posted on March 16, 2004 09:18:44 AM new
KABUL (Reuters) - A frustrated Afghan soldier who could not afford to get married has been released without charge after being caught having sex with a donkey, police said Tuesday.
The soldier, who was not identified, was detained for several days last week after a young boy spotted him with the animal in an abandoned house in the southeastern town of Gardez.
"The man insisted he had no other choice but the donkey because he could not afford to pay a dowry to get married," a local police officer told Reuters.
The man had since been released without charge, he said.
In many parts of Afghanistan (news - web sites) men must pay at least $3,000 to the parents of their prospective bride, making marriage difficult for many in a country where the average annual income is only a few hundred dollars.
Under the strict Islamic rule of the fundamentalist Taliban regime overthrown in 2001, sex outside of marriage or bestiality were punished by stoning to death or flogging.
posted on March 16, 2004 11:04:15 AM new
So the donkey didn't press charges?
As far as the dowry goes, I don't think that's really relevant. How much does the typeical American wedding cost? Sure you can go to a $10 Justic of the peace or whatever, but most people do go in for the big show.
Big (or as big as possible) diamond. Church wedding with all the dresses & such. Reception with expensive cake, music, food, etc. Then the honeymoon, a cruise to somewhere hot that takes a week.
And then there is the cost of "wooing" a woman in the first place. Dinners, nights out, -cough- hotels, vacations, etc.
I think a $3000 dowry might be WAY cheaper in comparison. It'd certainly be simpler to just negotiate a dowager with the father of the bride!
-------------------
We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing -- Anonymous
Sistani used to have a web page...www.sistani.org but it's been removed. On that page, I read that in Iraq there is an option to have a temporary marriage. I suppose thats a sort of loophole for what might otherwise be called prostitution.? According to the following story it's practiced in Iran and Afghanistan. I don't know how reliable this information is but it's an interesting concept.
Temporary Marriage is a Recognized Contractual Union in Iran
In Iran and Afghanistan and a few other fundamentalist countries, unmarried couples who have sexual relations or even date or hold hands can be arrested, fined and even flogged. How can people endure such extreme tyranny over personal relationships? They find loopholes. In Iran, couples are able to date, have affairs and have temporary relationships without being persecuted, if they follow certain customs. One such custom is temporary marriage, or sigheh, which is a valid contract of marriage recognized by Islamic tradition and the Iranian state. It is believed that Muhammad recommended temporary marriage to his companions and soldiers. The Sunni sect, which is a majority west of Iran, banned it; the Shiites of Iran did not.
Under the tradition of sigheh, the temporary marriage is a private contract, couples do not have to perform either a civic or religious ceremony, though some prefer going to a cleric in a marriage registry office to get photographs and identity papers to avoid being arrested.
Couples can get married for as short a time as a few minutes or as long as 100 years, they can specify terms of their relationship, living and working arrangements, dowry and how much time they intend to spend together. The contact can be for a limited period and can then be renewed again and again. Children produced in a temporary marriage are considered legitimate and entitled to the father's inheritance.
In some rare cases, couples who are not in a sexual relationship, but live or work together, choose a Plutonic sigheh as a way of avoiding harassment or arrest simply for associating too closely and being suspected of have sexual relations.
Despite its religious approval, sigheh has never been popular in Iran, in fact, social custom looks down on the practice. In Moslem societies, women are expected to be virgins when they marry; and once married, couples are expected to stay together for life. After a publication, "The Hope of Youth," printed an article in favor of sigheh, readers responded with vehement attacks.
The New York Times(1) reported, "now an odd mix of feminists, clerics and officials have begun to discuss sigheh as a possible solution to the problems of Iran's youth." A decade ago, Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani called sexual desire a trait given by Allah and preached to Iranians to not be "promiscuous like the Westerners," but use the solution Allah has provided, that of sigheh.
While Iran is an intolerably oppressive society, far worse than the sexually repressive United States, in this one way, Iran is more liberal and respectful of the right of private personal contract. Traditionally, in the West, Christian dogma has imposed a one size fits all definition of marriage and refuses to recognize any other other personal union.
--Liberation Journal (7/1/5001) Dec. 28, 2000
by Gregory Flanagan
1 - In Iran, temporary marriages give lovers legitimacy - Elaine Sciolino; The New York Times: Oct. 27, 2000
