Childhood And Child Marriage in Islamic Law
Childhood And Child Marriage in Islamic Law

Summary/Abstract: Though the child marriage has been a social phenomenon known and practiced in different societies throughout history, it has recently been all the more offensive to modern sensibilities. Until the last two centuries, children did not enjoy an exceptional status entitling them to differential treatment before the judiciary in the European legal thought. On the other hand, Islamic law took pioneering steps in according children a special legal status. One can see that even the early books of Islamic jurisprudence were full of highly technical details on different stages of physical and mental development of human being along with legal provisions resulted from each stage. Despite this early awareness of child rights, the child marriage phenomenon was seen in both Islamic societies and Islamic law. Because Islamic child law has remained deeply influenced by the cultural aspects of the period in which it first emerged, and these aspects have continued to serve as the basis of child law in Islamic jurisprudence across the Muslim world. This study attempts to demonstrate some excessive interpretations through which jurists traditionally argued for child marriage and read the relevant verses more coherently with their textual context.

• Details
• Contents