Thursday, April 30, 2009

8-year-old Saudi girl granted a divorce

Well this is progress, as measured in ultra repressive Saudi Arabia. And I'm very glad for this child. But this poor girl is still subject to all the "normal" Saudi suppression of women.

What is never mentioned here is that this little girl was married to a man in his 50's, to settle her father's debt.

In other words the father sold his daughter.

Need any more reasons to keep Islam out of the West?


FROM TIMESDISPATCH.COM:

8-year-old Saudi girl granted a divorce
By Staff Reports

Published: April 30, 2009

An 8-year-old Saudi Arabian girl was granted a divorce by a Saudi court after the case increased international and local criticism of child marriage in the oil-rich kingdom.
The marriage of the girl to a man in his 50s was dissolved yesterday by a court in the central province of Unaizah, the state-owned al-Watan newspaper said, citing a court official.

The child's former husband arranged the marriage last year with the girl's father by agreeing to forgive him an $8,000 debt, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported.

The United Nations Children's Fund had condemned the court for its initial refusal to grant the girl a divorce, saying on April 13 that the ruling was a violation of the child's rights. The Saudi Shoura Council, an advisory body that makes recommendations to the king, is considering the drafting of a law that would make 18 the minimum age for marriage in the kingdom, according to al-Riyadh newspaper.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holy cities of Mecca and Medina, is a Sunni Muslim-majority country, where citizens are required to pray five times daily at mosques between 4 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. The country is governed by Islamic religious law, which bans women from driving and traveling without the company of a male relative.