One Minor girl, many Arabs -3

Many Qazis prepare both marriage and divorce formalities together. While marriages require the grooms to be present, divorces are a bit different. A talaaq can be given verbally, through a letter, an email, telegraph, phone or sven sms on mobile phone. Most qazis solemnise these sham marriages in complete violation of Islamic principles of nikaah and talaaq. A women cannot be married off to another man unless her first husband gives her a divorce, or she has sought khula (seperation) and has completed iddat (a period of three menstrual cycles from the day of the talaaq. The septugenarian Maulana Hameeduddin Aquil, head of a prominent Muslim organisation Millat-e-Islamis, dismisses such marriages as sinful. “They are committing a sin. It’s not nikaah. It’s prostitution by another name”, thundered the frail maulana.