USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUHAMMED,CHILD MARRIAGE AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

thanks Ayisha. Your point is noted but our perspectives are not identical. Mohammed was at least a middle aged man when he married his child bride.The fact that it was practiced elsewhere does not make him correct to have done it. What was the hurry about? He already had other wives.My view on him still holds.

Thanks

Toyin

On 6 November 2010 09:30, Ayisha Osori <ayishao@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for copying me in your note and for contributing to the discourse - you made many valid points.

I'd like to point out that I do not entirely agree with you regarding your statement "Muhammad was wrong to marry young girls". In truth - it was the norm during that era, when people - both men and women married very young for many reasons, one of which was the short life expectancy. All across the world, in victorian england and Rome under Caesar and the early Popes - girls were married off at a very early age - much earlier than is now acceptable. For instance Lucrezia Borgia, daughter to Pope Alexander was supposedly married at the age of 13 after two previous engagements. But customs evolve.  The same way it was custom in parts of Nigeria to kill twins and banish their mothers...but now we pray for twins at weddings.  

The point is let us try not to cast aspersions on anyone's character or customs from an era that we only have second hand knowledge of, certainly not Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) because you will lose the ear of most Muslims if you do so and what we want is for Muslims to 'listen' not switch off from the discussion because it sounds like the Prophet is being attacked.

To make any meaningful change regarding child and forced marriages in the name of Islam we cannot ignore the imams and scholars - we need to win them over with rational, unemotional facts but they have to ultimately come over to our side for sustainable improvement on this issue.

kind regards,

Ayisha

 

On 6 November 2010 04:09, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> wrote:

The culture of forced marriage and of child marriage in Northern Nigeria in the name of Islamic law is recently highlighted by recent developments in Northern Nigeria.In one of the cases the woman took her father to court for marrying her out in her 20s,to a senator in his 50s,ignoring her interest in marrying the man to whom she was engaged.

What is at stake here is a very serious struggle in which Islam is being used by various parties in ways that suit them.

I am struck to read in Ayisha Osori's article "Poor Little Muslim Girls and the Lawmakers from Zamfara"that,according to the Hadith,the sayings of Mohammed,forcing anyone into marriage is against the teachings of Mohammed. Yet it is being done by Muslims because they describe it as religiously sanctioned.

I also want to add that does the fact that Mohammed did something also mean that it is the right thing to do? Was Mohammed not a human being,and therefore capable of error? Does his being human and capable of error mean that he was not a great prophet?

If as a human being he was capable of error does that not mean that his opinions should not be binding on Moslems? Are his actions not open to logical examination?Does such a logical examination imply that one is being disrespectful of him?Does it not mean that one is relating to him as another human being?

In the light of these considerations,I would hold that Muhammad was wrong to marry young girls.I would hold that he was indulging himself in the desire of  men and  women to enjoy much younger partners and used his religious and political power to satisfy that indulgence,a power most people do not have and others pursue through their wealth.I hold that he has cheated those children of their childhood.I hold that he gave destructive example to his followers. The cases of vagina fistula  described as recurrent  in Northern Nigeria from small girls having children at an age when their bodies cannot cope can therefore be traced to what it  is accurate to describe as a  selfish practice.

Someone has argued that a  father has a right to decide a husband for his female  child because he knows better on account of his age.Not necessarily and not often true.The father is only human and can not share the mind of his child.To insist  that one human being no matter how wise can decide infallibly for another is to make the person being decided for a robot or to to impute godlike powers to the father,none of which is accurate.

 Some Moslems treat women as if they are not human.To insist on taking strategic decisions for someone else,decisions that will shape their life irrevocably,without giving them a chance to make up their own minds,is to dehumanize them.

I understand  that in Saudi Arabia it is taken so far that women do not drive cars. Pure male centred methods to maintain power.

Islamic civilization needs to re-examine itself.

Thanks

Toyin

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