Would you consider this true love or pedophilia?
Question by Em: Would you consider this true love or pedophilia?
I posted the historic love story below in a different question but people called the man in the story a pedophile. I don’t agree. Age difference does not equal pedophilia. A 16 yr old is a woman. Plus this was 400 years ago. Your thoughts?
In 1612, Emperor Shah Jahan married Arjumand Banu Begum. He was 46 and she was 16 at the time. She would become the unquestioned love of his life. After their wedding celebrations, Shah Jahan “finding her in appearance and character elect among all the women of the time”, gave her the title ‘Mumtaz Mahal’ Begum (Beloved Jewel of the Palace). Shah Jahan already had three other wives but by all accounts, he was so taken with Mumtaz, that he showed little interest in exercising his polygamous rights with the earlier wives. According to the official court chronicler, Qazwini, the relationship with his other wives “had nothing more than the status of marriage. The intimacy, deep affection, attention and favour which His Majesty had for Mumtaz exceeded by a thousand times what he felt for any other.”
Mumtaz Mahal had a very deep and loving marriage with Shah Jahan. Even during her lifetime, poets would extol her beauty, gracefulness and compassion. Mumtaz Mahal was Shah Jahan’s trusted companion, travelling with him all over the Mughal Empire. His trust in her was so great that he even gave her his imperial seal, the Muhr Uzah. Mumtaz was portrayed as the perfect wife with no aspirations to political power but she was a great influence on him, apparently often intervening on behalf of the poor and destitute.
Despite her frequent pregnancies, Mumtaz traveled with Shah Jahan’s entourage throughout his military campaigns. She was his constant companion and trusted confidant and their relationship was intense. In their nineteen years of marriage, they had fourteen children together, seven of whom died at birth or at a very young age.
Mumtaz died in Burhanpur in 1631, while giving birth to their fourteenth child. In the immediate aftermath of his bereavement, the emperor was reportedly inconsolable. After her death, Shah Jahan went into secluded mourning for a year. When he appeared again, he looked defeated, his hair had turned white, his back was bent, and his face worn. He gave his throne to his eldest son, Aurangazeb.
Shah Jahan began planning the design and construction of a suitable mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra for his wife. Today, the Taj Mahal stands as the ultimate monument to love, and a homage to her beauty and life.
Best answer:
Answer by The Communist
I only skimmed this but as a 17 year old myself who has dated mostly men in their 20s and currently dating a 24 year old, I have to say if it’s love, it’s love. At 16 most females have matured.
What do you think? Answer below!
I think that’s beautiful.
It is a product of modern society that a man who loves a 16 year old is commiting a crime.
In older societies, when a man or woman hits puberty, that person is an adult.
You are trying to justify that it is ok for a 16 and a 46 year old together. There is laws like statutory rape if he went with you its a felony or crime. What do you have in common with a man that age, it can’t be intelligence, maturity, life experience and all those issues will arise. We grow with a person best with someone at our maturity level. A 16 year old is immature, lacks the life experience and is just starting to learn about life and men and how they really are. Boys and men are very different a man knows what he wants in life, you still have to experience life. And how many people has he been with, and why can’t he get a woman his own age now that would worry me. Mature women can see through men who are inadequate and not suitable, where as you are not even realistically capable of making that decision you have not had experience you are 16. I am not trying to put you down, I just want you to open your eyes to reality. And yes he is classed a sexual predator morally he should not be with you. You are 16 and he should not take advantage of a 16 year old who is at a vulnerable age.
16+ is legal in 3/4 of the United States.
Pedophilia is regarding /children/, 12yo or younger.
400 years ago 16 was almost a spinster.
I believe 2-3 weeks ago, there was a law raised in the middle east about this; about there being a age restriction of how young someone can marry someone else, and people tried to justify marrying these young girls with stories as such as well as their religious prophet. to your point, your story was held 400 years ago. i think that this is not a beautiful story, it is a grotesque story of a young girl who did not have a choice in life to select her husband. She simply obeyed the rule of the time and lived on. a 16 year old is a women as far as being able to give birth, but her mental development is not yet of an adult yet. it is irresponsible, selfish, and WRONG for someone of 16 years of age to be committed to marriage. the AGE difference is not the pedophile part of it all, they can very well be 20 years apart, it’s her premature AGE. get the facts straight!