City of Brass

City of Brass

Child Brides in Saudi Arabia?

Usually, nothing coming out of Saudi Arabia surprises me. Yet, this story shocked me to the core. According to a report by CNN, a Saudi judge recently refused to annul the marriage of an “eight-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.” The annulment petition was brought by the girl’s mother, and the judge dismissed it because, she “is not the legal guardian of the girl,” according to the mother’s lawyer Abdullah al-Jutaili.

The girl’s father arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man. Bu–let us all breathe a sigh of relief here–the judge asked for a pledge from the husband that he would not consummate the marriage until after she reached puberty. After she reaches puberty, the judge ruled, the girl will have the right to request a divorce. But until then, it seems, she
is property of a man almost six times her age.


As a father of an eight-year-old daughter, this story boggles the mind and shocks the conscience. There are many things that are not clear from the article: One of these is the question of whether the father was compelled to “sell” his daughter because of his debt. If so, this is perhaps the most heinous forms of “riba,” or usury, I have ever seen. The 47-year old man should have followed the Qu’ranic injunction of being kind to debtors when they can’t pay off their debts.

When I read stories like these, it makes me wonder whether female infanticide will once again rear its ugly head. Islam came to liberate us from the ugliness of human character, but, sadly it seems, old habits die hard.



You Might Also Like...
Previous Posts

American barbarism, civilization, and decadence (and Star Trek)
I came across a lengthy excerpt online from the book, "The Next Hundred Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century" by George Friedman and found it quite insightful. I say this as someone who probably is indeed an American barbarian by the definition of the passage; I do believe that there do exist u

posted 3:11:36pm May. 15, 2013 | read full post »

Bishnu Shrestha and the 40 thieves (and one khukuri)
This is a khukuri, a curved Nepalese-style blade issued as standard equipment to members of the Gurkha, which are famed Nepali units of the Indian Army (and the British Army of India before Independence): [caption id="attachment_1982" align="aligncenter" width="600"] khukuri knife of the Gurkha[/

posted 9:56:17am May. 08, 2013 | read full post »

Muslims in Bradford, UK rally to save synagogue
This is one of those great stories that often gets overlooked by the mainstream press and deliberately ignored by the Islamophobes: With only just over thirty members and an extravagant Grade II listed Moorish building, the tiny Jewish community of Bradford have for many years been in despair abo

posted 11:47:45am May. 04, 2013 | read full post »

Obama still wants to close Guantanamo #Gitmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vy-fsgXR4jw From today's press conference: 8:15 AM PT: Bill Plante of CBS asks about the Guantanamo hunger strike. Obama says he still wants to close it. "It's not necessary to keep America safe. It's expensive. It's inefficient. It hu

posted 11:44:18am Apr. 30, 2013 | read full post »

open-source, lone wolf terrorism: different ideologies, shared methodologies
To summarize what is known at this time, the main suspects for the Boston marathon bombing are two brothers who immigrated from Chechnya to America years ago and have gro

posted 1:34:11pm Apr. 19, 2013 | read full post »

Advertisement
Comments read comments(6)
post a comment
J. Rubies

posted December 30, 2008 at 4:09 pm


This is an incredibly tragic and repugnant story — a 47 year old man and an 8 year old girl married. What a peverse situation, it screams pedaphilia. We all know that girls are now reaching puberty at an early age — some as young as 8 years old. Puberty is the beginning of the maturation process, not the conclusion. Girls on the onset of their menstraul period are not meant biological to start reproducing. Underage girls having babies often leads to horrible complications because their pelvic bones are not developed in the regards to giving birth. This is sick! So when she is 13 and menstuating her 54 year old pedophile husband can have his way with her? This is has nothing to do with Islam, this has to do with the subjugation, oppresion, and treating women/girls as second class citizens. It is time to put our words into action.



report abuse
 

crusher

posted January 9, 2009 at 3:29 am

dubai rent

posted August 4, 2010 at 3:32 am


i do not think you idiots understand the culture and traditions of the middle east back then. back in medieval times in Europe girls were married when they are children.



report abuse
 

Mcintyre19Jaime

posted September 22, 2010 at 4:07 am


I will recommend not to hold off until you get enough money to order different goods! You can get the loan or just sba loan and feel yourself fine



report abuse
 

Your Name dubairent

posted January 29, 2011 at 10:47 am


Hello Everybody and welcome to website is good,think you verry much this website show
you about dubairent see you again from
http://www.delafringue.com
http://www.delapompe.com
http://www.disneylandhongkong.info
http://www.dubaiphotos.info
http://www.dubairent.info



report abuse
 

Pingback: Friday Links — January 2, 2009 » Muslimah Media Watch

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.





Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.