Is there a minimum age requirement for marriage in muslim countries?
Do you think there should be a minimum age for when an individual can get married?
If you do, what do you think that age should be?
If you dont, what is your reasoning?
Thanks. smile
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
smile ki bachi - i thought you had sworn off GS until december. and were going to be spending more time studying. 
not that i don’t want you around, of course 
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
There's a minimum age requirement in Pakistan if somebody wants to get married without (wali's) parental consent. If I remember correctly, it's 21. Don't know about the minimum age required with parental consent, but its definitely lower than 21.
ps- could be wrong about 21 limit. In courts they always bring in puberty issue while passing judgments about the legality of marriages.
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
Age religiously is when a girl hits puberty isnt it...but in the real world these days none of these girls are mature enough for marriage...hell most 20yr olds arent mature enough for marriage...
Age isnt really the issue...maturity is...iv seen an 18yr old get married and they have done a really good job and iv seen a 27yr old get married and they really werent suitable for it and messed it up...lol as one example even from this forum...that Andy guy is 25 and is getting married...age means nothing...Its individuals...
Its the same thing with having kids...a 16yr old girl in say SAmerica would do a much better job raising a kid then one here...they have a different upbringing and are more mature and hardworking from an early age...lol 10yr olds in the 3rd world are more mature than 16yr olds in the West...
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
May 2005.
A Pakistani court in the first verdict of its kind has declared valid the marriage of a 12-year-old girl, a lawyer and court officials said Friday.
A judge sitting at the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore gave the ruling on the grounds that in Islam a female can marry if she has reached puberty, the officials told AFP.
He accepted a joint petition by the girl, named as Zeenat Bibi, and her 25-year-old husband Babar Javed and dismissed charges of rape which were filed by her father.
“This is the first time that a court has validated marriage of a 12-year-old girl in Pakistan,” her lawyer Azeem Sarwar said. The decision was handed down on Wednesday.
The ruling also overrides the Muslim Family Law under which the marriageable age for girls in Pakistan is 16 years, he added. Source
Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi, a very fine legal mind, might just have set the proverbial cat among the pigeons by declaring valid the marriage of a 12-year-old girl Zeenat Bibi. Justice Rizvi, dismissing the charge of rape filed by the girl’s father against her 25-year-old husband, has declared that “A pubertal woman can marry competently, validly, legally and of her own accord”.
The decision, the first of its kind, overrides the Muslim Family Law which stipulates 16 years as the marriageable age for girls. I have not read the complete text of Justice Rizvi’s verdict but reports suggest that he has also relied for the verdict on an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court of Pakistan which declared that a girl could enter into a marriage deed without the consent of her wali (guardian).
Justice Rizvi’s ruling is interesting because it is likely to throw both sides of the divide — liberals and conservatives — in a tizzy. Recent years have seen several cases of girls marrying of their own volition and then facing zina charges in the lower courts before being rescued by the higher courts. In at least one case — the famous Saima Wahid case — the LHC took a retrogressive line on the issue and declared that a girl could not marry without the consent of her wali. This decision was made under the maliki rather than the hanafi fiqh for reasons that ranged from the social to personal and political.
The SC set aside that decision and it is that verdict to which Justice Rizvi has pointed in this case. So while the lower courts have shown the tendency to look unfavourably at girls contracting marriage without the consent of their walis, the higher courts — with the exception of the one verdict given by the LHC — have generally tended to be more progressive. Since the SC decision, the wali issue has been all but buried at least on legal-technical grounds.
To this extent Justice Rizvi’s verdict should make the liberals happy. On the flip side, however, the decision has ended up validating what liberals would oppose as “child marriage”. The Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929 — on which I had a long chat with Ch Aitzaz Ahsan, who is always kind to help me remove the cobwebs on legal issues — stipulates that forcing a child into marriage is a cognisable offence. Known as the Sarda Act after Harbilas Sarda, it was opposed by both conservative Hindus as well as Muslims. Incidentally, Mohammad Ali Jinnah made a passionate speech in favour of the bill when it was discussed in the central legislature.
The Act laid down the minimum age for boys and girls but did not stipulate that if a marriage were deemed forced whether it would be annulled on that basis. I guess this issue was left for the courts to decide on a case-to-case basis, especially in cases where the woman might have become pregnant or given birth to a child. (In which case, it is possible that Justice Rizvi has given his verdict because the girl in question is reportedly pregnant. If he were to declare the marriage annulled, what would be the status of the child?)
