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Monday, August 11, 2008

Saudi married off his three little girls to old men

From Arab News:
The Wadi Bin-Hasheel court has postponed the trial of a Saudi father who married his 10-year-old daughter to a man in his 70s, as the bride and bridegroom failed to appear in court, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday. The trial is now set for Sept. 10, as only the girl’s father, her divorced mother and her uncle attended the hearing. The judge ordered the police to bring the girl and her husband to the next session.

The newspaper said the girl’s uncle, who filed the case against the father, has refused all offers of mediation to drop the case, and said he would continue until justice was done.

The father had earlier married two of his young daughters to elderly men. A judge in the Grand Court of Riyadh divorced the first, who was 12, while the second ran away with her mother to a women’s shelter in Riyadh.
This does not appear to be the same as last month's story about the 64-year old man marrying a 10 year old in the Hail province. In that case, the father married the girl off on a dare.

I guess it isn't surprising that the girl gets to be raped nightly by her "husband" while the courts wait to see if the blissful newlyweds show up to the next hearing.