8-Year-Old Too Young to Divorce
Categories: In The News
A Saudi court has decided that an 8-year-old girl is too young to file for divorce. She is not, however, too young to be married. How is that for mixed up?The child was married off to an (obviously) older man by her father for an $8,000 dowry. She still lives at home and goes to school and does not yet realize that her fate has been decided for her. Her mother, who is now divorced from her father, filed the suit in her name immediately after the marriage contract was signed.
The court decided she was should wait until she reaches puberty to be allowed to file for divorce, but her mother's lawyer intends to keep fighting the legal system to try and end the marriage sooner.
Activists are, clearly, calling an end to this practice of using young girls' future as currency or as insurance against bad behavior. Though traditions are hard to fight, another young girl successfully divorced her husband earlier this year, so maybe ... just maybe ... the tides are turning. Her mother and her lawyer have a long fight ahead of them, though, that's for sure.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
lilies15 12-24-2008 @ 9:25PM
This beyond scary and crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel so sorry for the poor girl who has 2 go through with this just because he father was in 4 the money. >:-P
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Eileen 12-24-2008 @ 10:05PM
Guess you would never believe that if the girl were to simply touch a pig she could easily get divorced from the man. She could then leave Islam and live happily ever after. She could never be "clean" again, but if being clean means she has to go through life as the sex slave she was sold to become, it might be better to be unclean.
Why are men in charge of women any way?
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kano 12-24-2008 @ 10:25PM
Men are evil...why are they like that......i'd rather be unwed forever if it means freedom and having a life.....i'd die before i let someone else control my every move....-__-;;;;
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Regina 12-24-2008 @ 11:23PM
Kano, the women are a part of this too. The girls have to obey their families or they will be punished. They don't have a choice. Hang in there with men. There are some goos ones left. As long as you are willing to be more accepting you can find the good ones.
kano 12-26-2008 @ 12:23AM
^___^;;;;;;;
Regina 12-24-2008 @ 11:19PM
I don't care what the traditions are, that is still sick and twisted. And why would anyone want to be with a young child anyway? I guess that is one more screwed up person to add the mix. This world has major issues. I fear the future.
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Mr. Edaw 12-24-2008 @ 10:43PM
Wow, Shannon, you must be really naive. There are no sextapes...it's just a link to a site that downloads malware on to your computer. As for your complaint about AOL stopping the sextape posts, the only way that will happen is if they moderate every posting and approve or disapprove each one. That's not gonna happen...but you can click the button to complain about the post and it will get taken down.
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Mr. Edaw 12-24-2008 @ 10:45PM
Kano, if you're going to keep making generalizations like that about men, I don't think you'll ever have to worry about being married...
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proudmuslimwomen 12-24-2008 @ 10:56PM
You obviously don't know anything about ISLAM, because if you ignorant people researched actual Muslim sources you would know that this practice is not only wrong, but is AGAINST ISLAMIC RULES!!! In Islam, a women has the right to divorce, she has the right to refuse any marriage, and its is prohibited to force her into anything she doesn't want. Also if they touch pigs that doesn't mean they have sinned. And Kano your right, some men are evil, but that doesn't mean ALL men are evil, just like some people or in this case Muslims are backward and do wrong things, that doesn't mean ALL MUSLIMS do these things.Islam is a religion that gives women theirs right and gave women their rights at a time when European scholars were debating on whether animals rank higher on the scales than women. I am a Muslim women, from the Mideastern region, proud of my Islam, hoping to become a lawyer, and can become a lawyer because my religion doesn't restrict me, and people need to open their eyes to the whole picture and see both sides of the story.
**for the record, what is happening to the young girl is sad, sick, and wrong, but don't blame it on Islam, blame it on her freaking father.
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Larry 12-25-2008 @ 12:14AM
It is not about Islam, its about local customs that were in effect long before Christ was born muchless Mohammud. Christian Europe had such marriages until the arising of liberalism in the Enlightenment. Europe's royalty continued the traditon into the twentith century.
