Saudi Arabia: Child marriage stirs serious Saudi debate

Marrying off young Saudi girls to men the age of their fathers is stirring a heated debate in the conservative Gulf kingdom amid calls for the state to legalize a marriage age.

“Marriages between young girls and elder men have nothing to do with religion or even reason,” Dr. Saud al-Nafees, former rector of the Shari`ah Faculty in the Makkah-based Umm Al-Qura University, told IslamOnline.net.

The issue has surfaced recently after the media and local human rights groups reported two cases in which girls as young as 11 and 14 were married to men as old as their fathers.

A Saudi court will hear next month a divorce case filed by an eight-year-old who was married off by her father to a man in his fifties without her knowledge or consent.

In many child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for hefty dowries or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his daughters and sons to marriage while children.

In some cases, the marriage is concluded even without the girls knowledge or consent.

Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti and top religious authority, has strongly denounced the practice.

“Islam stipulates that both parties agree to the marriage contract,” he said recently.

“The woman must express real consent to the suitor, and a guardian must not impose his choice of husband on her or force his son to marry someone he doesn’t want.”

Marriage Age

The recent debate is giving momentum to calls for a clear minimum age for marriage.

Suhaila Zain Al-Abdeen, a member of the National Human Rights Society, said they have launched a campaign for a legislation to regulate that.

“The campaign is calling on the authorities to issue a new law that prohibits child marriages and sets the minimum age of marriage for girls at 18,” she said.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage.

She insists that such unions are harmful to the children and are trivializing the institution of marriage.

Dr. al-Nafees opposes the argument that girls can be married off at the age of puberty.

“Reaching puberty is not enough to make marriage acceptable.

“A girl must reach the age of reason before being considered an adult that can get married.”

The Shari`ah professor sees no problem with setting a minimum age for marriage.

“Specifying the age of marriage is permissible under Shari`ah,” he maintains.

“The age for girls to be married should be kept at 18, no less. This is in accordance with the Hanafi school of thought.”

Author: Hassan Abdo

Source: IslamOnline.net – 27 August 2008