ONAIZAH: A court in Onaizah in the northeastern Qassim province has rejected a divorce petition filed by the mother of a an eight-year-old girl whose father married her to a 58-year-old man, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.
In a verdict issued on Saturday, presiding judge Sheikh Habib Al-Habib dismissed the case because the woman does not have the right to file such a plea on behalf of her daughter and ordered that the petition should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday quoting Abdullah Al-Jutaili, the lawyer representing the girl’s divorced mother.
The woman filed the case with the Onaizah court in August just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.
The father had agreed to marry his daughter to the 58-year-old for an advance dowry of SR30,000, as he was apparently facing financial problems, according to relatives who did not wish to be named.
The father, who was in court, remained adamant in favor of the marriage.
Al-Jutaili said the judge passed the verdict without taking the girl’s statement. “She doesn’t know yet that she has been married,” the lawyer said of the girl who was about to begin her fourth year at primary school at the time of her marriage.
“We requested the elderly man to divorce the girl and offered to return the dowry, but the man refused,” said Al-Jutaili. He, however, added that the man had a verbal undertaking with the girl’s father that he would not consummate the marriage until she turns 18. Relatives confirmed that the girl continued to live with her mother.
Al-Jutaili said he was going to appeal the verdict at the Court of Cassation. “We have objected to the verdict and are waiting to see what will happen in the next 10 days,” said Al-Jutaili, adding that this is a clear case that emphasizes the need for strictly regulating the marriage procedures in the country.
He also said part of the problem was notaries who write marriage contracts without seeking the consent of young brides and taking into account objections raised by health workers who carry out premarital tests.
Al-Jutaili said in the current case the 58-year-old groom managed to obtain premarital health certification for his young bride from Buraidah Central Hospital despite her being only 8 years old. “The case calls for the urgency of implementing stricter rules with regard to premarital tests,” he added.
