WUNRN
30 April 2009
Saudi Arabia - Arranged Marriage of
Girl 8 Is Annulled
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Media reports say an arranged marriage between a Saudi girl aged eight and a man in his 50s has been annulled, in a case attracting worldwide criticism. The Saudi Gazette says the divorce was agreed in an out-of-court settlement after a judge rejected two attempts to grant the girl a divorce. The case prompted Saudi officials to say it would start regulating the marriages of young girls. Rights groups say some Saudi families marry off young daughters for money.
The judge who first heard the case in the town of Unaiza refused to end the marriage at the request of the girl's mother , but he stipulated the groom could not have sex with the girl until she reached puberty. The girl's father is said to have married her off against her mother's wishes to a close friend in order that he could pay off a debt. A new judge was appointed to oversee the case, who issued the annulment
after the husband finally gave up his insistence that the marriage had been
legal, reports say. Saudi Arabia implements an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans free association between the sexes and gives fathers the right to wed their children to whomever they deem fit. Saudi commentators pointed out that the marriage took place in the central province of Qaseem - the heartland of Saudi Islamic fundamentalism. Earlier this year, the country's highest religious authority, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Shaikh, said it was not against Islamic law to marry off girls who are 15 and younger. On 15 April, after this case generated considerable negative publicity, Justice Minister Muhammad Issa said he wanted to put an end to the "arbitrary" way in which parents and guardians could marry off their young daughters. However, he he did not say that the practice would be banned. ________________________________________________________________ |
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----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 6:43 AM
Subject: Saudi Arabia - Court Denies Annulment of Girl 8 Forced
Marriage to Older Man
WUNRN
Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
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7
Sep 2000 |
7
Sep 2000 |
Article 16 - CEDAW
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:
(a) The same right to enter into marriage;
(b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent;
(c) The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution;
______________________________________________________________
Text - UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child
PART I
Article 1
For
the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below
the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier.
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Convention
on the Rights of the Child - Ratification
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Saudi
Arabia |
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26
Jan 1996 a |
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Statement by UNICEF
Executive Director Ann M. Veneman on Saudi Arabia Child Marriage Annulment
Court Denial
NEW
YORK, 13 April 2009 - UNICEF is deeply concerned by reports that Saudi Arabian
tribunals have decided not to annul the marriage of an eight-year-old girl.
Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child
is a violation of that child’s rights.
The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision.
UNICEF joins many in voicing concern that child marriage contravenes accepted international standards of human rights. It can also have a long term detrimental effect on the child’s emotional, physical and psychological welfare.
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----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 6:22 PM
Subject: Saudi Arabia - Girl 8 Married to 58-Year-Old Man - Denied
Divorce Till Puberty
WUNRN
The
Guardian, 23 December 2008
Ian
Black, Middle East Editor
Saudi
Girl, Age 8, Married to 58-Year-Old Man Is Denied Divorce
An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.
Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl's divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. "The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.
The case was handled by a court in Qasim province, north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. The girl does not know she is married, said Jtili, adding that he will appeal.
In many child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for dowries or following the custom by which a father promises his daughters and sons to marriage while still children. But the issue is complicated by different interpretations of sharia law and a lack of legal certainty.
"There is confusion in Saudi Arabia over the fundamental question of what constitutes adulthood," said Clarisa Bencomo of Human Rights Watch. "There is also vast judicial discretion." The case appears to fit a pattern of divorced fathers using their children to take revenge against their ex-wives. Mothers usually only have custody while the children are young.
Relatives said the marriage had not been consummated and that the girl was still living with her mother. They said that the father had set a verbal condition by which the marriage was not to be consummated until the girl turns 18 - although it was unclear how this could be enforced. The father agreed to marry off his daughter for a dowry of 30,000 riyals (£5,400) as he was facing financial problems.
Bencomo dismissed the idea that the girl would be able to file for divorce once she reached puberty since there was no standard definition of this. In addition, Saudi judges often insist that even adult women speak to them through a male guardian or lawyer.
No figures are available for the number of arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents in Saudi Arabia, where the strictly conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. But human rights groups say they are aware of many such cases.
Senior clerics, including Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, have denounced child marriage. But it is still prevalent in conservative areas. The Shura council recently defined adulthood as starting at age 18 but objections prevented it from being ratified as required by the council of ministers.
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