Common Law

A common law marriage or Jawaz Orfy in Arabic is defined as a marriage contract between a man and a woman which is recognized by Islam, but not by the Government. It's most common among university students like myself when people are too horny to think straight. I've seen a few of my classmates drop out of college to support a child which resulted from such a marriage, or to simply run away with the "bride" to escape having to face society with the taboo of having been part of such a thing.
The difference between this and a regular teen pregnancy is that a common law marriage either results in a back alley abortion, or a forced government-recognized marriage contract signed before the pregnancy becomes visible. Either way, it's a life sentence of people talking about you behind your back, and the end of whatever normal life the child would have had.

Many people praise Common Law Marriage because it serves as an outlet for teenagers to relese pent-up frustration, and is generally theraputic, although people who hold such an opinion are a minority. Others, the overwhelming majority, claim that it is an unholy union that should be abolished because it can only do harm. In either case, the end result is always the same. The couple is always too afraid and thus abort any resulting pregnancy, the "groom" freaks out and abandons the mother of his child, who becomes devastated now that she has no one to turn to, and if the families become involved, abortion is the only concievable solution to the problem - after which they would worry about the girl's tarnished innocence and virginity, and search for a man willing to marry such a woman.

What are your views on the issue?

Here is an article about one of the most famous of these marriages, check it out if you're interested. It will provide more information on the issue in case I left anything out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4295911.stm