There is nothing that gets the Saudi government to act like shining the western media spotlight on it. Once the spotlight dims, things usually go back to the way they were. A while back there was all this attention about who I call the child bride of Onaiza, and accordingly the marriage never took place and a huge discussion of plans for laws regulating marital age for both girls and boys were thrown around. Shiekhs were consulted, government officials made statements and proposals. Once the topic stopped coming up abroad, things pretty much went back to where they were. That’s why it would be fantastic if the international media picked up the story published today in Arab News about a 10 year old girl being handed over to an 80 year old man by none other than her own father. She ran away and sought refuge at her aunt’s house but her father managed to take her back to her husband. The 80 year old claims that he originally asked for her older sister but she refused so the father offered the poor 10 year old instead and the geezer took him up on it.
Maybe media attention so soon within this short span of time could be just what we need to firmly set up laws to protect these girls.
Saudiwoman's Weblog 
It’s too awful, poor little girl
Why does nobody ever notice the girl in question? Why does nobody seem to listen to her?
I though when reading the story the first time, the elder daughter was only let off because she was already too old for the taste of the decrepid pedophile.
As a western woman I’m simply disgusted when I read these story, I simply can’t fanthom how a father could sell his daughter to and old disgusting pedophile, does the mother has some saying in the arranged marriage?
The older sister was able to escape this torture only because she said that she wanted to study but where’s the right of this 10 years old to study to have a normal childhood?
Sorry to be blunt but each time i read something like that i have the impression that Saudi is a total alien world
What is with the people here?! I just pluck my hair from the head! Why it is so easy to put a minimum age for the women’s mahram and so difficult to set a law for age suitable to marry! Shame again on the father! Shame, shame on the “groom” to accept it! Hope the media will act in this case again, in sha Allah. I pray to Allah to enlighten those whose hearts went so hard!
“Maybe media attention so soon within this short span of time could be just what we need to firmly set up laws to protect these girls.”
Do you really think Western attention is going to help things? It never lasts long and really can’t last long given the short news cycle. The only people who make a big issue of this are the right wing sites.
That’s what I’m counting on, Fox News and the like. The embarrassment might push the government to act faster and more decisively.
This is such an important topic that I will copy here the comment I left on John Burgess’ Crossroads Arabia post on the same news article:
“Saudi Arabia signed and ratified the UN’s international Convention on Rights of the Child, with the reservation (reservations are allowed) that any statute that contravenes Sharia Law is exempted. This brings the issue back to Saudi national law, which does not set a minimum age of consent for marriage, or for sex (2 different ages in most countries) for males or females (often different in various countries). So it is all legal, meaning the Saudi national law needs revising, as other Muslim countries have done, ie within Sharia Family Law set minimum ages for men and women to consent to marry, and to have sex (in Muslim countries same age for these 2). Countries attempting to curb teen marriages and foster education for women set it higher for both genders, although often it is 15 for females and 18-21 for males.
Bonus comment: pedophilia and hebephilia are distinct and neither can be “diagnosed” based on the information here. Both require a consistent near exclusive preference for sex with a specific age group, whether pre-pubertal (pedophilia) or post-pubertal (hebephilia). And yes, the so inclined have their age and gender preferences.”
A combination of genuine, skilfully applied international pressure, including from Muslim countries which do have ages of consent for marriage (eg 18 for women and men in Morocco, up in 2004 from 15 for women and 18 for men), and a national decision in Saudi to institute such legal ages based in Sharia Family Law (as other Muslim countries have done) is urgent!
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Salaamu Alaykum, open your mind.
That’s horrible, she hasn’t even reached puberty yet :’0(