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17-Year-Old Saudi Girl Wins Case Against Father After Being Tricked into Marriage with 90-Year-OldAmazingly, the girl bolted and called the police. Headlines, and a social media campaign, condemned her father, accusing him of "selling his daughter to an old man." A court just ruled the marriage "null and void." This news is both depressing and inspiring. Depressing because fathers are still arranging inappropriate matches for their daughters and sentencing them to a lifetime of misery. Depressing because, according to Sharia law, in the case of a divorce, custody belongs to fathers, not mothers. This girl was living with her father whose authority is traditionally considered supreme. She was, or so it seems, a child of divorce. But the news is very inspiring because the girl actually fled her father's choice (which is unheard of), other Saudis supported her on the internet, and a court upheld her right not to be duped in this way. This case follows another similar case in which a fifteen-year old Saudi girl "locked herself in her bedroom on her wedding night after being forced to marry a 90-year-old Saudi man." Social media condemned this arranged marriage, calling it "child trafficking and prostitution." The elderly man said he paid 10,767 pounds for her—and later insisted that both the bride and her parents had set out to "swindle him." One must understand that the "selling" of girls into marriage is not seen as barbaric. To the contrary, it is viewed as taking care of one's daughter, protecting her reputation, ensuring that an (under-valued, useless, potentially dangerous) daughter is fed, clothed, and housed and not at her father's expense. In poverty-stricken, illiterate countries and cultures, marriage is a woman's only dignified and viable alternative other than prostitution.
Related Topics: Islamic
Gender & Religious Apartheid
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Friday, November 14, 2014
17-Year-Old Saudi Girl Wins Case Against Father After Being Tricked into Marriage with 90-Year-Old
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