Meet Thea Geir, supposedly Norway’s first child bride.

Meet Thea Geir, supposedly Norway’s first child bride. HT: Independent.

Thea is 12 years old and this Saturday she apparently plans to get married to her 37-year-old fiancé, Geir.

Her blog received half a million readers ahead of the wedding.

Thea’s ‘story’ has shocked many, but it is not real. It is actually part of a campaign by children’s development charity Plan International aimed at highlighting the 39,000 children every day who are forced into marriage. The charity says:

We believe that provocation is a powerful tool in order to demonstrate a reality that truly is very provoking. We hope people will mobilise against child marriage by being girl sponsors, so that most of the girls facing Thea’s situation every day can escape their brutal fate.

'Today we are visiting the church I'm getting married on Saturday to see how it looked and planning and stuff.'

I can tell you that the church is really great and since I did not invite any of my friends in the wedding I am a bit afraid that it might be a little tommt church on Saturday. Because I do not think Geir know sooo many Avian somehow!

Therefore I thought to say that I had been properly happy if some of you many who have read my blog like to be in my wedding! Also because I really am a little scared and dread, and it had been a little better if I could plan that you who have followed my blog and know how I really did it had been there.

As I have said so called church that the wedding will be in Jacob's Church in Oslo and the wedding is at 2pm on Saturday for a few days.

If you can get so you can say it here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/383676111784232/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

In Britain Plan International has its own campaign against child marriage and FGM called #FaceUP.

Related:  Too Young To Wed

UNICEF: Some 33 percent of Iranian Girls marry while underage.

Some 33 percent of Iranian Girls marry while underage. (Taz).

In its new report published on July 22, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned about prevalence of the child marriage around the world.

Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today got married as children, the report said, underlining that more than 1 in 3 - or some 250 million - of them were married before the age of 15.

Almost half of all child brides worldwide live in South Asia; 1 in 3 are in India, the report remarked. Middle East and North Africa share 5 percent of women who were married before age 18.

The latest statistics released by Iran's National Organization for Civil Registration indicates that over one third of women who married in the nine-month period from March to Dec. 2013 were under 19.

Number of girls under the age of 19 who were married in the mentioned period stood at 208,859, with 30,956 of these girls were married under age 15.

The organization put the total number of marriages in Iran at 579,871 during the period.

The official statistics also show that 829,968 marriages were registered in Iran during the 12-month period from March 2012 to March 2013; of that amount 305,770 were child brides (36.8 percent).

However some experts believe that the official figures do not tell the whole story, while in some regions underage marriages are not registered.

Early in Dec. 2013, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian demography expert, Shahla Kazemipour as saying in some regions underage marriages are not registered due to brides' under legal age and it is only after a pregnancy that steps are taken to register the marriage.

It should be noted that Iran's domestic laws permit marriage under 18 however the Islamic Republic is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids that.

According to the article 1041 of the country's Civil Code, "marriage of girls before the age of 13 and boys before the age of 15 is contingent upon the permission of the guardian and upon the condition of the child's best interests as determined by a competent court."

Some Iranian human rights activists recently wrote a letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay calling on her to investigate the issue of marriages of young and underage girls in Iran.

UNICEF in its recent report warns about the future of the girls who marry underage. "They are not only denied their childhood, they are often socially isolated - cut off from family and friends and other sources of support - with limited opportunities for education and employment," the report said.

Iraqi women protest against draft law to permit child marriage.

Iraqi women protest against draft law to permit child marriage.(NCRI).

A group of Iraqi women have demonstrated in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls. The draft now goes to parliament..

The group's protest was on International Women's Day on Saturday and a week after the cabinet voted for the legislation.

"On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning," the protesters shouted."We believe that this is a crime against humanity," said Hanaa Eduar, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist."It would deprive a girl of her right to live a normal childhood."

The United Nations's representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, also condemned the legislation.
The legislation recognizes girls at nine fitting for marriage.

The draft was put forward by justice minister Hassan al-Shimari, a member of the Shiite Fadila party, and approved by the cabinet on February 25.

Religious parties with close ties to the Iranian regime first attempted to pass a version of the law in 2003 under United States occupation, angering secular Iraqis and prompting protests.Hmmmm.......Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!.........Yup coming soon 'Succes' story II....Afghanistan.

Video - How wealthy Saudi's are sexually exploiting underage Syrian female fugitives.

Video - How wealthy Saudi's are sexually exploiting  underage Syrian female fugitives.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan from their home country in light of the ongoing war in Syria. The distress in the hopelessly overcrowded refugee camps is great. Unscrupulous traffickers have recognized this and made ​​a business out of it. So-called 'matchmakers' sell Syrian refugee teenager girls to rich Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia.