Traditionally, the conservative sections of society have opposed the “Western” concepts of marriageable age and argued that the concrete manifestation of age must be determined biologically. Puberty indicates that a girl can become a mother. That should be enough in terms of what age should be considered marriageable. Since that age can vary from as early as 9 or 10 to as late as 13 or 14, the issue stands decided on that basis itself since puberty can be tested forensically.
The traditionalists say that modernity tampers with the course of nature by stipulating marriageable age as 16 (as in the Family Law in Pakistan or 18 as in most other cases). For their part, the liberals argue that marriageable age cannot simply be determined on the basis of puberty but must bring in other factors like the psychological impact of marriage and sex at an early age, child birth and rearing, the level of maturity and so on. They also point to social and cultural practices and argue that many children are forced into marriages even before they reach puberty. If puberty were to be made the benchmark, it would open the sluice gates on these practices.
Now comes Justice Rizvi’s verdict which banishes the wali from the equation on the one hand while overriding the liberals’ concerns on the marriageable age. The question is interesting. While the 1929 Act prevents a child from being forced into marriage, how does one look at a case where the “child” decides to contract marriage of her own volition? Should the court make free consent the basis for the acceptance of marriage with the only supposed limit being that — as in this case — the girl should have reached puberty?
This is an important issue and Justice Rizvi’s verdict raises quite a few questions. Should puberty also be made the basis for determining other things like, for instance, transfer and control of property; voting; the limits of parental control etc, etc. I say this because marriage is not, shall we say, child’s play. And if it is not, what must be the cut-off age to determine when a child has stopped being a child and entered the world of grown-ups.
Personally, I have a problem with accepting puberty as the determining factor because its logic is purely biological and hence sexual. But marriage is not just about sex and its reproductive function. The biological approach ignores the various other factors that decidedly inform a marriage. Indeed, I find it hard to accept that a child between the ages of 9 and 13 can even handle the complexity of sexual relations.
I do hope that the verdict will be debated upon since it is oxymoronic in nature, wedding (no pun intended) progressive to the traditionalist approach. And if pregnancy is what has forced the court into declaring the marriage valid, then there is even more need to legislate this issue.
(Ejaz Haider. May 15, 2005. Daily Times)
Ah! The intricacies and vicissitudes of Pakistani law.
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
smilestar, you dont want me aroundddddddd. cwy
I meant I wont post in my journal until December and then I made a comment that I will start posting earlier than that if I do well on my first exam of the new semester. Insha’Allah. grin
P.S. You didnt answer the question. hoonh
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
Amorphous
I enjoyed reading the article...if you want to look at things islamically then as a basic rule puberty defines when a girl can get married...islamically puberty also means that you are accountable...as a child in islam you cannot sin as you dont have reason...once you reach puberty it is assumed you have reason and can thus make choices for yourself...and its important that the girl does make that choice of marriage on her own accord...
However this is where common sense needs to come into play by individuals...i am 21yrs old but i dont neccesarily feel im ready to get married...its not cos i lack reason its cos im not ready...
So when a 12yr old girl gets married its strange to me cos she probably has reason but its just not a productive thing to do...the life skills that 10yr olds used to have was different to now...a 12 yr old these days isnt as intelligent as say Aisha(ra)...she was ready for marriage...12 yr olds tend to not be...but then it is individual...some 12 yr olds may be perfectly ready for marriage mentally so you never know...Kids in the West mature a lot later than girls n the third world...its individuals...
But if you want to set a ruling...basing it on puberty doesnt bother me in the slightest...its just individuals should use common sense...if a 25yr old isnt ready for marriage they shouldnt get married...in the same way a 14yr old might be...
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
it should be 18-25
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
I think 16 is a good minimum age for marriage. Even though Islam allows marriage at puberty, the truth is that girls, even though they are technically mature, encounter long term problems if they end up getting pregnant at a young age (which they invariably do). When girls are too young to give birth and don't understand how important it is for them to take care of themselves properly, their children may be born with defects or malnourished. The young mothers themselves often encounter difficult births and are more susceptible to developing fistulas (which is when a hole is made in your body causing urine and feces to continuously leak). Also, there is a link between early sexual activity and increased cervical cancer risk.
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
i think there is a minimum age of getting marries in pakistan which is 18..but i have heard and read about many people who get their daughters married at 13-14 specially those in villages and tribal people
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
I meant I wont post in my journal until December and then I made a comment that I will start posting earlier than that if I do well on my first exam of the new semester. Insha'Allah. grin
P.S. You didnt answer the question. hoonh
woohoo! you're still around =)
as for the question
it's really too much effort to think that hard :p
Re: What should be the minimum age requirement for marriage?
25 year old who marries a 12 year old out of choice = peado, simple as.....