Tag Archives: Child Bride

Afghan teen imprisoned by in-laws for 5 months for refusing prostitution

Map of the Middle East
Map of the Middle East

From the UK Telegraph.

Excerpt:

Sahar Gul, 15, was found in the basement of her husband’s house in northeastern Baghlan province late on Monday after her parents reported her disappearance to the police.

“She was beaten, her fingernails were removed and her arm was broken,” district police chief Fazel Rahman told AFP.

Three women including the teenager’s mother in-law had been arrested in connection with the case but her husband had fled the area, he added.

The case highlights how women continue to suffer in Afghanistan despite the billions of pounds of international aid which has poured into the country during the decade-long war.

“The 15-year-old girl was brought to hospital with severe shock,” said Pul-i-Khurmeri hospital chief Dr Gul Mohammad Wardak.

“She had injuries to her legs and face and the nails on her left had been removed.”

Sahar Gul was married to her husband seven months ago in the neighbouring province of Badakhshan, but she was brought to Baghlan to live with her husband, said Rahima Zareefi, the provincial head of women affairs.

During this time her parents were unable to contact her, she said.

[…]And according to figures in an Oxfam report in October, 87 per cent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

I wonder if any of the billions of pounds of international aid has been spent on introducing Christianity as an alternative to Islam in these countries? Or is that not an option for solving the problem of the mistreatment of women? I know that Christian taxpayers are taxed to pay for this aid money. What’s the goal here, and are all options on the table?

British Muslim cleric jailed for molesting his 15-year-old student

Story from the UK Daily Mail. (H/T Answering Muslims)

Excerpt:

A Muslim cleric has been jailed for a year after sexually assaulting a young girl while he was meant to be teaching her the Qur’an.

Hafiz Rahman, 67, was paid by families to teach their children after stepping down as a respected Imam.

He went to the 15-year-old victim’s home and molested her when they were left alone.

A judge described the attack as the ‘worst breach of trust imaginable’ and said he believed it would have continued if the girl’s father had not unexpectedly returned home.

A jury of eight men and six women at Portsmouth Crown Court took less than two hours to find Rahman guilty of sexual activity with a child.

Rahman, a former Imam at Jami Mosque in Portsmouth, Hampshire, is a Hafiz – someone who has memorised the entire Qur’an.

Judge Roger Hetherington said: ‘The parents of the child came to retain your services because they understood that you were a respected and indeed revered member of the community, who had, until recently, been an Imam to the mosque.

‘On the jury’s verdict and on abundant evidence, for whatever reason, you took advantage of that situation for your own sexual gratification.

‘It must have been a very frightening experience for that girl.

‘Given your position in the Muslim community and the respect with which you were accorded as a result by the family that you were visiting, this was as bad a case of breach of trust as it is possible to imagine.

That sentence seems to me to be far too lenient for the crime.

Here are some videos about the Islam and “child brides” from Answering Muslims.

The status of women in Islam is very different than in Christianity.

12-year-old child bride of 25-year-old man dies after three days of labor

Here is the story from the Daily Mail.

Excerpt:

A 12-year-old Yemeni child bride died after struggling to give birth for three days, a local human rights organisation said.

Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 140 miles west of the capital Sanaa.

Child marriages are widespread in Yemen… More than a quarter of the country’s females marry before age 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry.

[…]Youssef was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, said Ahmed al-Quraishi, chairman of Siyaj human rights organization.

David Wood of Answering Muslims writes:

When a girl hasn’t gone through puberty, her hips often haven’t widened for giving birth. Such girls can easily die in labor, along with their babies. This is why girls who haven’t completed puberty shouldn’t be having sex. Unfortunately, Muslims are commanded to follow the example of Muhammad, who had sex with the prepubescent Aisha when she was only nine years old. The Qur’an also allows men to have sex with prepubescent girls (see Surah 65:4 and Muslim commentaries on the verse).

Notice that the reporter attributes the problem to “cultural” practices rather than to Muhammad.

I think that women should have a safe childhood, and the right to marry a man they are in love with.

Here are my rules for courtship, love and marriage between Christians.

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