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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Rights of Women in Islam Part Three: Woman and Her Social Independence Freedom in determining one’s future A young girl came before the holy Prophet perplexed and anxious and exclaimed: “O Messenger of Allah. . . From the hand of this father...” “But what has your father done to you”, the Prophet asked. “He has a nephew”, she replied, “and he has given me in marriage to him before consulting me in the matter”.

“Now that he has done it,” said the Prophet, “you should not oppose it. Agree to it, and be your cousin’s wife.” “O Messenger of Allah! I do not like my cousin. How can I be the wife of a man whom I do not like.” “If you do not like him, that is an end to the matter. You have full authority.

Go and make the choice of man whom you would like to marry.” “By chance”, the girl finally admitted, “I very much like my cousin and do not like any other person but because my father did this thing without asking my consent, I have purposely come to put questions on this matter and to get your replies and hear this decision from you, and so inform all women that henceforth fathers have no right to take a decision on their own and give their daughter in marriage to anyone they like.” The great fuqaha’ (Islamic law-scholars), like Shahid ath-thani[^1] in Masalik, and the writer of Jawahiru‘l-Kalam,[^2] have narrated this hadith, through non-Shi’ah chains of transmission.

In pre-Islamic days the Arabs, as well as non-Arabs, considered fathers to have full authority over their daughters, their sisters and in certain cases even over their mothers, and, in the choice of husbands for them, they did not believe that these women should make their own decisions and having a choice in the matter. It was the sole authority and function of the father or brother, or, if there was no father or brother, of their uncle, to give them in marriage to whomever they liked.

This right was practiced to such an extent that fathers assumed for themselves this right in respect of a girl still unborn, and, when she had been born and brought up, the man to whom she had been married had the right to take the girl away for himself. Marrying a woman before she is born One day, during the last pilgrimage which the Prophet performed, when he was on a horseback with a whip in his hand, a man come across him and said he had a complaint to make.

The Prophet asked what the complaint was.