Misyar marriage

A misyar marriage (Arabic: نکاح المسيار, romanized: nikāḥ al-misyār or Arabic: زواج المسيار, romanized: zawāj al-misyār also “traveler” or "day" marriage), is a type of marriage contract allowed by some Sunni Muslims where the wife renounces some Islamic marital rights such as living together, the rights to housing and maintenance money (i.e. financial support or alimony, nafaqa), and where the husband foregoes the right to home-keeping and access (his right to have her act as his housekeeper).

Because the practice relieves the misyar husband of the obligation to support his wife, it is often used in some Islamic countries by men who cannot afford an orthodox marriage, and also to give a legal recognition to behavior that might otherwise be considered adulterous.

Although considered Islamically permissible by many Sunni scholars, the practices is socially stigmatized.

According to Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, the Egyptian Islamic advisory (fatwa) body, "misyar" is not a formal Arabic word and the etymology of the term "misyar marriage" is not entirely clear. However, it is apparently derived from the colloquial word, misyar, meaning to ‘stop by’ or ‘stay for a short time’, because in a "misyar" marriage a husband does not live with his wife but visits her at brief, irregular intervals.

That source also describes misyar marriage as similar to “day marriage”, a "kind of marriage that prevailed in the past". According to the Islamic scholar al-Kamal Ibn al-Humam, "there is no harm in marrying a woman and spending only the day with her without staying over."

The Sheikh of al-Azhar mosque, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi and theologian Yusuf Al-Qaradawi note in their writings and in their lectures that a major proportion of the few men who take a spouse in the framework of the misyar marriage are men who are married or women who are either divorced, widowed or beyond the customary marriage age. Shoshana Shmuluvitz writes that while misyar wives may live with their husbands they usually continue to live in their family homes and their husbands visit them. Because the bride is not required to ask her male guardian (father or paternal grandfather, etc.) to consent to her marriage (if she is not a virgin), the marriage may be — "and often is — kept secret". (But if she is a virgin, "she must have her guardian’s consent, and there must be at least two witnesses to the marriage. However, to maintain secrecy, brides often do not seek consent and many weddings go unwitnessed.") Misyar marriages differ from Shi'i mut'a marriages in that misyar and 'urfi marriages (unlike mut'a) may not have a "predetermined expiration date", and so may "theoretically last until death". However they "usually end in divorce or abandonment".

A couple of reports confirm its popularity in Saudi Arabia. A 2021 report from Arab Weekly, described the practice as "often" done secretly, as "a boon for cash-strapped men unable to afford expensive traditional weddings", but also denounced by critics as sanctioning promiscuity. CSIS reports that the practice has spread from Iran and the Arab Gulf to Egypt, where some clerics have defended it (unleashing "a storm of criticism") as an outlet for "the millions" of unmarried Egyptians over 30 who might otherwise never have a legitimate sexual relationship since the cost of marriage there (and elsewhere in the Middle East) is rising much faster than income.

Shmuluvitz describes two very different ways misyar is used and populations using it. One tending to be as a religiously legitimate way for older, wealthier married men to have affairs, often with younger women and girls from poor families who sell their daughters to the man for the mahr (bride price) when the man visits their area, but who are often abandoned by the man who doesn't bother divorcing her. In Middle Eastern society this leaves the woman or girl − who has lost their virginity, unmarriageable − and often lacking the means to sue their husbands for divorce and child support.