By JEDDAH: DIANA AL-JASSEM, ARAB NEWS STAFF
Published: Mar 24, 2012 23:51 Updated: Mar 24, 2012 23:51

Saudi women fail in misyar marriages due to low awareness of their rights and duties.

A misyar marriage is a marriage created to fulfill the needs of both the man and woman, with the two parties giving up several rights, such as housing, equal division of nights between wives in case of polygamy, maintenance money and the husband’s right of home keeping. Despite the amount of information on misyar marriage rights and duties online, most women in Saudi Arabia are still confused about the issue.

Statistics issued by the Center for Women’s Studies in Saudi Arabia confirm that 18 percent of Saudi women know their rights, while 32 percent assert they absolutely do not know what their rights are.

The majority knows little, while 48 percent of the women know some rights. The study also indicates that 28 percent of Saudi women believe Saudi law doesn’t help them obtain their rights, while 40 percent of Saudi women blame men for not allowing them to get their rights.

Women who get married through misyar sometimes complain that their husbands ignore them for months without even calling them. Women raise the question whether they are protected or not. They confirm that despite getting married officially through contract and witnesses, men still treat them like adulteresses.

Umm Mashari, a Saudi widow aged 46, married a young Saudi man through misyar marriage. Despite the fact that a misyar marriage should be made public, her husband persuaded her not to tell anyone about it, except her sons.

“I got married to a Saudi man who is already married. He asked me not to announce the marriage or even say his name in front of my neighbors, and I obeyed him. Since we got married two months ago, he visited me once. He spent a few hours with me and left,” she said.

Umm Mashari added, “I was studying at a literacy school, but he banned me from going to school. He stopped me from going out unless he allows me. He also prevents me from wearing makeup or attending any weddings. I have been obeying him since we got married, but when I call him to ask his permission he does not answer. He once answered the phone, but he insulted me and warned me against calling him again.”

According to Umm Mashari, she doesn’t know anything about her husband, and she cannot reach him.

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From the LookLEX Encyclopedia:

Misyar marriage
Arabic: ‘al-misyar

Marriage institution in Islam, allowing for a lesser form of relationship between man and woman than normal marriage, zawaj. Misyar is an official relationship between man and woman, but does not involve that the two live together, nor that the man is economically responsible.

Misyar allows the man to have a normal wife in a addition to his misyar-wife(s). The misyar wife is expected to live with her parents, and her husband can visit her according to a predetermined schedule.
Misyar has been practiced in Saudi Arabia and Egypt for years. It was officially legalized by the Egyptian Sunni Imam Shaykh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi in February 1999, and the Mufti of Egypt has also been defending the arrangement of misyar.

Misyar has been widely discussed through the year of 1998. Misyar has met strong opposition from scholars outside Egypt, but also from many in Egypt, especially among scholars at the al-Azhar University in Cairo. Defenders of misyar claim that the arrangement is in accordance with Islam. They also say that it gives protection to many women who do not find husbands in the more traditional way.
Misyar has many similarities with mut’a, practiced in Shi’i Islam, except for the preceding definition of duration. But misyar can easily be terminated with standard divorce, making it quite possible to form temporary marriage of even short periods.