When a friend in Universiti Malaya e-mailed me news of the 'misyar' marriage in the local press, I replied that I have not heard of such a thing. There is, of course, the very well-known Shia mut'a marriage (a contract whose duration is determined by parties) which is viewed rather dimly by the Sunni school as being jurisprudentially suspect by their standards.

Malaysians are largely Shafii-Sunni. At the official level, our family laws include a variety of opinions from the Hanafi and Maliki jurists of the Sunni school. Anything Shia is taboo, thus mut'a is out of the question but the Sunni-driven misyar is a-ok.

A quick check on the Internet reveals that the misyar - or travellers' marriage - originates from the practice or 'urf (custom) of Saudi Arabian males. One site claims an antiquity dating back to 1825 in Egypt. It is quite interesting how easily the practice of particular males in one place is recommended as a practice to all and sundry and over females.