February
3, 2010
Sudden withdrawal from seeking divorce or annulment of child brides
we are told by former Muslim Women is always caused by threats of killing the
child’s mother father sister brother or other threats of maiming or harming in
some way their family, relatives or close friends.
These Muslim courts never investigate to see why this sudden
mysterious change of heart seems to strike these young child brides as the
purpose of these Sharia courts is not to protect women and children, nor is it
to discover truth.
Sharia courts by design give cover to and protect men and boys from
the crimes they commit against those of lower status than themselves, and the
Islamic caste system begins with their Royals, their tribal heads and elders,
their family clan heads and elders ending with the youngest male child. While women girls animals and non-beleivers
are more or less all treated equally as having little or no rights at all.
Even though this case has received world wide attention in the end
the child out of fear surrendered herself to a life of physical and sexual
abuse for having dared to have sullied this 80 year old man’s name and his family
name.
A 12-year-old Saudi girl unexpectedly gave up her petition for
divorce from an 80-year-old man her father forced her to marry in exchange for
a dowry, Saudi media reported Tuesday.
Despite support from human
rights lawyers and child welfare advocates, the girl and her mother, who
originally sought the divorce, withdrew the case Monday in a court in Buraidah,
in Al-Qasim province, newspapers said.
The girl told the court that her
marriage to the man was done with her agreement, according to Okaz newspaper.
"I agree to the marriage. I
have no objection. This is out of filial respect to my father and obedience to
his wish," she said.
Saleh al-Dabibi, a lawyer supplied by a charity group to help the girl, said
her mother did not inform him of the change of heart, Okaz said.
An unnamed official of the
government's Human Rights Commission, which was originally asked by the mother
to help get the marriage annulled, told Arab News they too were surprised by
the mother and daughter dropping the case.
The influential daughter of King
Abdullah, Princess Adela bint Abdullah, expressed concern over the girl's
marriage.
"I, personally, and many
specialists in social and education fields, share the opinion" that it is
in violation of children's rights, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported.
"A child has the right to
live her childhood and not be forced to get married. Even an adult would not
accept that," she said.
According to reports, the girl's
father, who is separated from her mother, arranged her marriage to the
80-year-old last September in exchange for a dowry payment of 85,000 riyals
($22,667).
The case caused an uproar after Al-Riyadh newspaper first reported
it in early January, saying the marriage had been consummated and quoting the
girl as pleading to the journalist to "save me."
Her mother, who is unidentified in local reports, petitioned the
court to annul the marriage and charged that the girl had been raped.
The case was to be heard Monday,
but reports said the mother dropped the complaint ahead of the hearing.
But human rights officials have
been pushing for a law that would set a minimum marriage age of 16 or higher.
In January, senior cleric Sheikh
Abdullah al-Manie told Okaz that the Prophet Mohammed's marriage to a
nine-year-old girl some 14 centuries ago cannot be used to justify child
marriages today.
Manie, a member of the Council
of Senior Ulema (scholars), said that circumstances are different today from
when the Prophet Mohammed married young Aisha.
Aisha's marriage "cannot be
equated with child marriages today because the conditions and circumstances are
not the same," he said.