KUWAIT CITY // Salwa al Mutairi, a former parliamentary candidate, said in a video posted on You Tube last month that sex slaves should be legal and prisoners from war-torn countries, such as Chechnya, would make suitable concubines.

Ms al Mutairi said she asked Saudi muftis what the Islamic ruling was on owning sex slaves while on a trip to Mecca because she had a male colleague who was "young and something of a womaniser".

The mufti told her it is not haram, or forbidden, she said. "The context must be that of a Muslim nation conquering a non-Muslim nation, so these jawari have to be prisoners of war."

Jariya is an Arabic term meaning "concubine" or "sex slave". The plural of the word is jawari.

Ms al Mutairi said free women must be married with a contract but, with concubines, "the man just buys her and that's it. That's enough to serve as marriage".

The ruling was confirmed by "specialised people of the faith" in Kuwait, she said. "They said, 'That's right, the only solution for a decent man who has the means, who is overpowered by desire and who does not want to commit fornication, is to acquire jawari'."

Offices could be opened to run the sex trade in the same way recruitment agencies provide domestic labourers, Ms al Mutairi suggested.

"One of the countries where [I see this trade is possible] is Chechnya. The country is at war with another state, so there are some captives for sure. I say go and buy those captives, they might just die of hunger over there. I say go and buy them and sell them to merchants here in Kuwait who may otherwise commit a sin."

"I don't see anything wrong with it, nothing at all," she said, adding that the caliph Haroun al Rashid had one wife and more than 2,000 concubines in his possession when he died.

"So there's no shame in it and it is not haram, our Sharia law allows it," she said.

Haroun al Rashid ruled over an area covered by modern-day Iran, Iraq and Syria 12 centuries ago.

Ms al Mutairi's video on You Tube has been viewed more than 84,000 times since it was uploaded on May 24.

Ms al Mutairi finished 23rd in the fifth constituency with more than 1,200 votes in the parliamentary election in 2009.

Candidates who finish in the top 10 are selected for parliament.

* The National