In a phone call from Sarah, she said that she is younger than 20 and that she is married to someone older than her father. She has more than one child. The problem is that she was forced to marry the old man because her father was in debt to the man and could not repay him. In return, the old man canceled the debt and paid Sarah’s father a good dowry.
Sarah of course did not see a single riyal from the dowry; her father said that she was married to a rich man while he was poor. Sarah told me she did not care about the dowry but she wondered how she could be compensated for her youth and wasted years spent taking care of a sick old man.
I asked her if she wanted divorce and she said not; she only wants someone to write about the problems of young girls marrying men as old as their grandfathers. She pointed out that society is also witnessing the beginning of a new problem: young men driven by greed marrying rich old women.
She described her own suffering, saying that she had thought of suicide many times, but fear of God’s punishment prevented her. She thought of getting a divorce but her family would beat her if she even spoke of one. She thought of being unfaithful to him just to get revenge but again, fear of God’s punishment prevented her from doing so.
The problem of young girls marrying older men is one that is increasing. The authorities should take appropriate action to protect young girls from these social pressures as well as from their fathers’ greed and the fear of poverty.
Marriages between young girls and old men will create some dangerous social problems. Civil institutions should perform their humane roles; it is not right to ignore this problem. The problem has increased since now there are young men willing to marry old women for their money. Though young girls often have children in order to guarantee themselves a share of the old man’s estate, the old women often marry younger men merely to take revenge on someone.
I asked Sarah whether she thought she would get any help from the Human Rights Committee. She said that what she and others suffering from the same problem need is media coverage. She said they were like bombs waiting to explode and that the one thing society did not need was more bombs exploding.
