Kyrgyz spiritual leaders ban religious wedding with minors

Supreme Mufti and head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan Maksatbek Toktomushev issued a fatwa banning a religious wedding with minors under 18.

The press service of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan reported on Friday that the fatwa, or decree, applies to all the priests of regions and cities, as well as teachers of religious schools.

In late November President Almazbek Atambayev signed a law banning the religious marriage rites without official registration of a marriage in the registry office. The religious consecration of marriage with minors is punishable with imprisonment of three to five years.

According to official data, 15 percent of women in Kyrgyzstan are married before the legal age.

Currently, there are about 2,700 mosques in the republic and 67 madrasas.

The religious marriage rite called "nikah" is the actual entry into marriage in Islam.

While in 1960s less than half the population of Kyrgyzstan practised Islam, in connection with the relatively high natural growth among the Asian people and emigration of the inhabitants of European origin, at present the share of Muslims in the country's population is approaching 90 percent. Endi