I see some real convictions for polygamy and REAL gaol terms for carnal knowledge THEN will I be impressed with the law in Australia. But I wont hold my breath.

Long Ben
Long Ben
6 years ago

Mohammed must have been a real pencil dick (among other things) to marry a 9 year old girl.

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
6 years ago

“The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage”. Is there anything we can do to help them die for isalm?

Richard
Richard
6 years ago

Love that judge, so many now would be like “Oh poor you I see you were caught between your religion and our laws” blah blah blah

Covadonga
Covadonga
6 years ago

“with the man giving the girl’s mother gold jewellery worth A$1,480 (S$1,600) as a dowry”

When the girl’s family provides gold or other valuables, for her eventual upkeep, to the new family, THAT is dowry.

When the groom provides gold worth such-and-such to the bride’s family, that’s not dowry, that’s bride price, like among the black tribes in South Africa.

In Islamic society, marriages contracted with bride price are surely not as respected as marriages contracted with dowry, just like 2nd, 3rd, 4th wives of already married men are not as respected as the first wives.

In fact, in some settings, this would be more akin to prostitution, or to the temporary marriages allowed in Shi’a Islam.

Maria Elizabeth Romana
Maria Elizabeth Romana
6 years ago

And where’s the sentence for the mother who sold her child into sex slavery for some stupid jewelry? Makes me sick.

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