JEDDAH: The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has taken steps to end marriages involving minors following the high-profile coverage of such matrimonies in the Kingdom.
According to the HRC, the Ministry of Justice has begun studying ways to set a minimum age for marriage. It is expected that the minimum age will be set at 16.
“The Justice Ministry’s initiative is a good sign and we absolutely welcome and support it. We will join all efforts to eliminate this phenomenon,” said Zuhair Al-Harithy, the HRC’s official spokesman and a member of its board.
“The commission’s view on this matter is clear. We are completely against it. We have stated more than once that such marriages violate international agreements concerning children,” he added.
The HRC has recently taken an active role against marriages involving children, and was recently able to annul the marriage between a 60-year-old man and a 10-year-old girl. The man married the girl after winning a bet with her father.
Al-Harithy said the commission believes such marriages are against children’s rights and so it would “work hard in confronting and curbing child marriages.”
“We will intervene if we learn about a marriage involving minors and we will definitely contact the authorities to bring a stop to this,” said Al-Harithy.
The HRC recently contacted the Ministry of Health and requested medical reports.
Commenting on remarks made by Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, on the issue recently, Al-Harithy said the HRC respects different opinions and points of view, but times have changed.
“How can a young child be aware of what a marriage is? The girl has to agree to the marriage. The main condition of a marriage contract is the bride’s acceptance,” he said.
Al-Asheikh said in a speech last week that the Shariah allows the practice of pre-teen girls getting married.
“We hear often in the media about the marriage of minors. We must know that the Shariah is not unjust for women,” the mufti was quoted as saying. “If it is said that a woman below 15 cannot be married, that is wrong. If a girl exceeds 10 or 12 then she is eligible for marriage, and whoever thinks she is too young, then he or she is wrong and has done her an injustice.”
Mona Abdat, assessment and educational therapy specialist at the Maharat Center, told Arab News that she feels child marriages are improper. “They negatively affect the innocence of childhood and so are wrong. Marriage has its responsibility and a child of that age is not physically and psychologically prepared for marriage,” she said.
“Such children would need to still go to school and then, at the same time, have the responsibility of taking care of their household,” she added.
Abdat said there are several stages that people go through before growing up. “We first go through childhood and then the teenage and so on. We would have eliminated a girl’s childhood if we married her off at an early age. There is no social, physical and psychological maturity at such an age,” she added.
The Kingdom has seen a recent spurt in marriages between elderly men and girls as young as 10. Media coverage and the concerns of the HRC have been pivotal in stopping several such marriages. However, with no law existing, child marriages may continue under the surface.
