Q1216: Should, after divorce, the custody of a 3-year old girl be given to such a sexually perverted mother who has been convicted of liaison and thus sentenced to flogging?

A: The custody of a child should not be given to a mother who is not physically or morally and mentally qualified for that.

Q1217: I am a divorced woman with a 9-year old son. We divorced when I was carrying a two-month old fetus, and I have lived and brought up my son in my father's house ever since. My ex-husband has repeatedly declared that he does not want to get the custody of the child and besides that, the child is not interested in him. Taking all these into consideration and that my ex is a perverted man, do I have the right to take the child abroad with me? Can I gain the permanent custody of the child or will it be given to his father as his legal guardian?

A: In my view, the custody of children, irrespective of their gender, must be given to their mother until the age of seven; the natural guardian of children is their father or paternal grand father or the children's mother from a legal point of view; in case the father is not present, according to the noble Quranic verse, “but the blood relatives are more entitled to inherit from one another” (Al-Anfal:8:75), the mother should be given priority over the paternal grandfather, and if the mother is not present either, the custody should be given to the paternal grandfather whose guardianship is permanent and constant, unless the Islamic judge determines that he does not maintain the child's interests, considerations and well-being and would cause the child moral corruption, and financial, physical or physiological damages; In this latter case, the Islamic judge removes the guardian and gives the custody of the child to someone else.