Court approves marriage of girl, 8

Court approves marriage of girl, 8
April 20, 2009 Edition 2

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia was looking into introducing a minimum age for marriage, a justice ministry official was quoted as saying, after a court upheld the marriage of an eight-year-old girl to a man 50 years her senior.

Al-Madina newspaper yesterday quoted Mohamed al-Babtain, the director of marriage officials at the justice ministry, as saying the ministry had started "looking into the legal age of marriage". He did not elaborate.

Saudi Arabia has no legal age limit for marriage. Justice ministry officials were not available for comment.

The newspaper also quoted prominent cleric Sheikh Mohsen al-Obaikan as saying that girls below the age of 18 should not be allowed to marry.
Obaikan called for a ban on "marrying off little girls below the age of 18 to avoid these blights".

A court in the town of Unaiza upheld for the second time last week the marriage of the girl to a man who is about 50 years her senior, on condition he does not have sex with her until she reaches puberty. - Reuters


Have you heard of any similar stories? What should we do to prevent this kind of thing from happening in our country?

Article taken from here.