# GENERAL FORUM > IN THE NEWS >  8 Year Old Divorces 50 Year Old Husband

## mho

The good ol' middle east. One of the few places left in the world where you can legally buy a human being.

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Writer Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 17 mins ago
CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.

A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.

But there has been a push by Saudi human rights groups to define the age of marriage and put an end to the phenomenon.

One Saudi human rights activist Sohaila Zain al-Abdeen was optimistic that the girl's divorce would help efforts to get a law passed enforcing a minimum marriage age of 18.

"Unfortunately, some fathers trade their daughters," she told The Associated Press. "They are weak people who are sometimes in need of money and forget their roles as parents."

It was not clear if the man received money for the divorce settlement. The man had given the girl's father 50,000 riyals, or about $13,350, as a marriage gift in return for his daughter, the lawyer said.

The 8-year-old girl's marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.

Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.

But some in the government appear to support the movement to set a minimum age for marriage. The kingdom's new justice minister was quoted in mid-April as saying the government was doing a study on underage marriage that would include regulations.

There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year. Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty marriage gifts or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.

Came with pic too

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## Tock

An acquaintance from Kenya tells me that in his country, it's ok for a girl to have sex with her father and/or her brothers as long as she does not get pregnant. As long as things stay "all in the family" it is not regarded as extramarital sex. 

I suppose they think US laws are crazy, too . . .

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## Kratos

It's been going on there forever.
Only difference is back in the day she would have been sold for half a dozen camels instead of 13k.

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## Tock

Sounds gay to me . . .

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## Lightsout2184

man those people are retarded

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## TRT,MAN

thats fvckin sick, i have a daughter and i would never just sell her.think child molesters are fvcked up in the head.

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## RA

:LOL: 




> Sounds gay to me . . .

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## Tigershark

That is just sick. Legalized child rape is all it is.

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## RA

Agreed...





> That is just sick. Legalized child rape is all it is.

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## J431S

> An acquaintance from Kenya tells me that in his country, it's ok for a girl to have sex with her father and/or her brothers as long as she does not get pregnant. As long as things stay "all in the family" it is not regarded as extramarital sex. 
> 
> I suppose they think US laws are crazy, too . . .


That's not true, I have lived briefly in NBI many years ago and I know the culture and customs over there. Incest is considered a taboo there as well like in many countries. Your acquintant must be either making a make-believe joke because of your ignorance of that country's cultural norms or misinformed or lied to him. Incest is considered an aboherent behaviior in that part of the world but that does not mean there are no psycopath in that country who might have done such things giving the entire society a bad name?

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## jbm

This is bad....

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## Tock

He said that the new Christians and Muslims don't do that, but some of the people who follow the old traditional religions do.

I don't know this first-hand, but this acquaintance of mine seemed like he was on the up-and-up with me.
Given what goes on in the USA in places like rural Arkansas and parts of Texas (Mormon child polygamy), it isn't all that much of a stretch.
But, ya never know . . .

http://www.eatliver.com/i.php?n=2105





> That's not true, I have lived briefly in NBI many years ago and I know the culture and customs over there. Incest is considered a taboo there as well like in many countries. Your acquintant must be either making a make-believe joke because of your ignorance of that country's cultural norms or misinformed or lied to him. Incest is considered an aboherent behaviior in that part of the world but that does not mean there are no psycopath in that country who might have done such things giving the entire society a bad name?

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## BIGJOL

..................................

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## Undercover

> That is just sick. Legalized child rape is all it is.


They're not allowed to have sex with them until they reach puberty. Not that I'm with child marriages or anything, but just clearing the sex part up.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Saudi Arabians would be against this. I'm just not sure why a law agianst this hasn't been passed yet.

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## wantmoremass

^^^probably because the country's laws are defined by the monarchy, clerics, and the Qur'an is considered the constitution that drives Sharia law. I don't think there's a bill of rights there.

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## Undercover

There a bunch of sheikhs who are against this, so I thought it would be different.

Actually, according to Sharia Law consent of the girl is required. The girl would continue living with her parents and everything, and she has the right to decide whether she wants to get married or not. So Saudis are even horrible at applying their own religion.

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