Ustaz lambasted for saying girls should wed at 15
PETALING JAYA: Moderation advocates have condemned controversial preacher ustaz Azhar Idrus’ statement saying Muslim girls are marriageable at 15 and should not take photos in non-Muslim owned photo studios.
Ustaz Azhar Idrus made a statement when answering a query about the boundaries between men and women in a reader’s question-and-answer section on PAS party organ Harakah Daily.
He said, however, that girls are getting married at a later age due to education opportunities and by the time they are finished with university they are about 28 years old.
“But at 28, no one would want to marry them and even if there were, the women’s value has dropped,” he said in the Dec 25 article.
“Women are only worth RM15 or RM16 at age 28.”
Azhar added it is haram (forbidden) for teenagers of a marriageable age to befriend men unless the intention is to marry the men.
“Even after finishing school, it is haram to befriend men in any way at all,” he said.
In a question about men keeping photos of other women, Azhar requested Muslim women not to take photos at photo studios owned by non-Muslims.
“Do not take photos at non-Muslim establishments because it is shameful if your children or wife’s photo fall into the hands of non-Muslims,” he said, saying that the photos may be misused.
When contacted, G25 spokesman Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said Azhar should be investigated for sedition over his “racist” statement.
She said Azhar and his archaic views are dangerous to Malaysia’s multiracial society as he has a big following and has the potential to influence others, especially in a country where people have a tendency to blindly follow their ustaz’s word.
“In Islam, our Prophets honoured women. Women had many rights, were given property and even the Prophet’s wife Khadijah binti Khuwaylid was a businesswoman, but in this 21st century we have this ustaz who think that women are commodities and not human beings,” Noor Farida said.
“In this day and age, women have careers and choices and to say that (older) women are not marriageable and be reduced to RM15, it’s deplorable. To say that women should marry at 15 is encouraging child marriages.”
“The language used by Azhar is not only harmful as it perpetuates child marriages but it promotes a culture that continuously puts women in a compromising angle that objectifies and sexualises her,” Sisters in Islam concurs.
Moderation advocate Mohamed Tawfik Ismail said Azhar’s response is his personal opinion rather than based on the Quran.
“The Prophet married Khadijah when she was over 40 years old and yet the ustaz can flippantly value a woman of 28 at RM15. What verse is he quoting?” Tawfik questioned.