Free Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri

recommended that his proposal should not be rejected. The Prophet is reported to have said: “Whenever you receive a proposal for marriage to your daughter from a man whose virtue and piety pleases you, then give him her hand in marriage. For if you do not do this way, great scandals and lapses will fill the earth.”
    Arranged marriages can be either temporary or permanent, and can be arranged by either a grandfather or a father, but not by a brother. Although most arranged marriages occur in Muslim households, all Arabs follow this tradition. Many families claim that they allow a woman to make the final decision about her marriage, but this is just not so. In truth, if a woman decides that she doesn’t want to marry a certain man, a verse from the Koran is invoked, which ultimately voids her decision and leaves the final choice up to her father. The verse states that one should fear one’s father in the same way one would fear a cruel king, and that one should give priority to his desires over one’s own. In essence, a father only has to state that it is his desire for his daughter to marry a certain man and she is required to oblige.
    In Jordan, the laws that apply to marriage were a minefield of dangers for Dalia and Michael. For instance, a Muslim
    woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and a Muslim man cannot permanently marry a non-Muslim woman who is not Ahlul Kitab (Jewish or Christian). There are certain sects, such as Khawarij, Ghulat and Nawasib, who claim to be Muslim but who are classified as non-Muslims. Muslim men and women cannot contract a permanent or temporary marriage with them. In essence, a Muslim man can marry a non-Muslim woman, but a Muslim woman does not have the same privilege. Muslims believe that children are the property of the father, since they carry his name. If a Muslim male marries a non-Muslim female, his children are Muslim. However, if a Muslim woman marries a non-Muslim man, her children would belong to her non-Muslim husband and so the union is prohibited.
    Another set of laws governs a woman’s duties as a wife and mother. It is hara am for a married woman to go out of the house without her husband’s permission. She must also submit herself to her husband’s sexual desires and should not prevent him from having intercourse with her without a justifiable excuse. As long as she does not fail in her duties, her husband is required to feed, clothe, and house her. However, “If the wife does not fulfill her matrimonial duties towards her husband, she will not be entitled to the food, clothes or housing, even if she continues to live with him.”
    These laws place women in a no-win situation. Most Muslim women cannot work and so do not have their own income. Therefore, in order for a woman to get the things she needs to survive food, clothing, medicines-she has to obey all of her husband’s requests and demands or else he doesn’t have to feed her. In reality, these laws mean that if a woman wishes to live, she must
    obey.
    And so in this stifling climate of laws, a modest beauty salon
    in Amman became the stage for an epic struggle between the almost blinding force of Islam and a fragile hara am forbidden love.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Jehan joined the conspiracy on the twenty-third day of the sixth month, known as June or AKA by Arabic or Islamic calendars. That was the day she began coming to the salon. She had completed her term of classes at Jordan University and was now on summer break.
    By June, Jordan begins to feel like an airless furnace with temperatures starting at 86 degrees Fahrenheit and steadily climbing until they have reached well into the high nineties. Jordan is an arid country, with an annual rainfall somewhere below two hundred millimetres. The many wild flowers that blanket the fields in the valley Wadi as-Seer, near Amman, begin to shrivel in the gruelling heat for lack of water. All along streets and highways vendors sell roasted houmous -green chick peas roasted in