This video is an extended (approximately 3 minutes longer) version of a video that has already been uploaded on LiveLeak (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d3_13...).

Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."

Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."(YNet).

A backwards society, shoddy economy and Islamist terror – many difficult problems flood the country of Yemen, one of the worst is the phenomenon of young girls forced into marriage.

Just last month an eight year old, identified as Rawan, died of internal bleeding, apparently the result of being forced to have sex with her 40-year-old husband on her wedding night.

Dr. Arwa Rabi'i, a gynecologist from the capital city of Sana'a, talked to the i24news channel and called for raising the marriage age to 18. "When a woman marries before the age of 18, before the uterus and hips are fully developed, there are going to be many gynecological complications such as multiple miscarriages and life-threatening infections," she said. "We see it every day, not every month or week, every day! A lot of them, 10 or 20 sick girls."

Belkis Wille, an activist in Human Rights Watch, talking to i24news from Yemen via Skype, said that in rural areas, it is common to see marriage at the ages of eight or nine. Regarding Rawan's story, she said: "Unfortunately, this specific story is influenced by a lot of rumors; various local authorities are saying the story is not true, while the journalist who broke the story refuses to believe it's not true.

"Different human rights organizations are taking different position locally, but from every point of view, whether this story is true or not, it's irrelevant considering that this happening around the country all the time. I've personally come across two or three cases I've heard from gynecologists of girls who bled to death on their wedding night."Read and see the full story here.

Iran - Lawmakers Pass Bill Allowing Men to Marry Adopted Daughters From Age 13

Iran - Lawmakers Pass Bill Allowing Men to Marry Adopted Daughters From Age 13.(Aina).

Parliamentarians in Iran have passed a bill to protect the rights of children which includes a clause that allows a man to marry his adopted daughter and while she is as young as 13 years.

Activists have expressed alarm that the bill, approved by parliament on Sunday, opens the door for the caretaker of a family to marry his or her adopted child if a court rules it is in the interests of the individual child.

Iran's Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists which vets all parliamentary bills before the constitution and the Islamic law, has yet to issue its verdict on the controversial legislation.

To the dismay of rights campaigners, girls in the Islamic republic can marry as young as 13 provided they have the permission of their father. Boys can marry after the age of 15.

In Iran, a girl under the age of 13 can still marry, but needs the permission of a judge. At present, however, marrying stepchildren is forbidden under any circumstances.

As many as 42,000 children aged between 10 and 14 were married in 2010, according to the Iranian news website Tabnak. At least 75 children under the age of 10 were wed in Tehran alone.

Shadi Sadr, a human rights lawyer with the London-based group Justice for Iran, told the Guardian she feared the council would feel safe to put its stamp of approval on the bill while Iran's moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, draws the attention of the press during his UN visit to New York.

"This bill is legalising paedophilia," she warned. "It's not part of the Iranian culture to marry your adopted child. Obviously incest exists in Iran more or less as it happens in other countries across the world, but this bill is legalising paedophilia and is endangering our children and normalising this crime in our culture."

She added: "You should not be able to marry your adopted children, full stop. If a father marries his adopted daughter who is a minor and has sex, that's rape."

According to Sadr, officials in Iran have tried to play down the sexual part of such marriages, saying it is in the bill to solve the issue of hijab [head scarf] complications when a child is adopted.

An adopted daughter is expected to wear the hijab in front of her father, and a mother should wear it in front of her adopted son if he is old enough, Sadr said.

"With this bill, you can be a paedophile and get your bait in the pretext of adopting children," Sadr said. Some experts believe the new bill is contradictory to Islamic beliefs and would not pass the Guardian Council.

An initial draft of the bill, which had completely banned marriage with adopted children, was not approved by the council and it is feared that MPs introduced the condition for marriage to satisfy the jurists and clergymen. This is why Sadr fears it can pass the council this time.

The bill has prompted backlash in Iran with the reformist newspaper, Shargh, publishing an article warning about its consequences. "How can someone be looking after you and at the same time be your husband?" the article asked.

Shiva Dolatabadi, head of Iran's society for protecting children's rights, has also warned that the bill implies that the parliament is legalising incest. "You cannot open a way in which the role of a father or a mother can be mixed with that of an spouse," she said, according to Shargh. "Children can't be safe in such a family."

Execution of juvenile offenders in Iran has also been in spotlight in recent years amid confusion between the age of majority -- when minors cease to be legally considered children -- and the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 for boys and nine for girls under Iranian law.
By Saeed Kamali Dehghan
http://www.theguardian.com

Video - BBC report on Muslim men in Britain targeting Sikh girls as sex slaves.

