মোঃ আব্দুর রাকিব

Simrin Lubaba has gotten married and we pray for them. The girl is only 16 years old (which is legal according to prevailing Bangladeshi law if they can show special reasons in court) and because she is getting married at this age, I think it will be good for her and her future, Insha'Allah. We also thank her family because, instead of following distorted Western culture, they decided to marry their daughter off at the right time by following Islamic Sharia.
I also think that this marriage will not cause the slightest harm to the girl's education, rather it may be beneficial in some cases. Shahbagi researchers show that many girls drop out of education due to marriage, but those researches are not correct because the lower-class girls who do not continue their studies after marriage would not have the ability to continue their studies even if they did not get married. In many cases, those girls have to get involved in various kinds of work.

On the other hand, most Western research shows that the more haram relationships a person has before marriage, the less likely their marriage is to last. The marriages of husbands and wives who have no haram relationships before marriage are the most likely to last.

Also, it is unfair to tell our youth to spend a long time alone in the name of education and religion, especially at a young age. During this time and the time that follows, a person is in great need of a partner, and this is why Islam speaks of getting married early. Many of our youth do tuition, and with that money, they can very easily provide for their wives. It does not take much money to feed a person egg and mashed potatoes.

But our ultra-Western culture says it is better to get married after having 100 haram relationships and in that case (past is past: although the phrase has no meaning) there is no problem. But science says there is a problem. As a result of having haram relationships and them breaking, people are psychologically damaged, which has a negative impact on their subsequent relationships. When both parties get married after having multiple haram relationships, the possibility of it being a beautiful relationship decreases significantly.

According to the law of Bangladesh, girls can get married at 16 if the court agrees, and boys at 21. Even in Western countries like England, America, and Australia, there is no such strange law. Why 21 years? Which scientist did research and found out that 21 years is the best and made the law? Or was this the "Magical" process of the Shahbagis through which they found this number?

I was in Scotland, where the age of marriage for both men and women is 16. In Canada, the age of marriage is 16 to 17, but in Bangladesh, it is 21 for boys. We are more Western than the Westerners.

In Iran, the age of marriage for girls is 13 and their female literacy rate is 99%, whereas in Bangladesh, the age of marriage for women without a court order for special needs is 18, but the literacy rate of Bangladeshi women is 75.8%, which is much lower than Iran. In Iran, 70% of people in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) field are women, which is much higher even when compared to Western countries. Therefore, the hypothesis that education does not happen if one gets married is actually completely wrong. Rather, education gets better if one gets married.

So we all pray for Lubaba from the bottom of our hearts and wish her and her family well. Amen.
© Asif Mahtab Utsha