CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE IMPACT OF THE CONCEPT OF IJBAR ON THE PRACTICE OF CHILD MARRIAGE UNDER ISLAMIC LAW

CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE IMPACT OF THE CONCEPT OF IJBAR ON THE PRACTICE OF CHILD MARRIAGE UNDER ISLAMIC LAW

In the present generation, the marriage of minors especially by and among Muslims is one of the topical legal issues that have attracted the attention of feminists and modern human rights scholars who concern themselves with the protection of the rights of the girl-child across the globe albeit from secular conception. With this development, national and international communities are therefore increasingly recognizing child marriage as a serious problem, both as a violation of girls‟ human rights and as a hindrance to key development outcomes.1 The practice whereby a child is married off early under the influence or compulsion (ijbar) from its parents is somewhat a religious and customary practice among Muslims particularly those who follow the Maliki school of Islamic law which sanction the role of matrimonial guardian (wali) as one of the essential elements of validity (arkan) to a marriage contract under Islamic law. The matrimonial guardian (wali) may be one with power to enforce marriage on his ward, i.e., wali mujbir and such a guardian (wali mujbir) is possessed of the power to compel his ward in entering into a marriage contract for purposes that are viewed as satisfying the best interests of the child in question vis-à-vis the wishes of parents to ensure that the child is prevented from getting plunged into the dexterities of immorality and its attendant social consequences in the society.

On the other hand, the critics of the Sharia has likened the concept or practice of Ijbar with forced marriage, wherein contrary to this perception, mutual consent of both parties

(ridha al-Zawjain) is ever an essential requirement to the formation and validity of a marriage contract under Islamic law. Feminists have, in the name of health, poverty, population and fertility control together with the quest for the attainment of universal basic education globally with particular attention on the girl-child, the practice of early or child marriage have come to be abominable altogether in the Western society, it being largely a prohibited practice in several countries.

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In fact, in the slogan of the feminists, it is regarded as a “harmful traditional practice” that impedes the developmental rights of the child. Thus, the move for the abolition of the so-called child marriage has transcended from Western society to other African and Asian countries and it has deeply crept into the Muslim world. For example, the Ottoman Mecelle (1917)2 was the first regular modern legislation forbidding the marriage of minor children. This was followed later by a law in Egypt which prohibits the registration of marriages of males below eighteen and females below sixteen years of age.3 In the Indian sub-continent, the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 also prohibited the marriage of males below eighteen and females below fourteen years. Later in Pakistan, the marriageable age of females was raised to sixteen by the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961.4

TOPIC: CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE IMPACT OF THE CONCEPT OF IJBAR ON THE PRACTICE OF CHILD MARRIAGE UNDER ISLAMIC LAW

Chapters: 1 - 5
Delivery: Email

Number of Pages: 75

Price: 3000 NGN

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