[Kitten Festival]

And who supports the children of these 'enjoyment' marriages? I've never heard of a more selfish setup in my life. Hideous idea, these rentawives, they're nothing more than pay-wives. You've heard of pay-telephones? They're pay-wives, kind of like the Johnny Chung subway. Yet these Shiites are the very puritans who call the West decadent.

[misterrob]

In a mutaa arrangement, the woman is entitled to payment only for the duration of the marriage

Sounds good to me.

[familyop]

That's a lot less than they get for essentially the same kind of arrangement over here.

[lightman]

As my seven term County District Attorney so eloquently puts it, "we all pay for sex."

[doc1019]

Prostitution by any other name is still prostitution. And here I thought that such things didn’t happen in the “pure” religion of Islam … silly me.

[cookcounty]

This is a big practice among the Shi'ites of Iran.

[xcamel]

lipstick and perls on a pig..
It's still prostitution.

[Lizavetta]

Thus began their "mutaa," or enjoyment marriage, a temporary union believed by Shiite Muslims to be sanctioned by Islamic law.

Translation: Modesty of women must be preserved and protected above all things!

......until the guy wants a warm place to put it.

[Theresawithanh]

Placemarking, expecting some interesting replies to this thread.

[ClearCase_guy]

[ArmstedFragg]

I think they've just reinvented the disco generation.

[Loyalist]

Wouldn't surprise me that this arrangement is common among Muslim men in the West with wives back in the homeland.

[KarlInOhio]

I guess "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" is easier to say that "do you need me to call you cab?"

[El Gato]

Why is there a "need" for such a temporary arrangement, when an Islamic man can marry up to four women, and can divorce any or all of them simply by saying "I divorce you", a certain number of times?

Compared to that, these women get a good deal, at least they get paid, and probably can break the "contract" if the so called "man" beats them.

Of course I don't imagine being party to such an arrangement does much for the woman's possibility of a more permanent type arrangement. Maybe as wife #4 or something.

[Cicero]

Four dollars up front. How generous of this "sheikh."

[CodeMasterPhilzar]

Doesn't sound too different from the way a lot of marriages are handled today, here. Oh wait, we're forgetting the part where about 1/3 of the couple's savings are spent an lawyers, and then the rest is divided up between the two.

Cast in that light, doesn't sound like a bad arrangement.

[The Old Hoosier]

We've brought back this sort of traditional Iraqi activity and we've also helped all the Christians in Iraq find new homelands in other places.

I'm so glad we liberated Iraq.

[NRA1995]

This is news??? Haven't Britney Spears and Madonna been doing this for years?