FYI
Last Update: Monday, 27 May 2013 KSA 09:56 - GMT 06:56
Pakistani women say ‘I do’ in UK’s first Muslim lesbian wedding
Monday, 27 May 2013
Rehana Kausar, left, and Sobia Kamar said they had met while studying. (Photo
courtesy: The Independent)
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Al Arabiya -
Two Pakistan women are believed to have become the first Muslim
lesbian couple to tie the knot in a civil ceremony in the UK, British
press reported on Sunday.
Rehana Kausar, 34, and Sobia Kamar, 29, former students in the UK, applied for
political asylum following their marriage at the registry office in Leeds
earlier this month, The Independent reported.
“This country allows us rights and it’s a very personal decision that we have
taken. It’s no one’s business as to what we do with our personal
lives,” Kausar was quoted as telling the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury
newspaper.
The couple reportedly told the registrar during the
ceremony that they met 3 years ago while studying business and health
care management at Birmingham and were living together in South
Yorkshire for about a year.
Relatives of the couple said that the women have received threats of death both
in the UK and from their
opponents in Pakistan, where these kinds of relationships are considered
illegal by law.
Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Islam.
A relative told the Sunday Mercury: “The couple did not have an Islamic
marriage ceremony, known as a nikah, as they could not find an imam to
conduct what would have been a controversial ceremony. They have been
very brave throughout as our religion does not condone homosexuality.”
In recent years in Britain, some Muslim gay and lesbian couples have opted for
a nikah, an Islamic matrimonial contract, but this contract is not
recognized in the UK unless accompanied by a civil ceremony, The Independent
reported.
In November 2012, Mohammed Ludovic Lütfi Zahed, an Algerian homosexual
man, announced plans to open a “mosque for gays” in France, which would
be a place of worship for Friday prayers at first, then would hold
same-sex Muslim marriages.
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