Saudi Shocker : 12 year old girl married to 80 year old man

Shocking news from saudi. A 12 year old girl was married to 80 year old man in greed of dowry by girl's father. SR85,000 is what father got as dowry. What more shocking is that the 80 year old man is cousin of girl's father.

The news had made headlines when case for divorce was dismissed since mother represented the girl. It was challenged in upper court but in latest twist to the case , girl has dropped request for divorce in the court.

Saudi Arabia has signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as any person under the age of 18. Article 16.2 of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Saudi Arabia is a signatory of, states that “the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.”

The Kingdom, which ratified the convention in September 2000, did so with the stated reservation that “in case of contradiction between any term of the Convention and the norms of Islamic law, the Kingdom is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention.”