A member of the National Society for Human Rights, Suhailah Zainul Abdeen, has demanded the authorities fix the minimum age for women’s marriage at 18.

Her demand is supported by a study she has prepared which is currently being examined by the Ministry of Justice.

Fixing the minimum age of marriage is the only way to stop increasing incidents of elderly men getting married to very young girls — as recently happened to the girl from Al-Rass in Buraidah.

It is shocking to imagine a man sexually assaulting a child who is younger than his great-granddaughter. I also wonder why an official permits such things to happen while it is in his capacity to stop such brutal behavior. The official should be dismissed from his work because he has misused his authority. He could, at least, have delayed the marriage until the girl was a little more grown up, physically, mentally and emotionally.

This brutality continues in our society because there are people who view girls as mere instruments of pleasure. In fact, the tears of the Al-Rass girl are the expression of a tragedy devised by her own corrupt father, her cruel husband and the marriage official. They all betrayed the girl’s trust in them. The father committed a breach of trust by forcing her to share a bed with a pitiless octogenarian while the husband committed a breach of trust by raping and traumatizing her.

The official failed in his responsibility toward society, particularly to defenseless girls whose divorced mothers are unable to protect them from their greedy fathers.

Major victims of family disputes are mostly children. There is no system to guarantee them real protection. Although we call ourselves a humanitarian society, we have failed to create a mechanism to protect the victims of family breakups. While the Al-Rass girl’s plight has been brought to the public attention, the tragedies of many other girls go unreported.

There is no point in feeling sad about her plight unless we devise effective regulations to stop similar incidents from happening. Those who abuse young girls should be heavily punished. The authorities should pay attention not only to corruption in terms of money but also to those who abuse their parental authority.

There should be laws in place to ban the marriage of such young girls. Or else, their innocent childhood will be smothered and we will lose our right to call ourselves a humanitarian society.