CAIRO, April 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Saudi Arabia banned Tuesday, April 12, forced marriages, warning fathers and male relatives of the victimized brides that they will end up in prison.

“Those following this pre-Islamic distasteful tradition will not be released until they change their minds,” Kingdom Mufti and Head of the Council of Veteran Scholars Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh said in statements carried by the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

He cited a 1989 fatwa that coercing women into marrying someone they dislike or preventing them tying the knot with appealing suitors is un-Islamic and unlawful.

“Those suitors, particularly male relatives, who blackmail women into marrying them will face the same fate,” Al-Sheikh warned.

“They are indeed doing great injustice to these women” Al-Sheikh said. “In doing so, they disobey God and his Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The 1989 religious edict was motivated by the incident of a woman from the southwestern city of Al-Asir district.

The woman and her father were open to blackmail from her cousin, who threatened to harm them if she got married to a suitor.

Abdel Aziz Al-Qasim, a Shari`ah expert, told the Arabic language daily that forced marriages in Saudi Arabia are primarily aimed at benefiting from women.

“The greedy coercers are a drain on women’s inheritance or wealth,” he said.

Qasim also expressed concerns about red tape and foot-dragging in Saudi courts in settling lawsuits filed by women.

“It might take them three years to get a court verdict,” he said.

Qasim said many women skip courts and seek to reach settlement with the coercers to spare themselves the heavy psychological burden and painstaking efforts to have a fair ruling.

Rather, it is necessary to seek her consent and permission due to the hadith of the Prophet (PBUH): “The virgin is not to be married until her consent has been sought.”