A conservative Muslim body in India has gone to the High Court to challenge the legal age of marriage, which currently stands at 18. The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board insists that in family matters the country's Muslims should be subject only to Islamic law, known as Sharia.
| I wonder if Canuckistan has taken that little fact into account? |
It maintains that it is supported by a 1937 act upholding Muslims' right to be guided by this law. The debate has arisen because of a family who have been threatened with arrest because they allowed the marriage of an under-age girl. Fatima Mehjabin and her husband Muazzamil dote on their four year-old son, Fazal, along with his little brother and sister. But the very basis for their marriage is now being questioned in court because when they were wed five years ago, Fatima was 17 - one year under the limit set by Indian civil law.
| Have they considered remarrying? No... That would be too simple... |
Fatima says: "Muslim personal law says you can marry at 12, so I didn't see a problem with it. There are lots of bad things in society these days, so the sooner a girl gets married, the better."
| "Preferably to a close relative, of course." |
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