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forced marriages?

Date: March 25, 2003 | 21 Muharram 1424 Hijriah
Blog: veiled4allah
Subjects: fiqh, islam, reallysays, analysis
Zack Ajmal has a couple of excellent posts up about forced marriages. In the first post, he looks at stories of forced marriages in Pakistan. As he said, the stories cited here tend to be the most extreme and abusive and don't fully reflect the scope of the problem.

In the second post he provides a detailed look at what Islamic law says about women's consent to marriage and the role of the parents or guardians.

As Zack's summary makes clear, the school of law that predominates in Pakistan gives the most rights to women and therefore one would think that the situation for women in Pakistan would be better than in other countries. This is not the case. The fact is, religion very often takes a back seat to culture even if the cultural traditions are given a religious justification by those who practice them.

We also have to consider socio-economic factors. It is not just women in Muslim countries who face abuse and oppression; this can be seen in much of the developing world. If Islam were removed from the world, these problems would still exist. We have to go deeper to find solutions that really work.
~ Posted by Al-Muhajabah, a member of the reality-based community, at 03:09 PM

Comments

umair said: Total comments: 51   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

i am from pakistan...i grew up there...i've heard of this problem, but as far as i know this is not common in cities. it must be happening in rural areas or something...generally, women are allowed to work and take part in almost anything that men can...pakistan is the only muslim country where a woman has been a prime minister. its really sad to hear that there are women being forced to marry someone they don't want to in this day and age.

this is the first time i visited zack's blog, i'm impressed, i'll have to visit again...another muslim guy blog to add to my list wink

~ Posted at March 25, 2003 06:50 PM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! Zack Ajmal said: Total comments: 112   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Umair & AM: Thanks for the kind words.

Umair: As I said in my post about Pakistan, cases like that are not very common. What is however common is some emotional and social pressure to force girls to agree to marry where the parents want and not who they want themselves. It is definitely more common in the rural areas than cities. The middle class in cities have another pervasive problem, arranged marriage, which I'll tackle in the last post of the series.

~ Posted at March 25, 2003 07:12 PM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! Zack Ajmal said: Total comments: 112   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Al-Muhajabah: BTW almost all the visitors to my blog since 6pm EST (when you posted this) have been refereed from here.

~ Posted at March 25, 2003 07:16 PM | Comment Permalink
moderator Al-Munaqabah said: Total comments: 996   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Zack - I'm no InstaPundit, but I had over 3500 unique visitors on Tuesday. I had been planning to link to your posts about forced marriages for awhile but other things kept getting in the way. Glad I was able to send a muhajabah-burst your way wink

~ Posted at March 26, 2003 04:58 AM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! PG said: Total comments: 64   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Religious justification does not seem to be even necessary to keep a cultural tradition alive. I haven't heard much citation of Hindu texts as reasons to convince Indians to have arranged marriages. But the cultural tradition is so strong that it seems to be enough for people who are trying to stay traditional, or for people whose parents are pressuring them to be traditional.

~ Posted at March 26, 2003 10:07 AM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! LauraJ said: Total comments: 17   gold star

Originally posted by Zack Ajmal -

Umair & AM: Thanks for the kind words.

The middle class in cities have another pervasive problem, arranged marriage, which I'll tackle in the last post of the series.

 I'm glad the distinction is being made. To so many westerners, "arranged" is usually synonymous with "forced", which is obviously a wrong assumption.

~ Posted at March 26, 2003 10:15 AM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! PG said: Total comments: 64   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Good point, Laura. There's a phenomenon these days, particularly among Indians in the diaspora, that the Washington Post Magazine dubbed the "semi-arranged marriage." The process is so different now that young Indian Americans, who tend to shudder at the term "arranged marriage," cast about for more palatable phrases. "Semi-arranged marriage," for instance, or "arranged introduction." The updated version is no longer coercive (both the bride and groom have veto power), and traditional dowry transactions have largely been replaced, at least among the urban elite, by mutual exchanges of jewelry and clothing. I don't think there could be a "semi-forced marriage."

~ Posted at March 26, 2003 01:27 PM | Comment Permalink
one of the top five commentors on this blog! LauraJ said: Total comments: 17   gold star

PG - I remember that article. I actually linked and quoted it as my first test post when I switched to Moveable, Type last month. There seem to be many variations - arranged, semi-arranged, encouraged, approved, etc...

~ Posted at March 27, 2003 02:35 AM | Comment Permalink
moderator Al-Munaqabah said: Total comments: 996   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

I'm looking forward to Zack's post on arranged marriages because I have some thoughts about this issue too and various factors I think people need to consider.

~ Posted at April 1, 2003 06:32 PM | Comment Permalink
natasha said: Total comments: 19   gold star

Just wanted to note that Bangladesh and Indonesia, both Muslim countries, have also had female prime ministers. So, not just Pakistan.

Bangladesh's last election was even a contest between two female candidates, so they would have had a female PM no matter who won. Which is interesting considering that Taliban-style madrassas are alleged to be flourishing there, courtesy of Pakistani support. Anyway, didn't want to diverge too much, just making a point.

~ Posted at April 7, 2003 11:45 AM | Comment Permalink

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