Djabr Definition:

Also presented as jabar.

Under Muslim law, the father of a number of prerogatives including a right to inflict corporal punishment, a right to rent out the services of his male children and a right to djabr - to oblige his son or daughter into marriages (nikah) of his choosing upon their having attained puberty, their consent notwithstanding.

According to the tenets of Muslim law, the nikar must be in the child's best interest and not in the sole interest of the father.

Mulla writes:

“The right to contract a minor in marriage belongs successively to the father, paternal grandfather how high soever, and brother and other male relations on the father’s side....

“When a minor has been contracted in marriage by the father or father’s father, the contract of marriage is valid and binding and it cannot be annulled by the minor on attaining puberty.”

As with other principles of Muslim law, many jurisdictions have prohibited djabr.

REFERENCES:

• Blanc, F.-P. and Milliot, L., Introduction à l’Étude du Droit Musulman (Paris : Dalloz, 2001), page 420
• Mulla, D., Principles of Mahomedan Law, 14th Ed. (Bombay: The Eastern Law House, 1955), page 241.