Top Saudi cleric: OK for young girls to wed

[cali]

Grand mufti speaks out after judge refuses to annul marriage of man, 47, to girl, 8

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh: "Shariah law has not brought injustice to women"

Saudi cleric Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh says it's OK for a girl age 10 or 12 to get married.

(CNN) -- The debate over the controversial practice of child marriage in Saudi Arabia was pushed back into the spotlight this week, with the kingdom's top cleric saying 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 quoted Wednesday 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."

The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom in recent weeks.

Late last month, a Saudi judge refused to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.

The judge, Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib, rejected a petition from the girl's mother, whose lawyer said the marriage was arranged by her father to settle a debt with "a close friend." The judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty
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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/17/saudi.child.marriage/

Fuck these pedophile women hating bastards.

[baldguy]

1. "...the marriage was arranged by her father to settle a debt ..."

So basically, her father sold her into slavery. Isn't it wonderful to have such allies?

[ogneopasno]

2. You know what, "Mufti?" No. NO, it's NOT OK for young girls to wed. This is not culture and it's

not religion. It's fucked up.

[Idealism]

3. I don't understand how child marriage is a conservative value

But maybe I am missing something in Shariah law...

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Their twisted interpretation of Sharia, first off

Which has been spindled and mutilated to suit their long-time cultural habit of the severe degradation of women. Women are chattel, quite literally.

So their "values" (that term just doesn't work here) consist of maintaining the preeminence of men. Arab men, better yet, connected Arab men. That child, especially that female child, is nothing more than another "thing", owned by her father, brother, uncle... whichever man has assumed head of the household.

[Sultana]

12. Their women are forever held in a child-like state

They can do nothing w/o the permission of a male family member.

Sharia law is shit either way, it only suits men.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. I think it's important to remember that this is a particular

and particularly nasty - interpretation of Sharia law. There is no one interpretation - there are many, and are certainly many more mainstream Muslims who note the freedom Mohammed's wife (one of them) had and how he turned to her for advice, etc. In many Muslim countries, education is valued, and women are highly educated. (Iran and Iraq come to mind, though in both countries the power of the more fundamentalist types has certainly eroded that to a disintegrating point. More of the muck we made in Iraq...)

I just don't want us to tar all Muslims with the same brush here. The Saudi's brand of Islam is pretty nasty and odious. And their treatment of women horrendous. But I do believe it's a case of the religion suiting the culture, or being turned to suit it, rather than the other way around. You'll still find some of the same chauvinism across that area of the world, whether the person is Muslim or Christian or one of the smaller religious groups...

For that matter, you'll find it still all over the world! (This is getting depressing, so I'll stop rambling!)

[Idealism]

15. Yes, I think that is more like it

Some nationalities of Sunni background tend to view Shariah law as anything they fancy, sadly. Religion has become another tool of the oppressor throughout history, here is another example.

[cali]

17. Could you point out any place where Sharia law is practiced

where it isn't oppresssive toward women?

[Idealism]

18. Some are more oppressive than others

This isn't oppression against women, it oppression against little girls, which is worse. I am not trying to say certain countries practicing Shariah law offer women opportunity, but there are more egregious violations of human rights in some than in others.

[terisan]

4. Too many liberals in USA are fine with this so long as we keep getting that Saudi oil. nt

Too many people use multiculturalism as an excuse for ignoring the oppression of females-half the population of the world.

[LeftinOH]

5. Starting tomorrow, we need to get less chummy with that country...n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

10. Amen to that. They're evil, they really are. Toss the whole big

family out, and perhaps there would be hope for bringing that country into the 18th century...

[onehandle]

6. Our ally. Supplying cash and manpower for 9/11 and lovely stories like this one.

America, Fuck Yeah!

[Duckhunter935]

7. between one man and one little girl is OK

I am sure this in line with some fundies, separate sexes right?

[JerseygirlCT]

8. Scum. They are scum. I cannot tolerate that regime and that

"culture". Wahhabism needs to go the way of the dodo.

[supernova]

11. Fox guarding the hen house

Surprise, surprise.

Fucker. :grr: :grr:

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat.

More theocratic bullshit and lunacy.

[WeDidIt]

14. Gotta love it when a religion codifes pedophilia.

So where's the difference between these fucks and the weird as Mormon offshoots in the US Southwest?

[LeftyMom]

16. Oil.

If the FLDS were sitting on top of a big fat deposit of dead dinosaurs, everybody'd kiss their crazy child molester asses too.