Seriously, what is WRONG with these men???? Ask yourself what kind of religion it is that claims the bride's age has nothing to do with anything????
"There was an age when these things could happen and none would ever find out. That age is almost over. But the battle for the futures of these little children has only just begun. We're a long way from stopping this abhorrent practice. Telling the world about it is just a beginning."From Ruth Gledhill:
May 01, 2009
Girl aged 8 gets divorce from 50-year-old man
In Saudi Arabia, a girl of eight whose father gave her to a friend in settlement of a debt has been given a divorce at the third attempt.
As we report today, the case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced. 'After the first two petitions failed, the Saudi newspaper columnist Amal al-Zahid wrote: “The trafficking of child brides — a most reactionary practice that takes us back to the days of concubines [and] slave girls” should be outlawed. She added that the country was incurring “behavioural abnormalities and problems of which only Allah knows”.'
This picture is not of the Saudi girl, who remains anonymous, but of a Yemeni girl, Nojoud Nasser, also married off at eight and now successfully divorced. Read on for her story.
After Nojoud got her divorce, the Yemeni government changed the law to ban child marriage. But now some Islamists in Yemen are trying to change it back, arguing that the ban is 'unIslamic'.
As Memri reports in its analysis of this issue last month, the Prophet Mohammed was himself married to a child bride, AIsha, when she was six. Memri quotes a Jeddah marriage official as saying that the Prophet's marriage was not itself consummated until the girl was nine.
This is what Nojoud told the Yemen Times:
'My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage. I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’
'So this is what I have done. He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months. He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.'
Memri translated an opinion on Islam Today , a website supervised by a well-known Saudi Wahhabi sheikh, Salman Al-'Oda. 'The article stated that Islam attributes no importance to the age of the bride, and that intercourse is permitted as long as the girl is able to cope with the act and its implications. The article also criticized the opponents of child marriage and those who deny that the Prophet married Aisha when she was six.'
Just consider for a moment the sheer enormity of the courage of the tiny handful of women and children who speak out against and fight this practice.
There was an age when these things could happen and none would ever find out. That age is almost over. But the battle for the futures of these little children has only just begun. We're a long way from stopping this abhorrent practice. Telling the world about it is just a beginning.
Girl aged 8 gets divorce from 50-year-old man
In Saudi Arabia, a girl of eight whose father gave her to a friend in settlement of a debt has been given a divorce at the third attempt.
As we report today, the case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced. 'After the first two petitions failed, the Saudi newspaper columnist Amal al-Zahid wrote: “The trafficking of child brides — a most reactionary practice that takes us back to the days of concubines [and] slave girls” should be outlawed. She added that the country was incurring “behavioural abnormalities and problems of which only Allah knows”.'
This picture is not of the Saudi girl, who remains anonymous, but of a Yemeni girl, Nojoud Nasser, also married off at eight and now successfully divorced. Read on for her story.
After Nojoud got her divorce, the Yemeni government changed the law to ban child marriage. But now some Islamists in Yemen are trying to change it back, arguing that the ban is 'unIslamic'.
As Memri reports in its analysis of this issue last month, the Prophet Mohammed was himself married to a child bride, AIsha, when she was six. Memri quotes a Jeddah marriage official as saying that the Prophet's marriage was not itself consummated until the girl was nine.
This is what Nojoud told the Yemen Times:
'My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage. I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’
'So this is what I have done. He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months. He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.'
Memri translated an opinion on Islam Today , a website supervised by a well-known Saudi Wahhabi sheikh, Salman Al-'Oda. 'The article stated that Islam attributes no importance to the age of the bride, and that intercourse is permitted as long as the girl is able to cope with the act and its implications. The article also criticized the opponents of child marriage and those who deny that the Prophet married Aisha when she was six.'
Just consider for a moment the sheer enormity of the courage of the tiny handful of women and children who speak out against and fight this practice.
There was an age when these things could happen and none would ever find out. That age is almost over. But the battle for the futures of these little children has only just begun. We're a long way from stopping this abhorrent practice. Telling the world about it is just a beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment