On August 17, 2021, the Associated Press reported that Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised that the Taliban would honor women’s rights, but “within the norms of Islamic law.” Most people would applaud such a statement of honoring women’s rights, even without knowing what the “norms of Islamic law” meant. Surely it must mean something good, because isn’t Islam peaceful and aren’t Muslim women equal to Muslim men?
Five years later, in May 2026, the New York Post reported that the Taliban, while promising to honor women’s rights, had formally legitimized child marriages, treating the girls as sellable property. The price of a child bride reportedly ranges between $500 and $3,000, according to human rights groups. The regulation also provides that the silence of a “virgin girl” may be interpreted as consent to marriage.
This situation is not unique to Afghanistan. Islamic expert Robert Spencer reports that Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said in January 2018 that under Islamic law, girls as young as nine can marry.
Ishaq Akintola, professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Nigeria, said: “Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this.”
Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ubeidi, an Iraqi expert on Islamic law, stated: “There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.”
Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, stated: “There is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married ‘even if they are in the cradle.’”
The Pakistan Council of Islamic Ideology holds that “Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.”
It’s important to note that mothers have little to no say regarding their children. Lawful guardianship is vested with the father, the father’s father, brother, brother’s son, and father’s brother. None of these individuals may marry a family female if a family member higher on the list exists. (Quran, m3.7) Another perfect example of equality.
One of Muhammad’s outrageously “perfect” examples was marrying Aisha at age six and consummating the marriage when she turned nine years of age; Muhammad was 54. (Bukhari 7.62.88 & 5.58.234) Islamic doctrine reflects that Muhammad had eleven wives and numerous sexual concubines.
It is well worth examining some of these norms of Islamic law and ideology. Islam considers Muhammad to be the perfect example for all Muslims to follow. The Quran says in 91 verses that every Muslim must copy Muhammad in the smallest detail. It is also important to note that the examples and traditions of Muhammad, which can be characterized as “norms,” are not only historical but also prescriptive. Because Muslims must copy Muhammad in the smallest of details, this means that modern-day Muslims are relegated to live just as they did over 1400 years ago.
Women, individually and collectively, must educate themselves about this destructive ideology, which renders women as second-class citizens.
The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law (Sharia) is contained in the Reliance of the Traveller (ROT) by Ahmad ibn Naqib Al-Misri (B. 1302, D. 1367), translated into English by Nuh Ha Mim Keller and recognized in 1990 by Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani, President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, located in Herndon, Virginia.
Islam is an invasive ideological system whose doctrinal goal is worldwide domination and the imposition of sharia law. “Among the things that entail apostacy from Islam are:… (20) to deny that Allah intended the Prophet’s message to be the religion followed by the entire world.” (ROT o8.7(20))
The Quran (Chapter 65: verse 4) allows for sexual intercourse with a prepubescent female. Sharia allows for the marriage of prepubescent females. (ROT m3.9) (These examples continue today in many Islamic and non-Islamic countries worldwide.
Islamic law (e4.3) states that circumcision is obligatory for both men and women. For females, this is called female genital mutilation (FGM) and is illegal in the United States. The Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPII) 2025 study finds global female genital mutilation rates are higher than previously estimated, with up to 304 million women affected. The study utilizes numerical data from 77 countries in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Bill Warner, PhD, in his 2020 book Measuring Mohammed, reported that a review of the Quran (12,066 words of Allah) regarding the status of women found low status at 71.8%, equal status at 23.0%, and high status at 5.3%. A review of the Hadith (4,205 pages of the words and actions of Muhammad) regarding the status of women found low status at 89.04%, equal status at 10.0%, and high status at only 0.06%.