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BobT 12-25-2008 @ 1:24AM
.
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KGMEA 12-25-2008 @ 3:00AM
For those of you who blame Islam alone, take a second look. Read the &*((# bible! Check out Deuteronomy where it says if a virgin is raped, if the rapist pays off her parents and marries her for life then he will not be punished. This is still canon law btw and is followed in many countries by Christians. I know that is what I would want for my raped daughter...NOT. Women are merely hymens to be harvested by men. Men are so uptight about the woman's offspring being their own that they seek to control women completely. All religion is basically evil in that it encourages belief instead of thinking. The two concepts are antithetical. There is no actual evidence for the basic concepts of these religions. There is no actual evidence that an individual named Jesus ever lived. It is far more likely that the teachings of many itinerant preachers of the time were amalgamated into one and grafted onto the Mithras myth. If people would forget all the dogma and bull and just follow the golden rule " Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" which is a part of most philosophies in some form or another, the world would be a better place. Who wants to spend eternity with an abusive father figure of a god who requires constant ass kissing?
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Amyrosenberg 12-25-2008 @ 4:26AM
Most other religions modify or interrupet their holy word to allow for modern life. So far, Islam does not.
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maria 12-25-2008 @ 5:31AM
Things we do not agree with in this country does happen in othe countries. There ways are so much different then ours. There children do not have the right to pick who they want to marry or love. there girls go to highs bidder.Its sad but its the truth.
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RyanG 12-25-2008 @ 6:07AM
People really need to read and research their comparative religions and the respective books of faith (Bible, Torah, and Koran). Sadly, there are far more similarities than differences between the major religions, and it is Man who has tainted and distorted The Word of these books and their wisdom for our own financial gain and spiritual blackmail. The irony is, of course, if anyone would care to know the history of these religions, it has been the women who have had the greatest influence on their men, and yet We allow and condone the rampant sexism that currently exists in ALL the major religions. This isn't just about age, or religion, it's about culture and the general marginalization of women by selfish, arrogant, insecure men throughout history.
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Roxanne 12-25-2008 @ 6:58AM
When i read things like this about this child who will be raped, yes raped for no child can give consent and understand what that means. It makes me sick. Makes me sick of all humans. Sometimes I can not wait for our race to finally end. We are suppose to be so much smarter.. wiser.. kinder. Yet children are raped daily, given to men who could not get it up with a true adult female and find only pleasure with the screams crys and blood of a child. The fact that they hide (the men the judge the father the husband) hide there kink in religion only makes it worse. I will not say I know the koran nor the bible nor any other currently practiced religion. But I am female, who raised three other females, protected them from preditors that this other country allows and encourages to go about getting there abusive kicks. A part of me.. some base and ugly dark side that I love to wallow in most days would give a few yrs of my own life to end the lifes of those three men, and any others like them.
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Merritt MacArthur 12-25-2008 @ 1:59PM
PROUD MUSLIM WOMAN ... PAY ATTENTION, EVEN IF IT STRESSES YOUR WATERY BRAIN MATERIAL
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dude 12-25-2008 @ 1:12PM
Backwards a**ed morons... we should bomb every country over there back to the stone age... oh yeah... most of them are in the stone age.
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dude 12-25-2008 @ 1:15PM
Those freaks are tarded.. if they aren't blowing something up they are throwing shoes at George Bush or marrying off their 8 year old daughters.
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lilmisssuperdtar 12-29-2008 @ 4:54PM
well in those countries, old traditions are kept no matter how absurd.. like for my country... girls get married from 12! i was gonna be involved in an arranged marriage when i was 14! but my mother wouldn't allow it, and if i had known, i would also say NO! i'm 17 now and even at my age, i think it's ridiculous..
but please do not insult the ways and traditions of other people... they respect their culture and we should too..
who knows... maybe ur forefathers had done crazier things
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