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| India-Pakistan |
| 'Children shouldn't be married until they attain mental maturity' |
| 2015-04-04 |
| [DAWN] A bigwig with the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has said that although CII recommends 16 as the appropriate age for marriage, children should not be married until they attain mental maturity. "It is also not necessary for a child to be married as soon as they attain puberty," he said. CII Director General Muhammad Ilyas Khan was talking to health news hounds on Thursday. While the media interaction had been organised to discuss family planning, the discussion drifted to a number of other issues. Mr Khan said that while marrying off minors was prohibited by Islam, Nikkah was not. "In case Nikkah is solemnised between minors, upon attaining puberty, both the bride and groom have the right to annulment, unless the Nikkah was solemnised by the father or the grandfather," he explained. The director general is a government servant, unlike the chairman and other members of the CII, who are politicians and religious scholars. Two months ago, while addressing a conference at a local hotel, Mr Khan talked about birth spacing and surprised many audience members with more tolerant views than other members of the CII. "However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... even a Nikkah solemnised by a father can be annulled if there is a vested interest behind the decision, such as a peace agreement between two families," he said. The CII director general also said women should refuse sexual intercourse with their husbands if they suspect them to be carrying HIV. He said it is unfortunate that a number of women become infected with HIV because their husbands were carrying the infection. "Often men who return from the Middle East contract HIV and the wives of men returning from abroad should refuse sexual intercourse, until the husband gets tested for HIV," he said. He said that Islam does not force women to obey their husbands in such situations, because protection of life and faith are the basic tenets of the religion. Turning the discussion towards family planning, Mr Khan criticised the commonly held belief that God is the provider so people should have as many child as they want. "Although God provides for His creation, we must prioritise the health of our spouse," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Well, there is that gene pool thingy... |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-04-04 21:45 |
| #2 Your right! I would never be allowed to marry... |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2015-04-04 11:19 |
| #1 Problem is, most people never attain mental maturity. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-04-04 03:54 |