Hourly, Daily or Weekly Marriages

image taken from: www.ordoesitexplode.com/.../wham_bam_thank_.html


A traveller's or pleasure marraige, called a misyar [mis-ee-yarr] for Sunnis (legal in Saudi and Egpyt) or Mut'a [muut-ta'] for Shiites/Shi'ia (mostly Iran and Iraq) is one in which the couple choose how long they will be married for; a quarter of an hour, an hour, a couple of hours, a day, a week, a month, a year, however long they want.

~as an outsider~ There doesn't appear to be very much difference between a misyar and a muta, except the mut'a has a specified time frame and the misyar doesn't.

The couple having chosen to get married will go to the Mullah, get married and will then receive a piece of paper which states they are married. Once the day, or hour of the dissolvement of the marriage arrives then it is no longer valid and it’s all over.

The key thing here to note is that for a woman, she has absolutely no rights with regards to children, money or property. However, it is said as finding husbands becomes harder, Gulf women are contemplating this marriage as an option. (In Saudi, apparently only half the female population of marriageable aged is married).

Consequently, in October 2004 there was an advert across the top of one of the Saudi newspapers announcing 20 Saudi women were looking for a misyar marriage.

The newspaper stated the rules of the marriage would be as follows;
1. the couple would get married
2. she would continue to live in her parents house
3. at no time should she tell the husband’s other wife she existed

The newspaper reported that within a week they had had 4,000 male applicants.
















Image taken from:
progressiveislam.org/tags/marriage



Who uses the Misyar and Mut'a?
"All the misyar marriage contracts I conduct are between men and women remarrying,” said Abu Fawaz, who’s been a marriage official for four years. “For a misyar marriage all you need is witnesses, her dowry and the acceptance of both parties.

Usually the woman either has her own place or lives with her family. Most of the time the woman’s family knows while the man’s family is in the dark about it, be it his first wife or any other family members.”


Further Information
Articles which give a lot more details on the ins and outs ~so to speak~ of misyars and mat'as can be found at:
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9&section=0&article=64891
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16308
http://www.islamhouse.com/p/188832


Urban Legend
One expatriate woman married her Gulf husband with a mut'a temporary marriage and when they went for the ceremony, the Mullah would only give them a certificate for 33 years. When she told me about it she was laughing ... but it does mean after 33 years of marriage she will have no rights what-so-ever to any of the joint property and would be unable to keep any of the household items, no matter how small.

Finally, if the marriage was dissolved by her husband she would have no legal visiting rights to any of their children {see wgaw blog archive: pre-nups}.