ON A DUSTY MORNING in the holy city of Qom, I went looking for a shrine in a walled cemetery of martyrs known as Sheikhan. The graveyard's walls are lined with glass cases containing the framed photos of soldiers felled by the Iran-Iraq war. The shrine, I'd been told, is a hangout for women seeking temporary marriage, an intriguing mechanism in Shiite Islam for relieving sexual frustration. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, sex outside of marriage is a crime, punishable by up to 100 lashes or, in the case of adultery, death by stoning. Yet the purpose of a temporary marriage is clear from its name in Arabic–mut'a, pleasure. A man and a woman may contract a mut'a for a finite period of time–from minutes to 99 years or more–and for a specific amount, mehr in Farsi, which the man owes the woman.
Interesting throughout, from Mother Jones.
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Temporary marriage or prostitution?
It’s hard to really say in such a repressed society whether something like this is ‘good’ for women’s rights or not (some feminists are opposed, apparently). The baseline is just so f’d, I can’t even see a way to reason through it. It seems like it would have to be good for people generally, though, because it gives them the freedom to pursue their desires without threat of legal retribution. And hell, it’s voluntary and not the sort of quasi voluntary stuff you get in societies where people are pressured like hell into doing stuff that is bad for them.
In iran you have to stop thinking about islam as a religion. it is very easy to become a mollah, better look at it as the communist party in old eastern countries. this is the only way to make it in society. So you can find everything in the mollahs from the more religious to the more corrupted.and think of this “marriage” as a sin tax, the same goes for alcohol which is easy to find in black market, controlled by some mollahs. and also for satellite dish that are seized by the police once a year, because it’is forbidden, but you can buy back your satellite dish (yes the one you had in the morning) in the afternoon at your tv shop in the afternoon.
call it VAT, audivisual tax as we do in western countries, iranian know that sin tax is much more profitable…..;-)
“Men do it for fun but women do it for money”
Arbitrage! What’s wrong with that? [so long at there is no coercion]
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Interesting to see how some of the unusual “traditions” around the world get their start.
Is it okey to pray to a pedophile and a slave owner like “prophet” mohammed?
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This is not limited to just Iran I think. It is a way for Muslim men to pretend to be faithful to Islam and have a bunch of partners. I remember reading about a commercial sex worker who said she had been married thousands of times.
Also a few Muslim men studying in the US do the same and have relations with a live in girlfriend . They can then go on to get an arranged marriage after breaking up with the “wife”.
At least these temp arrangements help the women get some thing that is of use to them in desperate times.
Of course it is probably used most often as prostitution. However there are other possible uses as well. What about the couple who wants to live together while they’re in college and then see where it goes? Or the couple who gets a new “marriage lease” every year instead of being married indefinitely?
At first glance this practice looks like a simple loophole, but I see it as a way of having more flexibility in a rigid Islamic world. Something I’m wondering about is what protections the women get under these temporary marriages. What happens if a child is conceived during the temporary marriage?
The good thing is that while the sex lasts, at least no one is insecure about the partner running away with another person!
That’s a good idea for men, especially if you want to accumulate the negative things and spread it wide. Women should not easily engage in that practice. web hosting
Good idea. I think everyone are able to follow the way of movement of this suggestion. golf club irons
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Good idea. I think everyone are able to follow the way of movement of this suggestion. injuries board
A temporary marriage…are you serious? what is going on with this world?
A temporary marriage is just another way to get around the rules. registry cleaners
Yeah sometimes getting together to discuss differences is better than emailing and text messaging.
They’re a bit crazy if they’re agree with this. I’m glad to hear that women there are becoming more modern and open-minded over the time.
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They always have the choic. I personally think this is not a right thing to do. But culture penetrates our deeply. Edinburgh Airport Parking
I think that this kind of marriage is only limited to the shia population and NOT the widespread sunni (which make up about 85%+ of the Muslim world). It shoudl also be realized that this kind of FATWA was only given during the times of war, when men were away from their homes for very long periods. Bristol Airport Parking
This post is very usefull, I will get back to read every new posts in future, keep posting!
Thank you. This must be a great project others can do well. The performance is never enough is you keep looking for minor drawbacks. Yoga Teacher Training in India
Thank you for this article o marriage i Shiite Islam. I found it ver interesting. If you’re wondering who I am, check out Earth4Energy review
This is not limited to just Iran I think. It is a way for Muslim men to pretend to be faithful to Islam and have a bunch of partners. I remember reading about a commercial sex worker who said she had been married thousands of times.
Also a few Muslim men studying in the US do the same and have relations with a live in girlfriend . They can then go on to get an arranged marriage after breaking up with the “wife”.
Arabian country always become my favourite to discuss with friends. Large country and rich in oil.
What is the legal status if the couple visits the unites states during their temporary marriage? I think it might have been robin morgan who wrote “the hooker”, an article describing marriage in general as prostitution. Serial monogamy is not exactly unknown in the west either.
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It’s a very scary culture but who are we to judge the way the developing nations live. At the end of the day, we haven’t had our countries torn apart by war and our nations have embraced mostly catholicism and judaism so have our own set views on what’s right and wrong. We may not agree with things we see or hear, but we have no right to say whether it’s wrong or not.
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is always a way around every probleme or obstacle…good or bad.
Oh, I didn’t know that there is temporary marriage! So weird! But the “death by stoning” is really cruel and un-human!
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I Believe that the womans body is not a merchandice of sex pleasure, the man has the obligation to take care in all manners, respect,help the women not denigrate her or insult,treat her bad because she has feelings. Now is she wants to change and make a real good life she cant do it. Because the laws of the Coran. I respect Allah and the law but a recent convert can marry an ex mullah to be his real wife with no temporaly document and bring her and her children if she has to live with him to Puerto Rico and treat her as a real wife and no a sex object?
This was great to find this religion was once great as per all perspective but today Muslims are doing worst things than ever.
With all those fatwas and worst kind of restricitons over women they aren’t doing anything good by doing this!
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There are many such laws you find in Iran. These laws started appearing after the Iran Iraq war. Societies try to find solutions taking clues from their own traditions.
I like the idea. It is just important to focus on continuous improvement if you will do it for long term. Security System
Wow that was an excellent post rabbit hutches…thank you for the insight.
well, this is kinda incredible, so tyhanks a lot for shairjg
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This post is very usefull, I will get back to read every new posts in future, keep posting!
Sounds like prostitution to me!!
It is really something strange to get into limited marriage in iran this practice is really shocking.
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This is not limited to just Iran I think. It is a way for Muslim men to pretend to be faithful to Islam and have a bunch of partners.
his is not limited to just Iran I think. It is a way for Muslim men to pretend to be faithful to Islam and have a bunch of partners. I remember reading about a commercial sex worker who said she had been married thousands of times.
It sounds like a poor substitution for a real marriage. I guess you can say, “Different strokes for different folks.”
Westerners can never understand this from their angle. The folks out there are not in US. It is another kind of society. They got a problem on hand and they are just trying to come out with a solution.
This post is very usefull, I will get back to read every new posts in future, keep posting!
There are a lot of accidents, it is not related recently on weekdays in this circumference, and the policeman has increased, too.
Nice. I enjoyed the blog post. I actually knew about most of this, but having said that, I still thought it was useful. Nice job!
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