On Aug 23, 10:54*am, A Moose In Love >
wrote:
> wanted to know about age of consent earlier. *Here's a link to the
> Saudi divorce case. *It's flippin' disgusting.http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/...ild/index.html
>
> (CNN) -- A court in Saudi Arabia has granted an 8-year-old girl a
> divorce from her 47-year-old husband, after twice denying the divorce
> request previously, local media reported Thursday.
>
> The marriage sparked condemnations around the world from human rights
> groups and U.S. and other government officials when it first came to
> light in December.
>
> Local media, which is highly regulated by the Saudi government,
> reported that the court in the city of Onaiza approved the divorce
> decree Thursday, and the divorce is final.
>
> A source at the court told the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan that the
> divorce "came after a series of pleas made by a number of officials in
> the region to the husband."
>
> Don't Miss
> Minister moves to regulate child marriages
> UNICEF 'deeply concerned' at girl's marriage
> CNN efforts to reach court officials, the husband and the girl's
> father have been unsuccessful.
>
> According to the attorney for the young girl's mother, the father of
> the girl had arranged the marriage between his daughter and a close
> friend of his to settle his debts with the man.
>
> When the mother went to court to try to get the marriage annulled,
> Saudi judge Habib al-Habib rejected the request on a legal
> technicality. The judge ruled that the mother -- who is separated from
> the girl's father -- was not the child's legal guardian and therefore
> could not represent her in court, according to the mother's lawyer,
> Abdullah al-Jutaili.
>
> However, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that
> he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili
> said. The lawyer said in the original marriage agreement, the father
> of the girl stipulated that the marriage would not be consummated
> until she was 18.
>
> The judge also ruled that the girl could file a petition for a divorce
> when she reached puberty, al-Jutaili said.
>
> The young girl lives with her mother, the attorney said, and was never
> told that she was married.
>
> When the initial petition to annul the marriage was rejected, the
> mother appealed the verdict to an appeals court in the Saudi capital
> of Riyadh. The appeals court declined to certify the original ruling,
> in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to him
> for reconsideration.
>
> Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling
> meant that the marriage was still in effect but that a challenge to
> the marriage was ongoing.
>
> Earlier this month, the original judge refused for a second time to
> annul the marriage.
>
> Soon after that decision, Saudi Arabia's justice minister told Al-
> Watan that he planned to enact a law that will protect young girls
> from such marriages.
>
> The law will place restrictions on the practice to preserve the rights
> of children and prevent abuses, Justice Minister Mohammed Al-Issa was
> quoted as saying. Additionally, al-Issa said there would be a study of
> a system that will include regulations for the marriage of minors and
> everything related to such unions, the newspaper reported. No details
> on the restrictions or regulations were mentioned.
>
> The minister did not say whether child marriage would be abolished.
>
> Responding to the justice minister's comments and the possibility of a
> new child marriage law, al-Jutaili told CNN at the time, "this is what
> we requested from day one, and we know that Saudi officials are
> working so hard on resolving this issue."
>
> Al-Jutaili believes that such a law would help not only his defendant
> but many other Saudi minors facing a similar problem.
>
> In Washington Monday, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
> William Burns called the marriage a human rights abuse.
>
> "Child marriage is, unfortunately, still common in much of Saudi
> Arabia and we have voiced our concern about this practice at the
> highest levels," he told a conference on U.S.-Saudi relations. "We
> were encouraged by reports that the Justice Ministry had begun to
> review the legal age of marriage."
>
> After the divorce was denied for a second time, the head of the United
> Nations Children's Fund issued a statement expressing concern about
> the case.
>
> UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said, "the right to free and
> full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of
> Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a
> marriage is too young to make an informed decision."
>
> The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply
> conservative Saudi kingdom recently. While rights groups have
> petitioned the government for laws to protect children from such
> marriages, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as
> young as 10 to wed.
>
> "It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who
> are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand
> mufti, said in January, according to the regional Al-Hayat newspaper.
> "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young
> are wrong, and they are being unfair to her."
>
> Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a
> lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry.
>
> "We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls," he
> said, according to the newspaper. "We should know that sharia law has
> not brought injustice to women."
>
> Sharia law is Islamic law, and Saudi Arabia follows a strict
> interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism.

Sharia law allows girls who have reached puberty -- first menstruation
-- to be married. Puberty is also the age at which a Muslim child can
have adult culpability for crime.