The recent marriage of a 90-year-old Saudi man to a 15-year-old girl has sparked condemnation from human rights and social media activists in the kingdom.
A member of the Saudi National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), urged authorities to intervene to save the child. On Twitter especially, activists criticized the parents of the girl for giving her to a man decades older than her.
In an interview, the groom insisted that his marriage was “legal and correct,” and that he paid a $17,500 (SAR 65,000) dowry to marry the girl, who is the daughter of a Yemeni father and Saudi mother.
The 90-year-old told the story of his first night with the bride. He said she entered the bedroom before him, and she locked the door from inside so he could not enter. This, he said, made him “suspicious about some kind of conspiracy” by the girl and her mother.
He vowed to sue his in-laws to give him back the girl or return him the expensive dowry.
Close friends of the bride’s family said she was frightened on the wedding night, and locked herself in the room for two successive days before fleeing back to her parents’ home.
The member of the Saudi National Association for Human Rights (NSHR), Suhaila Zein al-Abedin, urged authorities to intervene “as soon as possible to save this child from tragedy.”
Abedin noted that marriage in Islam must be based on mutual consent, and this was not satisfied, as demonstrated by the girl’s move to lock herself in the room.
She said the girl’s parents were also to be held responsible for marrying their daughter to a man the age of her great grandfather.
Abedin urged the establishment of a minimum age of 18 for marrying girls, saying this would pave the way for punishing violators, according to a report by al-Hayat newspaper.
Jamal al-Toueiki, a psychologist, said forced marriage may subject girls to abuse and violence, and this could lead to their suicide if nothing is done to save them.
Twitter reaction On Twitter, Mouhammad Khaled Alnuzha @mkalnuzha, a legal expert, asked: “Is this a case of human trafficking crimes punishable by law?”
@sx84, who identifies himself as another legal expert, stated: "She is still considered as a product! A father sells his daughter without mercy, to be bought by money and status and power; all of it for the sake of fulfilling a desire.”
Nawal Saad @lhnalkhlwd wrote on his account: “When people of reason and wisdom are asked to be silent and the ludicrous are set loose, we will see these anti-human behaviors.”
Samira al-Ghamdi @SamiraAlGhamdi, a psychologist at a child protection center, wrote: “We need a law to penalize these acts … enough child abuse.” She added that the story of the child bride should be titled “A 90 years old ‘buys’ a girl … or : A father ‘sells’ his daughter…”
Oh it is fine for someone older to be married...they should marry someone their own age.
why marry own age? Does Quran ask us to marry our own age partners? :S
If you are right then all the marriages in this woeld in which man was 25 yo and woman 24 yo are annulled and invalid just cuz they were not their "own age!"
Last edited by CosmicPathos; 01-09-2013 at 02:08 AM.
Help me to escape from this existence
I yearn for an answer... can you help me?
I'm drowning in a sea of abused visions and shattered dreams
In somnolent illusion... I'm paralyzed
If that girl lives in Indonesia, now she is still in the school, then marry a man who chosen by herself. Maybe a man in her age, maybe a man in her father age. But no matter how old her husband, she marry her own choice.
The case in this thread is clearly a forced marriage, something that actually against Islam. We cannot close our eyes.
Where I am from, America, maybe its that growing up...we are taught by tv, school ...media...that it is immoral for an older man/woman to be with someone younger, so this is where my thoughts come from.
And I'm living in Indonesia. The country that has largest number of Muslim people who believe that Sunnah for old men who want to get married again is marry poor widow!
if hes 70, he has no more desire to be with a young woman and have children?
Of course, he would have that desire. DID YOU FOR ONE SEC, look at the age of the girl? Do you think a 15-20 year old girl would have the desire to marry and father children of a 70 year old wrinkled grandpa? This story is not only about the 70 year old man...it is about how the parents sold their daughter to an old rich man for money.. and the fact that they were able to do this by staying within the laws of Saudi Arabia is even more sickening..
Last edited by Roasted Cashew; 01-10-2013 at 07:48 PM.
I wish all the fake muslims who CLAIM to follow islam but based on their personal own beliefs would just drop off the earth....you are making those of us who are civilized and have morals, look bad..
To the people who seem to think the only options are:
A) Be forced to marry someone old enough to be your great-grandparent
or
B) Have premarital sex and then have an abortion
Please be aware that there is a whole spectrum of what we like to call 'Islamic and reasonable behaviour' between these two extremes.
Ah, the Internet, the home of insanely false dichotomies.
