How Islam Rationalizes Prostitution

A bizarre sexual practice sanctioned by Islam that has re-emerged in Iraq because we invaded, according the the Washington Post:

Temporary ‘Enjoyment Marriages’ In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis
BAGHDAD — Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diploma and no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnant wife who, he said, could not have sex with him. If people are looking for filing for divorce in Virginia, then they can get some help from here.

Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion. People can hire fathers rights lawyers from here, during or before a divorce.

They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in the room where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had a proposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqi dinars upfront — about $4 — in addition to her monthly expenses. About twice a week over the next eight months, he would summon her to a house he would rent.
The negotiations took an hour and ended with an unwritten agreement, the couple recalled. Thus began their “mutaa,” or enjoyment marriage, a temporary union believed by Shiite Muslims to be sanctioned by Islamic law. If you need help with divorce law, family law lawyers for hire can be checked out before things get out of hand.

The Shiite practice began 1,400 years ago, in what is now Iraq and other parts of the region, as a way to provide for war widows. Banned by President Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led government, it has regained popularity since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq brought the majority Shiites to power, said clerics, women’s rights activists and mutaa spouses.

“It’s a cover for prostitution,” said Um Akram, a women’s rights activist in Baghdad. “Some women, because they don’t want to be prostitutes, they think that this is legal because it’s got some kind of religious cover. But it is wrong, and they’re still prostitutes from the society’s point of view.” Um Akram, like the mutaa spouses interviewed, asked that only parts of her name be published.

Boy, anything can be rationalized if you just write it into your religion. We’re certainly improving things over there.

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Mohamed Danish

    How Islam Rationalizes Prostitution?
    I Believe you should definately have thought of what the title is supposed to mean… Islam is not trying to rationalise prostitution, prostitutes are. And there is a big difference in the two.

  2. zaynab bolanle raji

    this is not abt islam encouraging prostitution,this is abt misinformed sect going back 2 the period before the advent of islam known as d JAHILIYAH PERIOD OR THE AGE OF IGNORANCE

  3. Bill

    Koran 24:33 …. And do not compel your slave girls to prostitution, if they desire chastity, to seek [thereby] the temporary interests of worldly life. And if someone should compel them, then indeed, Allah is [to them], after their compulsion, Forgiving and Merciful.
    This verse from the Koran clearly teaches that a slave may be used for prostitution.

  4. illawarrior

    I bet the Catholics are kicking themselves for not having thought of that!

  5. Fiona

    Here we go again, demonizing prostitutes and prostitution as if the thing they do is evil by its very nature. You people are corrupted products of the religious morality of your countries.

    If a construction worker can rent out his biceps, a sex worker can rent out her vagina. That’s all there is to it.

    1. HFM

      There is nothing here that demonizes prostitutes or prostitution. This is a commentary/criticism of sexism and religion, not prostitution. Of course women should have control of their own bodies and decide what to do with them, including renting them out. The issue with what’s going on here is that this is just a way for men to get around their own religious rules at the expense of women. The religious rules are set up to control women and keep them in check, and the exception is there to let men be able to have sex with women other than their wives.

    2. illawarrior

      The issue is not prostitution. Prostitution has always existed, and probably always will. The issue Islam’s attempt to disguise it, / legimtimise it, with such a flimsy excuse as a “temporary marriage”

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