While the world continues to ignore human rights abuses committed in the name of Islam, mainstream Islamic clerics in countries that implement Sharia certainly do not.
With reference to the practice of child marriage, the Washington Times reports:
The problems are not just cultural. The U.N. World Health Organization notes that the leading causes of death for females ages 15 to 19 are linked to pregnancy and childbirth. Babies born to girls younger than 18 are at higher risks of death and poor development, the WHO report….
“I will never support any legislation that is against the tenets of Islam,” said Ali Muhammad Khan, minister of state for parliamentary affairs. “Pakistan is an Islamic country, and no such law can be passed here even if it costs me my ministry or my seat [in Parliament].”
Qibla Ayaz, chairman of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology, said, “In 1961, the minimum age for marriage was set to 16, which was un-Islamic. It will be going again against the Shariah [Islamic law] if the age of marriage is changed to 18.”
The marriage of children in Islam is in accord with Islamic doctrine and the example of Muhammad’s marriage to the six-year-old Aisha.
Absurdly, “Pakistan is also a signatory to international agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child that require enforcement of laws to prevent child marriage.” There are, however, efforts being made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ruling party to raise the legal age of marriage for girls. Those efforts are being met with stiff resistance from Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who supports Pakistan’s infamous Islamic blasphemy law, has been silent about the issue.
Lahore child advocate Rubina Saigol made the case that the Khan government is “an extremely, conservative, right-wing one” and that “every other day we hear of underage girls being married or Hindu girls’ abduction [for marriage], but it doesn’t bother the government much.”
It “doesn’t bother” the Pakistani government because both child marriage and the seizure of infidel girls (usually Hindus) are in accord with Sharia (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 33:50).
“Muslim conservatives defend practice of child brides in Pakistan as ‘tenets of Islam,'” by Naila Inayat, Washington Times, August 29, 2019:
…With an estimated 1,909,000 children currently married, Pakistan has the sixth-highest rate of child marriage in the world, according to UNICEF.The problems are not just cultural. The U.N. World Health Organization notes that the leading causes of death for females ages 15 to 19 are linked to pregnancy and childbirth. Babies born to girls younger than 18 are at higher risks of death and poor development, the WHO report said…..
Pakistani law sets the minimum marriage age at 16 for girls and 18 for boys. Activists say the age must be raised and the law better enforced. Pakistan is also a signatory to international agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child that require enforcement of laws to prevent child marriage.
In May, the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party introduced a bill in the legislature to amend the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 to set the marriageable age for girls at 18. It would impose a fine and possible imprisonment for the groom and those involved in facilitating the marriage, including parents, marriage brokers and the religious authorities who marry the couple.
Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice last week rejected such legislation. Opponents said it violated religious tenets.
“I will never support any legislation that is against the tenets of Islam,” said Ali Muhammad Khan, minister of state for parliamentary affairs. “Pakistan is an Islamic country, and no such law can be passed here even if it costs me my ministry or my seat [in Parliament].”
Qibla Ayaz, chairman of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology, said, “In 1961, the minimum age for marriage was set to 16, which was un-Islamic. It will be going again against the Shariah [Islamic law] if the age of marriage is changed to 18.”
As it has with all other attempts to amend the marriageable age for girls, the council warned that any legislation to ban child marriage would lead to “complications.” It asked instead for an awareness campaign to discourage the practice….