Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce

[Al-khiyal]

Saudi girl, eight, married off to 58-year-old is denied divorce

December 23, 2008 -- An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.

Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl's divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. "The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.

The case was handled by a court in Qasim province, north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. The girl does not know she is married, said Jtili, adding that he will appeal.

In many child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for dowries or following the custom by which a father promises his daughters and sons to marriage while still children. But the issue is complicated by different interpretations of sharia law and a lack of legal certainty.

"There is confusion in Saudi Arabia over the fundamental question of what constitutes adulthood," said Clarisa Bencomo of Human Rights Watch. "There is also vast judicial discretion." The case appears to fit a pattern of divorced fathers using their children to take revenge against their ex-wives. Mothers usually only have custody while the children are young.

Relatives said the marriage had not been consummated and that the girl was still living with her mother. They said that the father had set a verbal condition by which the marriage was not to be consummated until the girl turns 18 - although it was unclear how this could be enforced. The father agreed to marry off his daughter for a dowry of 30,000 riyals (£5,400) as he was facing financial problems.

Bencomo dismissed the idea that the girl would be able to file for divorce once she reached puberty since there was no standard definition of this. In addition, Saudi judges often insist that even adult women speak to them through a male guardian or lawyer.

No figures are available for the number of arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents in Saudi Arabia, where the strictly conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. But human rights groups say they are aware of many such cases.

Senior clerics, including Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, have denounced child marriage. But it is still prevalent in conservative areas. The Shura council recently defined adulthood as starting at age 18 but objections prevented it from being ratified as required by the council of ministers.

[Bent_Bladi]

this country and its evil males need to be thrown in a fiery pit w/ spikes on the bottom. TFEE 3ala hek nas TFEE, i pray that she'll be able to get the divorce and i pray that the mother gets the sense to divorce from her sick SICK pedophile endorsing husband. how the HELL can any father do that to their child... inshaAllah his money and his damned soul get the worst hell

[amalgamate]

"The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty,"

what is he dumb, stupid? refusing the ability to 'file' to the guardian and instead passing it on to a minor?

what twisted, up-side-down, DEPLORABLE law states that!?

this incompetant lawyer probably has the exact mentality of a womanizer anyway

[Al-khiyal]

Marriage of Saudi Arabian girl, eight, annulled

May 1, 2009 -- An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a man in his 50s has had the union annulled, it was reported yesterday. The case, which had generated local and international outrage, ended with an out-of-court settlement.

The child, who has not been named, had been told by a court last December that she would not be allowed to divorce her husband until she reached puberty.

The settlement, brokered by a new judge in Unaizah, Qassim province, was reached only after lengthy negotiations between the girl's lawyer and the husband.

The previous judge had ruled for the second time earlier this month that the marriage was legal. The father is said to have married the child to a friend to pay a financial debt. It had been stipulated, however, that the groom could not have sex with her until she reached puberty.

The settlement was reached with the help of the governor of Qassim, Prince Faisal bin Bandar, who convinced the husband to back down, said the newspaper al-Hayat. The husband agreed to forgo his original demand for repayment of the $8,000 dowry he gave for the girl.

In many Saudi child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for dowries, or following the custom by which a father promises his daughters and sons in marriage while still children. But the issue is complicated by different interpretations of sharia law and a lack of legal certainty.

No figures are available for the number of arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents in the kingdom, where the strictly conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. But human rights groups say they are aware of many such cases.

The shura council, an unelected body that advises the government, is considering setting a minimum age of 18 for marriage. The debate on this issue is seen as part of a wider struggle between advocates of cautious reform and the conservative religious establishment.