Khan disingenuously blames India, and specifically its entertainment industry, for the rise in rapes in Pakistan, but there is a cause that is closer to hand that he ignores. The man whom Khan invokes as his role model, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and because Muhammad is the “excellent example” for Muslims (Qur’an 33:21), child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world.
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.
Then there was Safiyya bint Huyayy. Muhammad killed her father and her husband during the raid on the Jews at Khaybar. After the massacre was completed, on the way out of Khaybar that night, Muhammad halted his caravan as soon as they were outside the oasis, pitched a tent, and “consummated the marriage.” Remember, her father and brother had just been killed, and then she was raped by their killer.
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.
Then there was Safiyya bint Huyayy. Muhammad killed her father and her husband during the raid on the Jews at Khaybar. After the massacre was completed, on the way out of Khaybar that night, Muhammad halted his caravan as soon as they were outside the oasis, pitched a tent, and “consummated the marriage.” Remember, her father and brother had just been killed, and then she was raped by their killer.
