Shi'ite Muslims' temporary marriages cause controversy in Afghanistan

Tahir Atmar:

Some Afghan refugees returning home after years abroad are bringing back foreign ways -- the most controversial being the practice of temporary marriage.

Temporary marriage, or sigha, is an agreement between a man and a women to get married for a specified time. It has long been practised by Shi'ite Muslims, especially in mostly Shi'ite Iran.

Now, the practice is being imported into Afghanistan by some members of the minority Shi'ite community returning home from Iran, to the disapproval of many in conservative, mostly Sunni Afghanistan.

"I don't want a permanent husband," said Fatima, a 34-year-old woman divorcee in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where there is a large Shi'ite community.

Fatima said as a divorcee, she would have little chance of finding a permanent husband, even if she wanted one. She said she had had 10 temporary marriages since her husband abandoned her, and expected more.

Virtually all of the women in Mazar-i-Sharif who enter temporary marriages are divorcees or widows.

Many of the men are also divorced or too poor to marry a permanent wife.

Millions of Afghans have fled from their country over its decades of turmoil. But over the past four years, more than 3.5 million have returned, with 2.7 million coming back from Pakistan and 800,000 from Iran.

Many are impoverished.

A temporary marriage is easy to arrange and cheap. A couple will agree on how long they will get married -- it's usually anywhere from a day to months -- and on a dowry.

Couples often go to a Shi'ite cleric for approval of the contract. People in Mazar-i-Sharif said witnesses were not necessary.

The practice, also known as Mut'ah, is believed to have pre-dated Islam among the tribes of the Arabian peninsula.

Both Sunni and Shi'ite scholars agree that the Prophet Mohammad did at certain times allow it.

But Sunni scholars say the Prophet later banned it. Most Shi'ites say he didn't.

Sunnis say the practice is illegal and akin to prostitution, but some Shi'ites scholars say it reflects the reality of human nature and provides for the rights and responsibilities of both the man and the woman.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, on the edge of the great steppe to the north of the Hindu Kush mountains, clerics are divided.

"It's a kind of prostitution," said Qari Azizullah, a preacher at a Sunni mosque.

But a Shi'ite cleric said sigha forbids men from having relations with prostitutes, and so it can help eliminate the practice.

"Everyone needs sex and sigha can tackle this problem," said the Shi'ite cleric, Mohammad Tahir Mofid.

Despite such approval, many of those who enter temporary marriages keep it secret from their families and from the community at large.

Ahmad Aziz, 25, said he had had two temporary marriages. The first was in Iran, where he was married for 15 days, and recently he married again.

"After I came to Mazar I married another woman and we have been together for two months," said Aziz, a trader.

He said only a handful of his closest friends knew about his wife and he told his parents he was busy at work when he returned home from visiting her in a small house he had rented.

Mohammad Fahim, another resident of Mazar-i-Sharif, said he had married a woman for $80 (46 pounds), including the dowry, and the marriage had lasted three months.

"I didn't have enough money for a dowry and all the invitations so sigha was cheap and easy for me. That's why I went for it," Fahim said.

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