Saudi cleric: okay to marry 10 year old girls

It's an injustice to NOT marry girls aged 10, says Saudi cleric By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:32 PM on 14th January 2009

Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric has told followers it is permissible for ten-year-old girls to marry and anyone who think they are too young are doing the youngsters 'an injustice'.

Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh, the country's grand mufti, said: 'It is wrong to say it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger.

'A female who is ten or 12 is marriageable and those who think she's too young are wrong and are being unfair to her,' he said during a Monday lecture.

Al Sheikh's comments come at a time when Saudi human rights groups have been pushing the government to put an end to marriages involving the very young and to define a minimum age for marriage.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom's grand mufti, prays during the funeral of the Saudi woman and her daughter last February

In the past few months, Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or very young boys.

Though the mufti's pronouncements are respected and provide guidance, the government is not legally bound by them.

On Sunday, the government-run Human Rights Commission condemned marriages of minor girls, saying such marriages are an 'inhumane violation' and rob children of their rights.

The commission's statement followed a ruling by a court in Oneiza in central Saudi Arabia last month that dismissed a divorce petition by the mother of an eight-year-old girl whose father married her off to a man in his 50s.

Newspaper reports said the court argued that the mother did not have the right to file such a case on behalf of her daughter and said that the petition should be filed by the girl when she reaches puberty.

Responding to a question about parents who force their underage daughters to marry, the mufti said: 'We hear a lot about the marriage of underage girls in the media, and we should know that Islamic law has not brought injustice to women.'

The mufti said a good upbringing will make a girl capable of carrying out her duties as a wife and that those who say women should not marry before the age of 25 are following a 'bad path'.

'Our mothers and before them, our grandmothers, married when they were barely 12,' said Al Sheikh, according to the Al-Hayat newpaper.

There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year.

It is also not clear whether these unions are on the rise or whether people are hearing about them more now because of the prevalence of media outlets and easy access to the Internet.

Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty dowries or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.

@Margaret (Is that your real name?):

Calm down. If the Muslims have to deal with misconceptions, keep in mind so does everyone else. Make your point to dispell tham and explain yourself rather than saying that we're too stupid to read.

let me be brave a little bit to talk about 'love relationships' vs marriage.

you critise this point but you do not have any objection when people have love relationship with girls who are 10 or 11 years old!! or even may be less than that!

I had read last year that a girl who was 12 years old have got her first baby from her boyfriend!! I don't remember her name nor her nationality , but I saw her picture and read the news myself, I wish I could get her name or picture but I forgot it…common guys,, when it comes to Islam you critisize and when it happens 'thru love relationship' in your country you do not say anything! 

Edit:

I just got the link

http://conservativeculture.com/2006/05/uk-girl-age-11-youngest-mother/

even read the comments you will see some of them got babies at this age!

by the way if you search google about young mothers you will see lots of stories of young girls getting babies at this age!!

& then you talk about marriage in this age as if it is a crime!!!! at least marriage is better than ' love relationships'!!

Point taken.

There ae too many cases of pregnant 13 year olds and such… But maybe its best not to encourage them? Maybe make them wait till they're older instead of marrying them off at that age?

First off, it is none of your concern to know if Margaret is my real name or not ~

Second, my words were for Java not for you. So keep your nose out of this.

Third, why shall I be calmed down while I'm not even upset~ I think you the one who have to calm down and remember calmness is good for health.  

thanks for the link, matrix, but my Spanish is not really very good. 

Did you watch the movie " FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH " ?

really It was interesting to me. it shows to you how american girl lost her virginity in 13 and 14 years old.

I don't mean that I'm supporting the marriage in this age but let her lost her virginity in marriage better that lost it in just sex relationships!!

"but let her lost her virginity in marriage better that lost it in just sex relationships!!"

either way, this is sick and a terrible experience for a ten-year-old.

do you really believe that any kid at that age would consciously decide to get involved into having sex? kids are usually lured into it or forced

how many of you are parents and have kids ? how would you feel if that was your own kid in question? M honor, would you be able to say those same words about your own child?

in or out a wedlock , this is a rape!!!!

how do you call it when someone is forced to have sex? a rape , right? then what happens when you marry off kids? you force them to have sex, in other words you allow the other person to rape them. There's no way they're willingly doing that.

and this is where religion gets it all wrong. does it mean your god approves of rape?

just don't get me wrong again, I've heard statements like, you 've had sex with someone you gotta marry them, from both christans and muslims. 

or if you're married to someone you gotta have sex with them anytime they want, to do your obligation of matrimony.

which is also a kind of contradiction in itself, if sex is supposed to be meant for reproduction and not for physical pleasure. cos this is what all religions preach. right?