My article on “misyar” in Rentakini
My article on the issue of “misyar” type of marriages, entitled “The deal with misyar” has been published on Rentakini. Actually I’ve already published the same thing under my own column “Haqq Means Truth” at Bukan Islam Liberal, but it does wonders to the, uh, ego, to see your piece in an online webzine apart from yours. Heh.
Read with interest although I do not understand some of your statements. Can you please clarify?
1. To quote your good self, “Misyar is defined as a marriage whereby a pre-nuptial agreement states that the wife disavows all rights to the marriage except for conjugal rights.” How does the former statement agree with the following, also yours: “generally only suitable if the husband is a travelling person and goes on business trips for months and the wife is left all alone”.
How does the wife receive her conjugal rights when her husband is away?
2. To my understanding of your article, a misyar marriage is suitable for “some women, who, for instance, may be rich but happen to be unable to marry at the proper time”. How does this marriage arrangement protect her rights as a wife?
3. I would assume that she is forfeiting her rights as a wife (assets shared within the marriage, alimony, childcare etc) when she marries under the misyar contract. Is she free to marry another man AT THE SAME TIME who will provide for her other needs, such as physical, financial, spiritual, mental etc.
4. Seeing that Islam protects the rights of women, can I also assume that a woman who married under the misyar contract is free to marry up to 4 husbands (a combination of misyar marriage and tradiation marriage) because to a certain extend, she has taken over some of the “manly” roles within the relationship (such as financial) and forfeit her tradiational rights as a WIFE?
Thank you.
Comment by Otto — June 30, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
OOOH, yes, isn’t it just so inspiring to see how much more noble this culture is than our evil one? How much more spiritual, and family oriented? I’m in awe of its superior morality!
Comment by Saya Anak Malaysia — July 1, 2006 @ 6:55 am