Kelsey McGalliard
May 1, 2009
12:40 am
An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known. A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then. There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it. The 8-year-old girl's marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.
It is good to hear that they finally allowed the 8 yr old girl to get a divorce. No one that age should be forced into a marriage they are just a child and making someone grow up so fast is not fair at all. It amazed me to read about the little girl who was married to her father a death row inmate’s cellmate. It brings up a point brought up today in class about how we as Americans forget about the rights we have and what we could be facing.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g48ZZZzDAqSXRc4c874tLg5dwbZAD97T3SEG1
2 comments:
This whole situation makes me nausea. 8 year old girls should be playing and not have to worry about anything not getting married to 50 year old men. That is disgusting that a man that age would even want to be with a little girl like that. I am glad that the court is finally allowing people the opportunity to get a divorce becuase no child should have to be married and divorced by the age of 8. I hope in the future they can get some laws to protect children from gettign married because this is a truly disturbing issie.
This is actually the same article that I wrote about. And I have to say, I'm very glad to hear that the divorce was able to happen for this young girl. I just can't wait until more voices are heard and the law for child marriages to be abolished finally happens.
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