A Rose By Any Other Name

Have you ever heard of muta'a? It means ecstasy in Arabic — but a truer definition might be prostitution.

Saddam Hussein outlawed the practice in Iraq; it’s generally looked down upon by the Sunni Muslims. However, the Shi’ites have Mohammed on their side as he is supposed to have recommended it as a way for widows to earn extra income.

Muta’a is a pleasure marriage, a temporary arrangement lasting from an hour to a decade, depending upon the ability of the man willing to pay for such an arrangement.

A turbaned Shiite cleric who issues wedding permits from a street-side counter in Sadr City says he encourages permanent marriages but gives the OK for pleasure marriages when there are "special reasons"...{he} grants licenses for muta'a in cases where the woman is widowed or divorced, or for single women who have approval from their fathers.

Your probably don’t need to be told that this arrangement is legal only for men. Women cannot and do not initiate any such arrangement.

According to the news report,

	Most Shiite scholars today consider it halal, or religiously legal. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority in Shiite Islam, sets conditions and obligations for muta'a on his Web site. ("A woman with whom temporary marriage is contracted is not entitled to share the conjugal bed of her husband and does not inherit from him ...")
	Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and other Shiite lawmakers have said they want Iraq's new constitution to use the sharia, or Islamic law, as its basis. That could give muta'a formal legal protection. Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who are mainly Sunni, oppose the idea. But the practice is growing among Sunnis and Shiites alike.

Why is this not surprising?

The renaissance of the pleasure marriage coincides with a revival of other Shiite traditions long suppressed by the former regime. Interest in Shiite customs has accelerated since Shiite parties swept Jan. 30 elections to become the biggest bloc in the new National Assembly.

Good on them. It hardly bears thinking about what the “revival of other Shiite traditions” might entail.

Meanwhile, with the addition of each new Arabic word to our rather sheltered vocabulary, there is no commensurate addition of esteem for a supposedly poetic language. If this be poetry, let's hear it for prosaic Anglo-Saxon.