Source: rediff.com
1. In a historic move last week, Saudi Arabia passed a legal ban on domestic violence and other form of abuse against women. The law is the first of its kind in a nation that has been dubbed as one of the worst places for women to live.
But will a Saudi Arabian woman report abuse by her male guardian? The domestic violence legislation is just a baby step towards emancipation in a country that considers girls “ready for marriage at 10″, and where rape laws are a matter of ridicule.
2. Fathers ‘sell’ teenage girls to men in their 70s, 80s
Twelve-year-old Fatima’s father sold her for marriage to a 50-year-old man who already had a wife and 10 children. Fatima managed to escape and finally got a divorce in February 2013, three years after Equality Now, a human rights’ group, took up her case.
But Fatima’s story is not a rule but an exception in a kingdom. It’s not an uncommon practice to here girls, who have not yet hit their teens to forced to marry men in their 70s and 80s.
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, the grand mufti, considers girls ready for marriage from the age of 10 or 12. This he said at …continue reading at rediff.com
Categories: Islam, Saudi Arabia