10 year old Child bride turned over to 80-year-old husband

AL-LAITH: A 10-year-old bride was returned last Sunday to her 80-year-old husband by her father who discovered her at the home of her aunt with whom she has been hiding for around 10 days.

A local newspaper said the husband, who denies he is 80 in spite of claims by the girl’s family, accused the aunt of meddling in his affairs. “My marriage is not against Shariah. It included the elements of acceptance and response by the father of the bride,” he said.

He added that he had been engaged to his wife’s elder sister and that this broke off as she wanted to continue with her education. “In light of this, her father offered his younger daughter. I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable,” he said.

Maatouq Al-Abdullah, a member of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said there is no system in place regulating the marriage of young girls, something that he said results in adverse psychological, health and social effects.

“Such marriages are considered a gross violation of charters on the rights of children, which the Kingdom has signed and which set the age of adulthood at 18,” he added.

News Source

Not sure which forum this should be placed in. Wow, this story is rather disturbing, it's stories like this that I really wish were a HOAX.

As always, other countries and cultures have customs different than our own. We have no right to meddle with these cultural differences, as it would be like instructing people in underdeveloped countries to eat different foods, or wait to have kids until a certain age, because that is what we do.

Although many cases like this are unclear and seem unfair, according to the laws of that area this is permitted, and since the child was not meant to be the original bride it looks like an agreement had already been made and she was given *by her father* to compensate for her older sister who backed out. If anyone is to blame it is the father, but in this case he has every right to give away his daughter to whoever he wants. In many ways this is just an early arranged marriage for her, something many other groups do from birth, and she was just promised to start the marriage now instead of waiting until an older age.

Edit- Most important point being that it's not considered "okay" by many cultures, including ours, but it's not considered to be "horrific" in other cultures.

Americans and Western Nations are very culture-centric. But what are we going to do? It's against most charters for us to go in and say "We think this is wrong, stop." when people there will say "this is how we live our lives, this is how it's been, this is acceptable by our laws, who are you to tell us otherwise?"

[edit on 8/26/2009 by ravenshadow13]

I know nothing about Sharia. But I do know that 10 is much too young to be married. Even if the culture she was born into allows arranged marriages, she is still a child and should not be expected to step into the roll of wife this young. I'm trying to respect something I know nothing about because people have established their cultures based on what is known to them. Yet, this girl is only a baby herself. Its shocking.

reply to post by Scooby Doo


According to everything I have read about this, this law that has passed to protect women and girls is of little effect. It is a very harrowing reality for all that are born as a female. The world that they live in has very little integrity regarding the female gender. This does not mean that they all are guilty of this but it certainly seems to happen often. The abuses suffered by these brides is also a concern for international humanity organizations.

If it's good enough for the false prophet Mohammed.......

What do you expect from this religion?

reply to post by ravenshadow13

Shame on you for saying this action is ok!!!
As long as we look the other way and become apologists for this kind of behavior it will continue. It takes balls to stand up to these atrocities. Have some balls.

reply to post by ravenshadow13


Ok... well what if the culture's goal was to eliminate a whole race of people because they were deemed "unclean", should we respect their bloodthirsty nature? Or what about cannibalistic societies? Human sacrifice? Child prostitution? How can you compare defending basic human rights to different food selection? Maybe you don't have kids, but try to imagine your own child married, having sex, missing out on having friends etc. Our culture isn't all that great, but at least we put child molesters in prison.

The culture in question is sick, at least on this subject. The fact that they do this and have been for centuries doesn't make it right. I'm going to have to check out "Sharia" to understand why they think it's okay to sexually abuse their children in this manner. Goodness, 80 year olds have lived long enough to know better, one hopes.
Peace

Originally posted by ravenshadow13
As always, other countries and cultures have customs different than our own. We have no right to meddle with these cultural differences, as it would be like instructing people in underdeveloped countries to eat different foods, or wait to have kids until a certain age, because that is what we do.

Although many cases like this are unclear and seem unfair, according to the laws of that area this is permitted, and since the child was not meant to be the original bride it looks like an agreement had already been made and she was given *by her father* to compensate for her older sister who backed out. If anyone is to blame it is the father, but in this case he has every right to give away his daughter to whoever he wants. In many ways this is just an early arranged marriage for her, something many other groups do from birth, and she was just promised to start the marriage now instead of waiting until an older age.

Edit- Most important point being that it's not considered "okay" by many cultures, including ours, but it's not considered to be "horrific" in other cultures.

Americans and Western Nations are very culture-centric. But what are we going to do? It's against most charters for us to go in and say "We think this is wrong, stop." when people there will say "this is how we live our lives, this is how it's been, this is acceptable by our laws, who are you to tell us otherwise?"

[edit on 8/26/2009 by ravenshadow13]

I must respectfully disagree.

Genital mutilations are ok then?
Killing individuals for their sexual preference is ok then?
Killing that 17 year-old Ohio girl for switching to christianity is ok?
Stoning women for smoking cigarettes ok?


You can't sit there and tell me that you would allow this type of thing to occur.

I think that people should do as they wish as long as it does not impose on the freedom and safety of any other sovereign being human or other.
and if someone wants to have marriage wana then let them
I am ageist the rule over others for ones gratification of one's ego.

PS.
''Stoning women for smoking cigarettes ok? ''

Of course, yes!!

[edit on 26-8-2009 by ANTHONY33]

Some cultures and societies need to go away. We once had slavery, it was the accepted norm and it was wrong. For someone to say we shouldn't meddle in other cultures beliefs and morals is b.s..

