Saudi Girl, 8, Divorces 50-year-old Husband

Saudi Girl, 8, Divorces 50-year-old Husband

Friday, May 1, 2009

Associated Press: 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.

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22 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

She would have had to wait until puberty to divorce the pedophile—she would have been good and thoroughly raped and probably knocked up by then—and of course, being that she might be as old as 14 or 16—she probably would have been too old for that pervert’s taste by then, anyway.

- toldyouso29

Posted 07/11/09 06:06 PM

Fear ALLAH Kingdom is not the only country that married underage girls

- MOHAMMAD

Posted 11/22/09 09:30 AM

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