he intention to improve social ties betweenfamilies or to relieve financial stress. Muslim girls are married at a frighteningly youngage, which denies them the opportunity to experience life before they are tied to theresponsibilities of raising a family and caring for the elderly of her husband's family. InBangladesh, nearly seventy percent of the females are married by the time they turnseventeen.11 In Israel, legal marriages are allowed to occur as young as age fourteen.12 Many marriage rules exist in Islamic countries that also deny women basic rights. Oneharsh rule is that no women is allowed to marry without the permission of her fatherregardless of what age she might be. The first is that Islam expects all Muslims to marry.Additionally, Islam expects all women to marry Muslim men. Women are not allowed tomarry non-Muslims, but men allowed to and they do. This double standard is allowablebecause in the Islamic faith, the religion is passed to the child from the father. These rulespresent all types of problems. Many of the women who decide not to marry experienceguilt, anger, and shame because they are told that they are living a life of sin. Depressionis also caused because many times women are alienated from their greater families if theychoose not to marry or if they marry a non-Muslim. The Islamic society attaches a stigmato unmarried women, and in many fundamentalist countries the women who do not abideby the marriage laws risk being killed from unforgiving persons.Because polygamous marriages are permitted by the Qur'an, many women aretreated unequally. Presently, men are allowed to have as many as four wives as long asthey have permission from their first wife to take another. The Qur'an says that menshould only take additional wives if he can treat them equally, but inevitably their is nofairness behind polygamous marriages. There exists no financial burdens for a man withmultiple wives. Because women are requi...