If you see injustice, perversion ( and that is the case here ) or violation of human rights it is your responsibility to speak up. It's the silent majority that allows things to continue like this.

This doesn't mean marching in with guns blazing is the answer. Look at South Africa. We ain't going play in Sun City. Economics and political pressure works wonders.

My Father once told me, "Anything you accept or ignore, you are condoning."

reply to post by JJay55


It's not my culture and it's not my country and it's not my business.

I'm not going to go to Africa and say to a village "You can't get knocked up at age 14, you can't drink that dirty water and unpasteurized milk, wear some clothes, stop smoking that hallucinogenic, follow the way I live my life."

Different cultures, different worlds. I'm not saying this action is okay for me or for people I know, but some cultures just aren't at that point yet.

Yes we can get on our fancy computers on the snazzy internet and go "Shame on them" but it's not going to do any good and it just compares them to a culture that they're not.

I don't think we should, at all, take a stance where we need to go and change these things in other cultures. Saying it's bad is one thing, whatever, clearly I'm not saying it's alright. But really, who are we fooling.

reply to post by mikerussellus


Fine, I'll just step away from conversation.

No I don't think these things are alright at all, but I don't believe we really have the right to say so, and we definitely don't have the right to go into another country and force them to live their lives the way that we do.

I'm sure that eventually these countries will develop beyond this, especially given new women's rights laws, that may not be working but they are a step in the right direction.

It's just... I thinking going into countries saying "Don't do that, it's wrong, this is how we do things" is kind of despicable. The governments of those countries know what is right and what isn't, it's their choice whether or not to act on it. Clearly in this case they haven't made the strides to override traditional law yet.

I'm a non-interventionist. Sorry.

reply to post by ravenshadow13

other countries and cultures have customs different than our own. We have no right to meddle with these cultural differences

I couldn't have said it better. I might not not agree with girls that young being married but it isn't about what I think. It's about time we stop butting in where we don't belong.

Thats absolutely disgusting.
Who in their right mind other then a full on pedophile would condone this?
To marry a 10 year old and let society say its ok tells alot about that persons mind and alot about the society in which they live.
Its NOT ok to marry kids!!!!!!!!!
Oh wait let me guess...its tradition?
Tradition can kiss my butt.

No offence to thers views...this is just my opinion.

[edit on 26-8-2009 by DrumsRfun]

reply to post by ravenshadow13


I've read your posts for a while. I admire your thoughts, but in this I'd have to disagree.

Apartheid was something we stepped in on. Should we have let that nation rule as it was?
We had no reason to interfere with the inprisonment of Nelson Mandella.
Should he have stayed in jail?

So I will still have to humbly disagree.

I would stand up for any child, no matter what their culture is, if they are being abused, molested, or tortured in any way.

For those who say to keep our noses out of their business, If you were that little 10 year old child and had to be in her shoes, you would clearly want to be rescued. That child is traumatized and tried to run away. That child should have rights even if their own idiotic culture refuses to see it. I have no tolerance for abused children.

reply to post by mikerussellus


It's one of those little liberal traits that I have. Whenever I take political viewpoint self-tests with my friends, I'm usually the only one who comes up with non-interventionist perspectives.

It's a really hard line, but I figure if you do it for one thing, we have to do it for everything. And then eventually the entire world would look just like the USA. We take care of the bigger issues, and the small issues begin to look just as important.

Many of these things are covered under things like the Earth Charter, which I support with my heart and soul, including equal gender treatment, safeguards against forced mutilation, against murder, against discrimination. It's up to specific governments as to whether or not they want to implement these things.

It's good that we don't force support of things like the Charter, even though I would spend my life trying to get more people to support it, as it guarantees things like fresh water which are basic human rights, and it's hard to be non-interventionist and still want villages in certain areas to have access to water. I support organizations like the Peace Corp and Doctors Without Borders who go and GENTLY GENTLY try to change small, necessary aspects of human life in some areas. I think there have been great strides in recent years in terms of female genital mutilation and laws which support murder in some situations. I really do.

But it seems like the USA likes to start wars with countries to try and change culture. I think support of policies is a better way to go. Let the countries change things for themselves. In the Middle East I see this happening, slowly, especially recently with women's rights.

I don't see any other culture as idiotic. I fear the day when every country is an echo of the USA or England or some other country that is "popular." And I know that going in and saving one child will result in the "savings" of millions of other children, who will come to America only to perhaps be left hungry, homeless, or struck with the mass outbreak of violence plaguing this country as compared to other countries, especially in terms of gun violence.

So, in general, I support the Earth Charter method, the small organization method, and not America's method.

[edit on 8/26/2009 by ravenshadow13]

Every time I turn around it's being brought in that the USA this and that. Guess what? We are a conglomeration of the worlds cultures, it's just that we don't let people walk in and start marrying ten year olds. Instead we tell them, your in the USA now, knock that crap off.

The CSA was told to knock off their crap, honor killers are told to knock off their crap. We want the best other cultures have to offer. But please leave the garbage in the old country, where someone needs to be telling folks to knock off the crap.

reply to post by Tinman67


This didn't happen in America. They did "leave it in the old country."

I'd also like to point out that this was a violation of a signed charter by the government of this area. In which case, the government should take action to enforce that law over Shariah law. Obviously in this country government law overrides Biblical law. A similar measure should be in place there, as well.

See, these charters are the way to go, I'm telling you.