Planet wide, societies are undergoing fundamental changes which only those who have read the Book can fully appreciate. The Koran, in conjunction with the example of the Prophet, is slowly e.g. Europe (in some places not so slowly e.g. Africa and the Middle East) inexorably changing how people live and die.

One inexorable change, which one day may be the norm everywhere as it was then, is sexual exploitation, even if done in a marriage setting, of those whom Western law considers children when it comes to consenting to intercourse and the traumatic, often deadly consequences, of giving birth at such a young age.

Many parents who escaped Islamic State to where secular laws meant to protect young girls from sexual exploitation are no longer enforced e.g. Lebanon as they were when they lived in relative peace under the Assad regime, are marrying their young daughters to adult males in the hope it will provide them with some protection when holy warriors again appear on the horizon bent on rape and pillage, like during the time fondly remembered as the Golden Age of Islam, Khaibar being the poster child for what went on then.

When photographer Laura Aggio Caldon spent several months with Syrian war refugees last year in Lebanon, she met a pregnant mother whose life was consumed with three things: cleaning house, reading the Quran and raising a 1-year-old boy. Her name was Marwa. She was only 15.

Marwa is one of countless girls under 18 who have been married off by their parents in hopes of protecting them from the horrors of Syria's civil war. These marriages, Caldon said, are creating a "lost generation."

The practice is another dark consequence from the nearly five-year war as civilians struggle to survive the fighting between government troops, rebel forces and ISIS terrorists. Many Syrian families try to protect their young daughters from poverty and war by marrying off their girls to men sometimes twice their age …

Syria's 'lost generation' of girls. CNN January 19, 2016

Bernard Payeur