Video - BBC report on Muslim men in Britain targeting Sikh girls as sex slaves.HT: TarekFatah.

Jordan - Syrian refugees 'sold for marriage'.

Jordan - Syrian refugees 'sold for marriage'.(BBC).

Before the war began, Kazal was in love with her neighbour in Homs. "He was 20 years old and I dreamed of marrying him one day," she says. "I never thought I would marry someone I didn't love, but my family and I have been through some hard times since coming to Amman."

Kazal says she is 18 but looks much younger. She has just got divorced from a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who paid her family about US $3,100 (UK £2,000) to marry her. The marriage lasted one week.
"I lived with my husband in Amman, but we weren't happily married. He treated me like a servant, and didn't respect me as a wife. He was very strict with me. I'm happy that we're divorced."

Her huge, blue eyes fill with tears when she talks about the marriage."I agreed to it so I could help my family. When I got engaged I cried a lot. I won't get married for money again. In the future I hope to marry a Syrian boy who's my own age."

'Survival sex'

Andrew Harper, the Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Jordan, is concerned that some of the 500,000 Syrian refugees in the country are increasingly turning to such desperate measures.

"We don't have enough resources to give aid to all those who need it. The vast majority of refugees are women and children. Many of them are not used to going out to work, so survival sex becomes an option."

His office in central Amman is surrounded by hundreds of newly arrived refugees, waiting in long lines to register for aid. He says the UNHCR has intervened with some families who have been offering their daughters up for early marriage.

"I can't think of anything more disgusting than people targeting refugee women… You can call it rape, you can call it prostitution, you can call it what you want but it's preying on the weakest."

"The government and people of Jordan are doing what they can but people are poor and we have to get more resources into the community so families aren't forced into something that deep down I believe they don't want to do."

Short-term marriages between men from the Gulf and Syrian girls reportedly happened before the war began. But Kazal's mother Manal, who dresses conservatively like her daughter in an abaya and headscarf, says she would have never considered such an arrangement in the past."Life here is very hard and we receive very little aid. We have a baby who needs lots of milk every day, and we can't afford to pay the rent. So I had to sacrifice Kazal to help the other members of the family."

She says that the marriage was arranged by an Amman-based NGO called Kitab al-Sunna, which gives cash, food and medicines to refugees. It is funded by donations from individuals across the Arab world.
"When I went for help at the NGO they asked to see my daughter. They said they would find a husband for her."
Um Mazed is a 28-year-old Syrian refugee from Homs who has started earning money by arranging marriages between Syrian girls and Arab men."The men are usually between 50 and 80, and they ask for girls who have white skin and blue or green eyes. They want them very young, no older than 16."

She says she has presented more than a hundred Syrian girls to these men, who pay her a fee of US $70 for an introduction, and about US $310 if it results in a marriage."If these marriages end in divorce after a short time, that's not my issue, I'm just the matchmaker. As far as I'm concerned it's not prostitution because there's a contract between the groom and bride."Read the full story here.

One in every four marriages in Turkey involves child bride: NGO.

                                                      HT Video : To Young To Wed.

One in every four marriages in Turkey involves child bride: NGO.(HD).

One out of every four brides is a child as families are increasingly applying to the court to change the date of birth of their daughters so that they can legally marry, warned an association of Turkish female lawyers May 4. “There is an increase of 94 percent in application to courts by families to show their daughters age older, in order to get marriage permit,” said Gülten Kaya, head of the female lawyers’ commission of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, during a meeting of the group in Kuşadası.

The legal age for marriage in Turkey has been raised to 17 from 15, however the commission members said that the limit should be increased to the majority age of 18.

Istanbul bar’s women commission head Nilüfer Ay said that the increase in the number of child brides showed the lack of awareness of women’s place in society.

Ay also said that despite the enactment of a law on violence against women, shelters for victims existed in only 8 provinces out of 14. “So laws are not enough; Awareness should be raised,” she said. Hmmmm......Obama's BFF Erdogan's Turkey.Read the full story here.

India - 'Your child doesn't seem to be suffering that much': School official tells father of seven-year-old girl rape survivor.

