The final solution - part two

Recap:

Based on the fact that Islam requires a girl’s acceptance before she can be engaged, if she is not fit to give her own opinion on a marriage she should not be engaged. If a mentally retarded girl, who desires marriage, she could give her consent, and it has been the practice in Arab societies that both men and women who are mentally retarded are permitted and even encouraged to marry....

Since a girl’s consent is required, one would think that the girl would be mature enough to decide for herself whether she desired a certain marriage partner or not. This is the case today in most Muslim-majority societies. Sadly, there are cases when girls are forced to accept marriage, but that is not sanctioned in Islam.

Ancient Arabia:

 For example, the girls were not prevented from early marriage due to the need of the hour. Muslims in ancient Arabia gave women and girls more rights, and the women were free to marry or refuse marriage to men they didn’t want; girls were not prevented from marriage if they desired to marry, this gave many girls protection from abuse by fathers who would have already felt burdened (in the early days of Islam) from the great change which Islam forced by preventing female infanticide. This was a very great change for the society, elevated the status of girls, but could not prevent the rancor or male chauvinism, which still existed at the time regarding female children. Nowadays we take for granted tht girls are loved as much as boys, but the fact of the matter was that Islam had saved girls, but at the same time could not prevent the abuse of every girl in the society, therefore, Muslims were permitted to marry off their daughters at an early age. Allah knows best his creatures, and at the time of revelation of the Quran people were not ready for a complete change of heart regarding girls. They needed time to adopt the attitude that females are equal to males, and that was not only the Muslims, but also non-Muslims living in Muslim lands, including the pagan Arabs, almost up until the death of Muhammad. Therefore, Islam protected the female children of both Muslims and non-Muslims as much as was possible at the time of revelation.

Change is a desireable:

If  we compare some societies today, which live in relative cut-off from modern society, who lack education and communication, as well as the modern understanding of liberites and freedom and human rights, then we see that they compare much more with anciet peoples and contrast greatly with modern civilization and societies. For this reason, it is not possible to effect change in those societies without proper understanding nor cooperation. Americans and others would like to subdue such people, who they often descirbe in the most hateful manner, to save the women and children, but such actions would only enrage the society. Change cannot be mandated or forced from outside, it must be made from within. We see that it doesn't take long, maybe one generation of educated females is enough to turn the tide on illiteracy, poverty, and female and infant mortality rates, or death in childbirth rate.