Pleasure
marriages regain popularity in
There is another article discussing that this is to be
reinstated in
By Rick
Jervis,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-05-04-pleasure-marriage_x.htm
Al-Zaidi hopes to soon finalize his third muta'a,
or "pleasure marriage," with a green-eyed neighbor. This time, he
talks about it openly and with obvious relish. Even so, he says, he probably
still won't tell his wife.
The
1,400-year-old practice of muta'a—
"ecstasy" in Arabic — is as old as Islam itself. It was permitted by
the prophet Mohammed as a way to ensure a respectable means of income for
widowed women.
Pleasure
marriages were outlawed under Saddam Hussein but have begun to flourish again.
The contracts, lasting anywhere from one hour to 10 years, generally stipulate
that the man will pay the woman in exchange for sexual intimacy. Now some Iraqi
clerics and women's rights activists are complaining that the contracts have
become less a mechanism for taking care of widows than an outlet for male
sexual desires.
The
renaissance of the pleasure marriage coincides with a revival of other Shiite
traditions long suppressed by the former regime. Interest in Shiite customs has
accelerated since Shiite parties swept Jan. 30 elections to become the biggest
bloc in the new National Assembly.
"Under
Saddam, we were very scared," says Al-Zaidi, 39,
a lawyer from
A
turbaned Shiite cleric who issues wedding permits from a street-side counter in
Shiites,
Sunnis split
"Clerics
who blessed them were hounded by security during the previous regime," he
says. "I can assure you, these (muta'a)
marriages are flourishing in (Shiite cities) Najaf,
Shiites
and Sunnis both permit men to take more than one permanent wife, but the rival
branches of Islam are deeply split over pleasure marriages.
Most
Shiite scholars today consider it halal, or
religiously legal. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
the highest religious authority in Shiite Islam, sets conditions and
obligations for muta'a on his Web site.
("A woman with whom temporary marriage is contracted is not entitled to
share the conjugal bed of her husband and does not inherit from him ...")
Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
and other Shiite lawmakers have said they want
Sunni
scholars fear that giving official sanction to pleasure marriages — many of
which are only verbal agreements between the couple — are little more than
legalized prostitution that could lead to a collapse of moral values,
especially among young people.
"We
have reports about one-hour pleasure marriages that are flourishing among
students," says Sheik Ali Al-Mashhadani, a Sunni
imam at the Ibn Taimiya
mosque in
Short-term
marriages were considered idolatry by Saddam's ruling Baath
Party in the 1970s and '80s, says Kamal Hamdul, president of the Iraqi Bar Association. Muta'a were punishable by
fines or prison, he says. Couples took the practice underground, meeting in
out-of-the-way apartments and hotels — and rarely telling even family members.
Pleasure
marriages began to resurface after the fall of
Payments
to women vary
A
woman agreeing to a pleasure marriage that involves a one-time encounter might
be able to count on about $100. For a muta'a
that runs longer, she might be paid $200 a month, though the amounts vary
widely and can depend on whether she has children.
Zeinab Ahmed, 31, lost her husband in a car accident
five years ago. She says she has considered entering into a muta'a
contract with a man, but the stigma attached has kept her from doing so.
"All
my friends who have done this have told me they got married in this way just to
meet their sexual desires," Ahmed says, "but later on they started to
love that man, and he does not accept to get married permanently. ... Most of
the men, at the end of the contract, they feel contempt towards the
woman."
Contracts
for pleasure marriage strongly favor men.
Married
women can't enter a muta'a, although a married
man can. Men can void the contract at any time; women don't have that option
unless it's negotiated at the outset. The couple agrees not to have children. A
woman who unintentionally gets pregnant can have an abortion but must then pay
a fine to a cleric.
Women's
rights activists are concerned. Salama Al-Khafaji, a Shiite lawmaker who supports the concept of sharia law but advocates for women's rights,
calls the re-emergence of muta'a an
"unhealthy phenomenon."
With
the right intentions, she says, muta'a can
serve the noble purpose of helping divorced and widowed women. But too many men
are using temporary marriages to exploit women for sex, she says. Her solution
is to reinforce the importance of permanent marriages with work programs for
newlywed couples and education campaigns.
"A
woman who practices muta'a does not usually
feel comfortable about it," Al-Khafaji says.
"People these days are creating excuses to practice these acts."
Al-Mousawi, the Shiite cleric, says the practice of pleasure
marriages is open to abuse and misinterpretation. He says he is particularly troubled
by kiss-and-tell men. "After they've finished with the woman, they've told
their friends about her beauty and given a description of her body, which is
something absolutely unacceptable in Islam," he says.
Al-Zaidi, the
To
him, pleasure marriages are legitimate in God's eyes. They bring responsibility
and formality to what would otherwise be squalid and sinful, he says.
"There is a noble goal in this kind of marriage," says Al-Zaidi, still married to his first wife and has five
children. "It's to eradicate moral corruption."
In
the past, some muta'a contracts have been
struck when permanent, legal marriages were not possible.
Ayad Muhammed Ali fell in
love eight years ago with a woman who walked into his
The
lovers agreed to a yearlong muta'a in 1993 and
have renewed their contract every year since, he says. In the decade after
their muta'a, the couple never dared meet in
the open. In April 2003, the month
"I
was always so afraid someone would find out and I'd go to prison," says
Ali, 29. "Now, I'm not afraid. My only fear is her family."
Contributing: Mona Mahmoud