TAIF, 12 October 2007 — The phenomenon of women initiating penpal relationships that lead to marrying death row inmates is surprisingly common — at least for US death row inmates. For example, Doreen Lioy, a 41-year-old woman with an IQ of 152, married the infamous Satanist serial killer Richard Ramirez in 1996.
In 2002, Reuters reported that 10 women married death-row inmates over a five-year period in the state of Florida. Such marriages are periodically reported nationwide in the US, one of the countries with the highest number of death row inmates in the world.
But an engagement in Taif could very well be one of the first, if not the first, time a death-row inmate is setting up the marriage of his 16-year-old daughter to a fellow condemned man.
According to Al-Riyadh newspaper, Muhammad Ali Al-Zahrani talked his daughter, who was initially reluctant, into becoming engaged to Awad Eid Al-Harbi, who has been sentenced to public execution for murder.
In Islam, a woman retains the right to turn down potential grooms that have been approved by her legal male guardians (known as mahram, usually father) — albeit women face considerable familial pressure to agree to a marriage. But in this case Al-Zahrani says his daughter agreed after he “pointed out ... the conditions of marriage in Islam.”
According to Islam, grooms must be practicing Muslims with good behavior. So does that automatically rule out men on death row? Not according to Al-Zahrani, who says Al-Harbi is a good man.
“I also told her that nobody is sure of the time when he would die. It is the will of God,” said Al-Zahrani, father of the girl.
The family of the murder victim could still pardon Al-Harbi, who is from the Al-Hawiyah region in the north of Taif, and spare him execution, opening the way for him to be freed sometime in the future.
Al-Zahrani said he hoped that the wedding would be celebrated in a small way at the jail premises after the Eid holiday. He said the jail authorities would provide a secluded room as the bridal chamber for the meeting of the newlyweds.
“I hope the wedding would open the door of some virtuous deeds (such as some philanthropist taking the initiative for his pardon),” said Al-Zahrani.
What would motivate a father to marry his daughter to a man on death row? Al-Zahrani provided a clue.
“If the execution of my daughter’s husband is carried out,” he told the newspaper, “she would stay with his mother who will look after her.”
Or perhaps Al-Harbi is indeed a virtuous Muslim that fulfills the religious requirement for marriage to a Muslim girl. The newspaper quoted jail officials as saying both men are considered well-behaved inmates.
Perhaps only time will tell if this was a match made in heaven, unlike the marriage of Lioy and Ramirez.
