ArabNews: Call for legislation to stop child marriages
An 11-year-old boy gave out invitations to his classmates for a big event his family was planning this summer — and it wasn’t his birthday party.
It was his wedding to a 10-year-old cousin.
Muhammad Al-Rashidi’s marriage was eventually put on hold, his father said, after pressure from the governor of Hail, who considered the elementary school student too young to marry.
The case is among a recent spate of marriages involving the very young reported in the media and by human rights groups. They have been widely denounced by activists, Islamic scholars and others who say such unions are harmful to the children and trivialize the institution of marriage.
The Kingdom is already rocked by a high divorce rate that has jumped from 25 percent to 60 percent over the past 20 years, according to Noura Al-Shamlan, head of the research department at the Center of University Studies for Girls.