Also - this story is being used as anti-Islamic propaganda. As such, let us please be mindful of the manner in which we respond to it, if we respond to it at all.
My issue is with people who think IT IS OK for an old man, in general not just in this story, to marry/have sexual relations with a child.
If that's the case then ok, let's take some old men on a field trip to some daycare centers so they can choose which 4 year old they want to get in bed with.
19 should be the age of consent, maybe 20. Yes, people mature, sexually, before then but the thought of a 15 year old having sex makes me barf
My other issue is the age gap...if this was a 27 year old woman I would still be disgusted, I wouldn't care about the issue if it was her choice... but still disgusted.
Last edited by crimsontide06; 01-10-2013 at 10:03 PM.
choose which 4 year old they want to get in bed with.
The fact that there is no law in Saudi Arabia that stipulates a minimum age for marriage, I wouldn't be surprised if such misdeeds have taken place too. But I think, and thank God for this that at least the general understanding in Saudi Arabia is that one can only consummate marriage when the girl hits puberty..but there is no stopping parents from wedding off their child daughters to old men for dowry...and for this pedophiles from taking out their lust on such delicate girls which have just reached puberty..the best part...it's all legal. I hope someone proves me wrong here..you can't imagine how glad I will be..
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Stephen Hawking
The fact that there is no law in Saudi Arabia that stipulates a minimum age for marriage, I wouldn't be surprised if such misdeeds have taken place too. But I think, and thank God for this that at least the general understanding in Saudi Arabia is that one can only consummate marriage when the girl hits puberty..but there is no stopping parents from wedding off their child daughters to old men for dowry...and for this pedophiles from taking out their lust on such delicate girls which have just reached puberty..the best part...it's all legal. I hope someone proves me wrong here..you can't imagine how glad I will be..
They really need an age of consent. Where I live (Canada), it is 16 which I believe is just. Not sure about the following...
Saudi Arabia
Any kind of sexual activity outside marriage is illegal in Saudi Arabia, but there is no restriction on the age of marriage. For instance, in 2008 a Saudi court refused to annul a marriage between an 8 year old girl and a 58 year old man. A prohibition on marriage under the age of 14 was being considered by the Ministry of Justice in late 2008. According to cleric Ahmad Al-Mu’bi, the appropriate minimum age for sex "varies according to environment and traditions."
The old man was 90 and apparently had been married around 18 months earlier to another 15-year-old, who had run away. I find it disgusting, happens everywhere in the world though. What if the girl got pregnant? How cruel to give birth to a child and die soon after, isn't a man suppoused to take care of his wife and children. Instead you'd leave a widow without any support and a child to take care of. I can guarantee you, being a young widow with children isn't attractive to potential marriage proposals, that's just how many cultures work. Yet what's worse than that, is that poverty drove a girl to accept this kind of proposal which she clearly didn't want, it's sad. Hope things will get better in time for families in the area.
Wow! In the west, 100 year olds sleep with teenagers, massage parlors, escorts............. plane loads of pedophiles arrive in taiwan, and to the poverty stricken villages in India - in the name of building shelters exploit children and women, esp. children because women can be found elsewhere too.
NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING!
HYPOCRISY OF THE WEST AND MEDIA BE ****ED!
Imam ash-Shafi`i said:
"Whoever takes knowledge from books loses the regulations."
(man akhadha al-`ilma min al-kutubi Dayya`a al-aHkaama). [Reported by Nawawi in the introduction to "al-Majmu"]
The Qur'an and Hadith doesn't even prohibit a 100 year old to marry a 1 year old child baby... So should that be legal too?
Please explain..
Imam ash-Shafi`i said:
"Whoever takes knowledge from books loses the regulations."
(man akhadha al-`ilma min al-kutubi Dayya`a al-aHkaama). [Reported by Nawawi in the introduction to "al-Majmu"]
The Qur'an and Hadith doesn't even prohibit a 100 year old to marry a 1 year old child baby... So should that be legal too?
What are you talking about?
If Allah helps you, none can overcome you; and if He forsakes you, who is there after Him that can help you? And in Allah (Alone) let believers put their trust.
Surah Ale Imran : 160
It was narrated that Anas ibn Maalik (may Allaah be pleased with him) said:
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) climbed up Uhud, accompanied by Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthmaan, and the mountain shook with them. He struck it with his foot and said: “Stand firm, O Uhud, for there is no one on you but a Prophet or a Siddeeq or two martyrs.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (3483)
Allah (Subhaanahu Wa Taala) does not inspire seeking forgiveness in a slave whom he wishes to punish.
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