Time-limited marriages or so-called "marriages of pleasure" are a practice within Shia Islam that are officially described as shorter relationships within the framework of the religion.

But Uppdrag review was able to reveal that it also functioned as a kind of religiously sanctioned prostitution.

Where imams have been paid to marry vulnerable women in "marriage of pleasure" to men who want to buy casual sex. 



See the full report:

Buying sex in the name of Allah - what happened next?

Stopped the contributions

The revelation attracted a lot of attention.

One who reacted was police chief Petra Stenkula in Malmö.

- If I had been the head of the preliminary investigation, I would probably have drawn up a report on human trafficking, she said in connection with the review.  

The umbrella organization Islamic Shiasamfunden in Sweden (ISS) acted and froze the membership and stopped the contributions for twelve designated associations.

They also started their own investigation, which is now complete.  

- We have asked questions to all congregations, to imams and talked to our members.

We have gone deep into what has happened, says Haider Ibrahim, chairman of ISS. 

Religious leaders are allowed to go 

The consequence is that two imams in the Stockholm area and twelve religious leaders in different parts of the country have had to leave their assignments.

According to Haider Ibrahim, it was not a case of systematic sex trafficking, but individual people who misbehaved. 

There were several in your congregations who abused this.

How then can it not be systematic? 



- We refer to our parishes' policy.

What we have come to the conclusion is that they do not have such a policy as it was shown in the program, says Haider Ibrahim. 

Retains government grants 

During the years 2019 to 2021, the Islamic Shia communities in Sweden have received a total of over 14 million in contributions.

The absolute largest part comes from the Authority for State Support to Religious Communities.

They say they have continued confidence in ISS and are satisfied with the action plan with activities presented.  



- We will follow up so that they do what they are supposed to, says the authority's director Isak Reichel.