”No to forced marriages ! Our Duty, Our Conscience”

by Tariq Ramadan

The European initiative and campaign against forced marriages launched by the Rotterdam Munipality and an organization called SPIOR in May 1008 is to be much welcomed.

Forced marriages may seem to belong to the past, but actually still are a reality in European societies. Young people, both girls and boys, are being forced to marry someone their parents or family have chosen for them and are not being given the opportunity to say ‘no’. It happens amongst groups of different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, also amongst Muslims. As far as Muslims are concerned, it is often thought – by Muslims and non-Muslims alike – that forced marriages are a part of Islam. However, Islam actually forbids forced marriages. A marriage is only valid according to Islam when both man and woman enter it of their own, free will.

The contemporary Muslim conscience is actually facing two major problems : the literalist reading and reductive interpretation of the scriptural sources (Qur’an and prophetic traditions –Sunna-) on the one hand and the great confusion between religious principles and cultural practices on the other.

Forced marriages are at the crossroad of these two very serious challenges: some ‘ulamâ’, Muslim scholars, are keeping silent or even accepting these practices by relying on some texts read literally without referring to the overall Islamic teachings (and their objectives) or at least contextualizing these very marginal scriptural sources.

Muslims are very often confusing cultural practices with religious principles and they think that forced marriages, to which they were used in their culture (the current one or the culture of origin) are in fact Islamic.

The literalist and cultural readings of the Qur’an and the Sunna are two dangerous phenomena for they mislead the believers and betray the very essence of Islam in numerous fields : gender issues, human rights, political systems and, of course, family life, marriages, etc.

It is thus in the name of Islam that we have to say that forced marriages are not acceptable and we need to launch a vast awareness-raising campaign within our European societies to put an end to such practices. Forced marriages are not Islamic and must be condemned in the name of Islam! This is our message, this is our call!

Nothing in the overall Islamic teachings can justify forced marriages and this is why we should spread around a better knowledge of Islam among Muslim parents and young Muslim men and women.

We cannot remain silent anymore! This would be a kind of coward complicity while we know that some young Muslims (mainly girls but not only) are subjected to forced marriages and do not know how to escape from such a dark destiny. We must speak out and give the opportunity for parents and young people to talk, to share their views and to discuss the problem. This is why it is also important to be involved at the grassroots level, to set up meetings, debates and lectures around this sensitive issue.

Muslims and non Muslims must work together clearly stating what is wrong with forced marriages as well as wisely acknowledging the need for psychology and time to change mentalities. It is important to recall the Islamic principles, to repeat that forced marriages are not Islamic and to act against such practices but it is not less important to listen to both the parents (their hopes and concerns), and the youths (their questions and their suffering) and to try to set the reform movement in motion by marrying wisdom and determination.

It is not an easy task but it is an imperative one if we are serious about being faithful to the Islamic principles and teachings as well as about trying to reform wrong understandings and misleading established customs.

Let us face up to our respective responsibilities, work together and try to change the situation while respecting the people’s expectations, hopes and dignity.

We need a strong and clear Islamic message and the Muslims should be at the forefront of this campaign because too many things are done (or understood as being done) in the name of their religion that indeed are against the very essence of the Islam.

Verses and prophetic traditions (hadîth, plur. ahâdîth) are clear about the issue and so many scholars throughout our history have repeated that a marriage must be a union between two free minds and wills.

In the name of this message, human rights and dignity, it is time to speak out and to act accordingly against some of the contradictions we see among Muslims. A self critical approach and a reform process must shape and feed our spiritual and religious conscience in order to be more consistent with our values and our principles.

We need now to carry on and to be determined and very practical. Our support is total and strong and these are the kinds of initiatives we need because they are both just and symbolic: just, because we want to stop injustices done to young women (and men) and symbolic, because it paves the way for so many other reforms that are needed to stop behaviours done in the name of Islam that have nothing to do with its message. This is our moral duty, this is where we stand.

Let us start in the name of our faithfulness to Islam, in the name of justice…in the name of our common respect for human freedom and dignity!

For more information on the European Campaign Against forced marriages, please contact Marianne Vorthoren at SPIOR: +31 (0)10 – 466 69 89 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)