Saudi judge refuses to annul 8 year olds marriage

CNN

March 11,2009

By Mohammed Jamjoom

All that is written here is fully verifiable in Saudi Arabian News Papers. This incident blows away all cries by western Muslims that charges of these reprehensible acts of Muslims marrying underage girls, preteens, and even small children are propaganda made up by Jews and those who hate Islam. Because Saudi Arabia is the so called keeper of Islam, their legal decisions take precedence over all forms of Islam the world over.

(CNN) -- A Saudi judge has refused for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man, a relative of the girl told CNN.

The most recent ruling, in which the judge upheld his original verdict, was handed down Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza, where late last year the same judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, who was seeking a divorce for her daughter.

The relative said the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, "stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty." The family member, who requested anonymity, added that the mother will continue to pursue a divorce for her daughter.

The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. The judge ruled the girl's mother -- who is separated from the girl's father -- was not the girl's legal guardian and therefore could not represent her in court, according to Abdullah al-Jutaili, the mother's lawyer.

The girl's father, according to the attorney, arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, (Selling your daughter at any age is all good in Islam and Sharia Law) who is "a close friend" of his. At the time of the initial verdict, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, (The notion that this 47 year old man would abide by the pledge he signed is ludicrous, this pledge is just window dressing for the west and Islamic activists, as Mohammad himself married a nine year old and had sexual relations with her. So no charges could be leveled against the husband) al-Jutaili told CNN. The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said. (This practice start to finish in Islam I am sad to say comes out of the Talmud word for word – Almost 900 years before Mohammad was born, this practice word for word was codified by Jewish Rabbis and Sages in the Mishnah which was the predecessor of the Talmud )

Last month, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to al-Habib for reconsideration.

Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing. The appeals court in Riyadh will now take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative.

The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom recently. While rights groups have been petitioning the government to enact laws that would protect children from this type of marriage, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.

"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks last January quoted in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her."

Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry.

"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls," he said, according to the newspaper. "We should know that Sharia law has not brought injustice to women."

Sharia law is Islamic law. Saudi Arabia follows a strict (Hardline Murderous) interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism. (The same Wahhabists that created the 11 suicide bomber that attacked the US on 9/1/01 , the same Whahhabists that have built a Mosque and School in Fairfax Virginia to spread their influence along the beltway surrounding Washington DC )

CNN was unable to reach government officials for comment.

Christoph Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told CNN in December that his organization has heard of many other cases of child marriages.

"We've been hearing about these types of cases once every four or five months because the Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger -- especially so when girls are traded off to older men," Wilcke said.

Wilcke explained that while Saudi ministries may make decisions designed to protect children, "It is still the religious establishment that holds sway in the courts, and in many realms beyond the court."

Last December, Zuhair al-Harithi, a spokesman for the Saudi government-run Human Rights Commission, said his organization is fighting against child marriages.

"The Human Rights Commission opposes child marriages in Saudi Arabia," al-Harithi said. "Child marriages violate international agreements that have been signed by Saudi Arabia and should not be allowed." (This demonstrates the value of the 47 year old man signing a pledge to not have sex with his eight year old wife until she is 13 years and one day old. As the Saudi government is not bound by any agreements that they sign with infidels, nor are they bound by any agreements that are contrary to Sharia Law or the Koran, so it is with this 47 year old Muslim. The girl has been sold and he can do with her as he wills until he divorces her and not vise versa) He added that his organization has been able to intervene and stop at least one child marriage from taking place.

Wajeha al-Huwaider, co-founder of the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to "keep us backward and in the dark ages."

She said the marriages cause girls to "lose their sense of security and safety. Also, it destroys their feeling of being loved and nurtured. It causes them a lifetime of psychological problems and severe depression."