"Islam does not care for the feelings of ignorant people, just as the law does not protect the idiots."

This is a great statement. I think I'm going to make it my email signature. Ha.

Thanks so much for telling us about this. After the news yesterday of the murder of the lady politician in Pakistan, I was feeling like hell. This makes me feel so much better.

It's one thing to say that a man must not ask for proof of virginity or stress that the hymen is not an indicator of virginity and quite another to promote a practice of reconstructing the hymen.

Personally, I see THAT as promoting lying - even if the woman has sincerely repented and is under no obligation to inform her husband.  It's just promoting lying. 

Not only that, but it allows piety (because let's face it that is what it is about) to those who are capable of paying for it, while those underprivelaged girls whose hymen seriously wore away due to physical activity or possibly even worse were raped can't afford piety.

I think it is sad.

I've always wondered what it is about a "girl's virginity" that was so 'sacred' as opposed to a guy's. Both men and women are supposed to be chaste in Islam, with no emphasis put on just one gender.

Anyway, this is a great sign, al-Hamdulillaah! :)

Salam alaikum,

While I obviously heartily approve of this fatwa, this is black-letter Maliki doctrine from the middle ages, I mean, that the hymen is irrelevant to virginity, that the husband has no right that his bride be a virgin, even if she is represented to be a virgin, and to go one step further, the guardian of a girl believed to be a virgin is under an obligation to conceal her true condition.  The reason for this rule is (i) to protect her privacy and (ii) its legal irrelevance to the husband, despite his desire that she be a virgin.  Finally, a husband who accuses his wife of having engaged in pre-marital intercourse is subject to punishment as a slanderer.

 Mohammad Fadel

A similar story that might be of interest.

First paragraph:

Cairo, 21 Feb. (AKI) - Local officials of Egypt's religious affairs ministry have refused to apply a circular issued by the minister ordering any murshidat (female preachers) wearing the full-face niqab to be removed from mosques and put to administrative tasks. The aim of the measure, according to the independent daily al-Masri al-Yom was to ensure that the recently appointed woman preachers did not contribute to spreading too strict or radical an interpretation of Islam. "How can we stop these women carrying out their job and punish them for virtuous behaviour, according to the precepts of the Koran?" one mosque official told the paper.

Reminds me of Turkey's Hijab ban.

This is the sort of reform that is possible and will be welcomed by a majority of people. It is idiotic (Islamically) for society to place value for chastity on one and not the other. Or for people to forget that primarily, the Qur'an is talking to the individual believer to behave since you're not going to get four eye-witnesses to a private criminal act. What the Al-Azhar scholars have said is directly in tune with traditional Islamic values that the majority of devout, moderate Sunnis, Shi'as, Salafis and Usuli (madhabi) Sufis already believe in. There is a lot we can do, and it would help if we stay true to the teachings while propagating these values. I mean the latest from Bob Spencer, UBL, or  even Manji and Nomani is going to get a lot of airtime. It is up to us to get air time to simple things such as that Qur'an calls both males and females to modesty, or that Muslims, Christians, and Jews should all be thinking how we can give universal health coverage.

This is the generally accepted rule amongst the majority of sunni traditionalist scholars. This fatwa has more to do with social reform if anything, more of a "reminder" fatwa than anything else, with good purpose.

Will people confuse this with reform of Islam (which of course those who some may call "fundamentalists" will oppose), as opposed to just a restatement (not meant w/the american legal connotation) of the law?