Part-time marriage is the latest cause of célèbre in the Arab world as an Egyptian scholar has rendered part-time marriages an Islamically legal solution to the rising divorce rate in the country. Dr. Ahmed Karima, a Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University Egypt, sparked controversy after calling part-time marriage in accordance with Sharia.
According to Dr. Karima, the conditions for marriage in Sharia include consent between both parties, testimony, and dowry. He said that if mentioned conditions are met, the subsequent marriage is legitimate as it entails rights shared inheritance, cohabitation, and intimacy in a legitimate way.
“If the woman agrees to be a second wife and agrees that the husband does not provide her with housing or that he does not spend the night with her then in this case the marriage is permissible,” he said.
However, Dr Karima discouraged the generalization of part-time marriages instead of regular marriages as not all families accept this matter.
Since Dr. Karima’s statement, the “part-time marriage” initiative topped Google search engines during the past week, and opinions differed between supporters and opponents. The idea was initially put forward by Dr. Ahmed Mahran, an Egyptian lawyer, and specialist in family issues. Dr. Ahmed had published a video clip on the social networking site Facebook explaining the meaning and context of part-time marriage. 
In Egypt, there are 2.6 million divorced women, most of whom are under the age of thirty. Ahmed Mahran pitched part-time marriage as a “solution” to the “plight” of millions of divorcees.
According to Mahran, part-time marriage is when a husband takes a second wife but instead of living with her would just visit her for a few hours a week. He also said that a mutual husband or a borrowed husband, even for one day per week, is better than the divorce and moral deviation the society has reached.
“People think that I am coming up with a new idea, or this is an invention or a new system that I am inventing, the truth is not like that at all. Part-time marriages have always been there, but no one knows their name. The whole story is that I gave it a name, and tried to explain it to people,” Dr. Ahmed says in the video.
Many people are equating part-time marriage with Nikah mut’ah or “temporary marriage” in which the duration of the marriage must be agreed upon in advance. Mut’ah is a private and verbal temporary marriage contract that is practiced in Shia Islam. 
Dr. Mahran clarified that the part-time marriage is not the same as “Nikah mut’ah” nor a misyar marriage (traveler’s marriage). In his opinion, part-time marriages do not violate the condition of justice as it is based on agreement and consent. The condition that the overnight stay is about one day a week is also in accordance with the conditions of polygamy.
Women across the Muslim world, however, have rejected Mahran’s suggestions. Most women are calling it a way of reducing them to cheap and humiliating commodities. They say that if they want to marry, they will look for a husband that wants to spend time with them and take responsibility.
Social media has been divided after the stirred controversy. Few people liked the concept, while others considered it to be forbidden by Sharia and said it must be buried. Others accused Ahmed Mahran of seeking the demolition of family values by spreading immorality and facilitating adultery through part-time marriages.
The Dar Al Iftaa, Egyptian Islamic advisory, the justiciary, and governmental body warned against “out of love” marriage contracts with aim of destabilizing “family values.”
“We should not be drawn behind the calls for modern terminology in marriage which has increased in recent times wherein lies a love of showing off and fame and destabilization of values, which creates confusion in society and negatively affects the meaning of stability and cohesion of the family that our religion seeks and the state has nurtured through laws,” the Dar Al-Iftaa posted a tweet on its official Twitter account.
It is not the first time Dr. Mahran proposing a controversial solution to marital instabilities. Last year Mahran had suggested the couples try “experimental marriage.” The couples were to draw up a marriage contract containing articles agreed on by the couple and if one of them breaks it they must pay financial rights to the other to end the union.
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