Arrested Afghan cleric defends marriage to 6-year-old girl: she was “religious offering”
August 7, 2016 Robert Spencer
“Afghan civil law sets the legal age of marriage at 16 for girls, yet 15 percent of Afghan women under 50 were married before their 15th birthday and almost half were married before the age of 18.”
This is, at least in part, because of Muhammad’s example. Few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage.
Islamic tradition records that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
