.........Sigheh is a contract that allows a man and a woman to be married for any period of time from just an hour to 99 years and is seen by many Shiite clerics as an Islamically proper way of addressing basic human urges.
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070608-093745-9973r Iran government backs away from brief marriage June 8, 2007 TEHRAN -- The Iranian government distanced itself Friday from comments made by its interior minister championing the custom of temporary marriage as a means of reducing illicit extramarital sex. The government spokesman said that interior minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi made his remarks about temporary marriage, a practice unique to Shiite <file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/Microsoft%20Shared/Stationery/#> Islam, in his personal capacity as a cleric. "The recent remarks by the interior minister are not the government's view and it was said in his capacity as a cleric," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "The comments by Hojatoleslam Pour Mohammadi were said in his capacity as a cleric and an expert in religious affairs. These matters are not a concern of the executive branch <file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/Microsoft%20Shared/Stationery/#> ," he added. Pour Mohammadi was quoted as saying last week that the practice of temporary marriage, known as sigheh in Farsi, was a correct way to respond to young people's sexual needs within the framework of an Islamic society. "Islam has solutions for all human problems and temporary marriage is a solution to this kind of problem," he said in a speech in Iran's <file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/Microsoft%20Shared/Stationery/#> clerical capital of Qom. Pour Mohammadi's comments sparked considerable debate in the press, with some clerics arguing that encouraging temporary marriage could harm the family and would not provide any panacea for Iran's social ills. Sixty percent of Iran's 70 million population is under 30 years of age and officials acknowledge that there are problems with youth unemployment <file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/Microsoft%20Shared/Stationery/#> , drug abuse, and juvenile delinquency. The average age of marriage has also risen to 30 for men and 26 for women, according to unofficial estimates. The interior minister made his remarks amid Iran's toughest moral crackdown in years, which has seen thousands of women warned about "un-Islamic" dress and hundreds of "thugs" arrested for disorderly behavior. Under the Sharia, or Islamic law, in force since the 1979 revolution, extramarital sex is prohibited and punishable by flogging or stoning, although the authorities insist that they have dropped the latter punishment. Sigheh is a contract that allows a man and a woman to be married for any period of time from just an hour to 99 years and is seen by many Shiite clerics as an Islamically proper way of addressing basic human urges. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
