Iran official backs temporary marriage
TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran's hard-line interior minister is encouraging temporary marriages as a way to avoid extramarital sex, a stance many in this conservative country fear would instead encourage prostitution.
A temporary marriage, or "sigheh," refers to a Shiite Muslim tradition under which a man and a woman sign a contract that allows them to be "married" for any length of time, even a few hours. An exchange of money, as a sort of dowry, is often involved.
Although the practice exists, it's not very common in Iran, a Shiite majority nation where many consider it a license for prostitution. Others, however, have advocated institutionalizing the tradition, saying it would help fight "illicit" sex in a country where sexual relations outside marriage are banned under Islamic law.
"Temporary marriage is God's rule. We must aggressively encourage that," state-run television quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi as saying. [...]
The article goes on about how half of Iran's population is under the age of 30. Many men cannot afford to buy a home and support a wife. Since extramarital sex if strictly forbidden under Islamic law, what are these young men to do with their sexual needs?
Temporary Marriage! Talk about mind games. Prostitution by any other name is still what it is.
I've heard of temporary marriage used in another context. Women in prison who are condemned to die. If they are virgins, whey would go to heaven. In order to prevent that from happening, the women are forced into temporary marriages with prison guards, who then rape them to insure that they are not virgins when they die. And God approves, because it's not extramarital sex.
Those Imams, those men, seem to come up with Islamic solutions to just about everything.
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