MUSLIM CLERICS FACILITATE PLEASURE MARRIAGES TO YOUNG GIRLS

Nikah Mutah in Shia Islam and Nikah Misyar in Sunni Islam are literally translated “pleasure marriages”. Pleasure marriages have been practiced throughout the Middle East since the beginning of Islam. Nikah Mutah is a verbal or written temporary marriage contract with an agreed upon end date. Pleasure marriages are practiced among many muslim men and women of consenting age wanting to engage in sexual activity outside of marriage. The marriage is agreed upon and then a dowry is paid to the woman. In the case of clerics facilitating pleasure marriages of girls is not the same as two consenting adults entering into an agreed upon temporary marriage.

Pleasure marriages are being used to justify women and girls being trafficked under the guise of a legal marriage. Often victims of pleasure marriages are young girls. The BBC report exposed girls as young as nine years old being forced into these marriages. Pleasure marriages are purely shams allowing men to sexually exploit and abuse children. Many explain this as a way for clerics to justify women being pimped out. To say they are being pimped out is to say they have entered into prostitution on their own accord. Let’s expose it for what it is, sex trafficking, the sexual abuse and exploitation of children with the clerics as their traffickers. The women and children are being sexually exploited by men who have been put in a position of trust.

The clerics’ position and power are no match for the vulnerable women and children being coerced and often forced into marriages. We want to give voice to these who have been rendered voiceless. We want the world to know the injustice of human trafficking throughout the Middle East and to join us in praying for and serving the vulnerable.

FAI