[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22354201

The temporary marriage, or nikah mut'ah, is an ancient Islamic practice that unites man and woman as husband and wife for a limited time. Historically it was used so that a man could have a wife for a short while when travelling long distances. So why are young British Muslims adopting the practice now?

"It allowed us to meet without breaking the bounds of Sharia [Islamic law]. We both wanted to date, to go out for dinner or go shopping and just get to know each other better before getting married, which we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise," says Sara.

She is a 30-year-old pharmacist from Birmingham, a Shia Muslim of Pakistani heritage.

Sara was temporarily married for six months before committing to a full marriage to her partner.

"It's basically a contract. You sit down and stipulate your conditions - for a girl who hasn't been previously married, you do need the father's permission," she said.

"We stipulated the duration, my father's conditions, and I requested what you would call a dowry where the guy gives a gift to the girl. It's simple, straightforward and doesn't take long at all," Sara added.

She is one of a significant number of young British Muslims using a temporary marriage as a way of balancing their religious beliefs with their modern Western lifestyle.

Because of the informal nature of the union there are no official statistics to show how many temporary marriages there are in the UK. But a number of senior Shia Muslim scholars and Muslim student organisations told BBC Asian Network there is something of a revival.

There is a sectarian divide among Muslims on temporary marriage. The mut'ah is practised by Shia Muslims while Sunni Muslims generally consider it haram - forbidden.

The mut'ah is particularly popular on university campuses and, according to Omar Farooq Khan, president of the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society at Bradford University, the practice is on the increase among Shia students.


"Definitely nikah mut'ah is on the rise now due to students becoming more aware about it. Students are educated people so obviously they look around for a solution to their problems from an Islamic perspective," said Mr Khan.

"What else are they going to do? They can't just have a cold shower because it doesn't work and otherwise they just end up doing the haram thing and having a girlfriend or boyfriend. Many people won't talk about it though, because it is still a taboo subject," he added.

Although nikah mut'ah is a Shia concept, other types of informal marriages are practised by Sunni Muslims, such as misyar and urfi.

Misyar allows a couple to live separately through mutual agreement while urfi is done without the public approval of the bride's guardians. Neither of these, however, has time limits as with nikah mut'ah.

Critics of these informal marriages, both Sunni and Shia, argue they allow a person to have multiple sexual partners and are used as an "Islamic cover" for prostitution or the exploitation of women, with men taking on multiple "wives" for a number of hours.

In these circumstances many of the formalities and parental permissions are dispensed with for the temporary marriage agreement.

BBC Asian Network heard numerous cases of it being used simply as a way of religiously legitimising sex.

Omar Ali Grant, a convert to Shia Islam, from London, has had around 13 temporary marriages but argues that he was just trying to find the right person to spend his life with. He conceded they could be used as a cover for premarital sex.

Outrageous religious hypocrisy, no doubt "permitted" for both sexes in liberal Western society but "punishable", particularly for women, elsewhere in the Islamic world .....