Muhammad said that the majority of inhabitants in Hell were women. When asked why this was so, Muhammad replied, “O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell were women.” They asked, “Why is that so, O Allah’s Apostle?” Muhammad replied, “You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious, sensible man could be led astray by some of you.” The women asked, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion? Muhammad replied, “Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?” They agreed that that was the case. Muhammad said, “This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn’t it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?” The woman replied that this was so. He said, “This is the deficiency in her religion.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 1, Book 6, No.301)
Within the norms of Islamic law;
- Married women may be beaten by their husbands (ROT m10.12; Quran 4:34),
- Muslim women may only marry a Muslim man (ROT m4.2 & m6.7(5)),
- Muslim men may marry a Muslim, Christian, or Jew (ROT m6.7(5)
- Muslim women may only have one husband.
- Muslim men may marry up to four women. (ROT m5.2)
- Muslim women must have the permission of their husbands to leave their homes. (ROT m10.4 & m10.12(2))
- The testimony of one man is equal to the testimony of two women. (ROT o24.7(2))A
- Muslim man may force sex on his wife (ROT m5.1)
- Male Guardians may marry their daughters without their daughters’ consent. Mothers have no say in the matter. (ROT m3.13)
- A Muslim woman has no right to custody of her child from a previous marriage when she remarries (ROT m13.4)
- A father or mother is not subject to retaliation for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring (honor killing) (ROT o1.2(4))
- When a person (Muslim) who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed. (ROT o8.2)
- Apostasy includes, among many things, denying any verse of the Quran. (ROT o8.7(7)) and to deny that Allah intended the Prophet’s message to be the religion followed by the entire world. (ROT o8.7(20)
- Stoning is proscribed for Muslims who commit fornication or sodomy. (ROT o12.2)
- Amputation is proscribed for theft, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. (ROT o14.1)
- Scourging is proscribed for drinking alcohol. (ROT o16.3)
- Death is proscribed for adultery. (ROT o5.4)
- Death is proscribed for leaving Islam. (Bukhari 3017)
- Death is proscribed for sodomy and lesbianism. The Prophet said: “Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him. Lesbianism by women is adultery between them.” (ROT p17.3 (1)(3))
- Masculine women and effeminate men. The Prophet said: “Men are already destroyed when they obey women. The Prophet cursed effeminate men and masculine women. The Prophet cursed men who wear women’s clothing and women who wear men’s clothing.” (ROT p28.1)
- Women wearing false hair and the like. The Prophet said: “Allah cursed women who wear false hair or arrange it for others, who tattoo or have themselves tattooed, who pluck facial hair or eyebrows or have them plucked, and women who separate their front teeth for beauty, altering what Allah has created.” (ROT p59.1)
Islamic law states, “A people that leaves its leadership to a woman will never succeed.” (o25.3(d)).
This is not a complete list of every Islamic law that impacts Muslim women, but clearly, Sharia-adherent Muslim women live in a modern-day hell. Other issues involve inheritance, business, prayers during menses, child brides, and sex slaves.
The late Robert H. Jackson, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, stated in the foreword of the book, Law in the Middle East, Origins and Development of Islamic Law, 1955;
“In its source, its scope, and its sanctions, the law of the Middle East (Sharia) is the antithesis of Western law. American law does not prescribe religious duties; indeed, it consciously omits them. Islamic law, on the contrary, finds its chief source in the will of Allah as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The state itself is subordinate to the Quran, which leaves little room for additional legislation, none for criticism or dissent. Since God (Allah) is Himself the sole Legislator, there can be no room in Islamic political theory for legislation or legislative powers, whether enjoyed by a temporal ruler or by any kind of assembly. There can be no “sovereign state,” in the sense that the state has the right of enacting its own law… The Law (Sharia) precedes the State, both logically and in terms of time; and the State exists for the sole purpose of maintaining and enforcing the (Islamic) Law.”
This information raises the question: where are all the feminists and women’s groups fighting for women’s rights? Muslim women in America and Western countries live under the heavy hand of Sharia. America is currently experiencing the Islamification of our culture. Western women don’t want any part of Islam once they understand the Islamic doctrine that dictates their inferiority in every respect. Appeasing Islam without challenge is cultural suicide. An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat them last.
American women must take action now and educate themselves with respect to this oppressive and destructive Islamic ideology. This goes for our elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels. To do otherwise means we are teetering on the eve of destruction.
