Saudi Arabia: Saudi Activists and Clerics Demand End to Child Marriage
An 11-year-old boy gave out invitations to his classmates for a big event his family was planning this summer – and it wasn’t his birthday party.
It was his wedding to a 10-year-old cousin.
Mohammad Al Rashidi’s marriage was eventually put on hold, his father said, after pressure from the governor of the northern province of Hail, who considered the elementary school student too young to marry.
The case is among a recent spate of marriages involving the very young reported in the media and by Saudi human rights groups. They have been widely denounced by activists, clerics and others who say such unions are harmful to the children and trivialise the institution of marriage.
Saudi Arabia is already rocked by a high divorce rate that has jumped from 25 per cent to 60 per cent over the past 20 years, according to Noura Al Shamlan, head of the research department at the Centre of University Studies for Girls.
“We are studying this issue so we can put an end to this phenomenon,” said Zuhair Al Harithi, board member of the Human Rights Commission, a Saudi government-run rights group. “These marriages violate international agreements the kingdom has signed.”
Deprived of education
Al Harithi’s group recently succeeded in delaying the consummation of the marriage of a 10-year-old girl after getting reports from medical centres in Hail that she and a man in his 60s had showed up for the mandatory prenuptial medical tests.
He said the commission wrote to the province’s governor and head of Islamic courts urging them to stop the marriage.
But there are other marriages involving children that have gone ahead.
One involved a 15-year-old girl whose father, Mohammad Ali Al Zahrani, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate who also was sentenced to death.
Pictures of the wedding, held in the prison in Taif for the men, appeared in several newspapers.
There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman’s consent is legally required, some marriage officials do not seek it. For example, a father can marry off a one-year-old girl as long as sex is delayed until she reaches puberty, said one marriage official, Ahmad Al Muabi.
Known as “ma’thoons,” these officials have legal authority to preside over marriage contract ceremonies.
They ask the groom and the woman’s guardian if they approve of the marriage and then give them the marriage papers to sign.
There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed every year. And it’s also not clear whether these unions are on the rise or whether people are hearing about them more now because of the prevalence of media outlets and easy access to the internet.
But the phenomenon is not new, said Shaikh Mohammad Al Nujaimi, a strong opponent of the marriages. He and other clerics, activists and writers have urged the government to pass legislation setting the minimum age for marriage and to resolve differences among the kingdom’s religious authorities over the issue.
“When girls are married off at a young age they will be deprived of education and of enjoying their childhood,” said Suhaila Hammad of the National Society for Human Rights, a private Saudi group. “Their bodies won’t be able to tolerate pregnancy and delivering children. But there’s only so much the groups can do.”
Source: Associated Press – 7 August 2008