India - 'Your child doesn't seem to be suffering that much': School official tells father of seven-year-old girl rape survivor.(NDtv). Vasco, Goa: Even as the family of the seven-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped in a toilet in her school in Vasco in south Goa, deals with the trauma, shockingly insensitive comments were made to them by an official of the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), which runs the school.
"Your child doesn't seem to be suffering that much," an official of the Trust said to the father of the seven-year-old. Speaking exclusively to NDTV, the father of the rape survivor said the official had come to visit them on Wednesday, two days after the incident to talk about the compensation the port trust was offering them. "I was shocked when I heard that statement. How can he say that my daughter is not suffering? She has been scarred for life. The management's insensitivity has really disgusted and saddened me," he revealed, the outrage still reflecting in his quivering voice.
When NDTV contacted P Mara Pandiyan, MPT chairman, he said he wasn't aware if this comment had been made and promised to hold an inquiry.
The father, meanwhile, lashed out at the several lapses committed by the school and believed that the case had been damaged. "How can an educated teacher wash off evidence?" he asked referring to a teacher's act where she washed the victim's blood soaked underwear and skirt.
What irked the father most were the delays in reporting the case to the management and the police by the headmistress who has now been suspended by MPT. "How can a child be raped inside the heart of a school and no one has any clue? That too by a stranger? And my little girl was only seven years old," he said, his voice shaking with anger and hurt. "We have been completely shattered by this. We are just not able to come to term."
The accused has still not been nabbed four days after the incident. Angry protests by over a thousand parents have put pressure on the administration and the cops to act. Vasco shutdown on Tuesday in solidarity with the victim and her family.
The Goa police has set up a 15 member team but has failed to crack the yet. "We are trying out best. But this is a blind case," Deputy Inspector General of Goa, O P Mishra explained.
The girl was allegedly raped in the school toilet on Monday in Vasco, a port city in South Goa. According to eye witnesses, the accused was seen wearing a blue jeans and a blue, white and black striped long sleeved shirt in the school premises before committing the crime.Hmmmm......Something is definitely wrong with India's society...Rape[Istan].Read the full story here.

Saudi Air Force Sergeant Accused of Kidnapping & raping boy younger than 14 in Vegas.

Saudi executioner

Saudi Air Force Sergeant Accused of Kidnapping and raping boy younger than 14 in Vegas.(Yahoo).LAS VEGAS (AP) —A sergeant in Saudi Arabia's air force was jailed in Las Vegas on charges that he pulled a boy into a hotel room and sexually assaulted him the morning of Sin City's big New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza.
Mazen Alotaibi, 23, faces charges including kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and felony coercion that could get him decades in state prison, according to police and charging documents obtained Friday.
The boy, who is younger than 14, told police the man forced him into a room at the Circus Circus hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and raped him. Police arrested Alotaibi after being called to the hotel before 9:30 a.m. Dec. 31.
"There was a kidnapping and sexual assault with force," Las Vegas police Lt. Dan McGrath said. "The victim said he was forced into the room and sexually assaulted. We have a strong case based on the evidence."
The boy, who lives out of state, was staying at the hotel with his family, McGrath said. He was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and evidence collection and released later to family members. His name was not made public.
McGrath said Alotaibi produced a Saudi Arabian military identification and said he was stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. U.S. federal authorities and Saudi military officials were notified, the police lieutenant said.
Alotaibi's lawyer, Don Chairez of Newport Beach, Calif., said Friday he had been in contact with U.S. military authorities at both air force bases and with the Saudi government. He said Alotaibi had come to Las Vegas for the New Year's celebration and will plead not guilty.
Alotaibi also is charged with burglary, which in Nevada can stem from a person entering a building with intent to commit a felony.Hmmmm....."What happens in Vegas....doesn't always stay in Vegas."Read the full story here.

Video - Egyptian Islamist Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari Opposed to Clause in Constitution Preventing Sex Trafficking.

Egyptian Islamist Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari Opposed to Clause in Constitution Preventing Sex Trafficking.Following are excerpts from a TV show featuring Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari, a member of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly, which was broadcast on Al-Nas TV on September 24, 2012.

Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari: We were discussing a clause [proposed for the constitution] prohibiting forced labor and sex trafficking in women and children. I and some other members objected to this clause. We said that "trafficking in women" in the UN covenants refers to child marriage.

There were continuous efforts to make me specify an age at which girls may marry. They asked: When? At the age of 9, 10, 11? I said to them: Even in Egypt, girls begin to menstruate only at the age 11-13. In most cases, it doesn’t happen at the age of nine. There is however, a cultural and social heritage in this country. In the cities, it is very difficult to marry before the age of 18, but in the rural areas – in Siwa, in the Sinai, and among the Nubians – things are different. We should bear in mind the climate and the economic and social heritage. The important thing is that the girl is ready and can tolerate marriage.
Then they wanted to add an article protecting women from violence. With such a clause, you wouldn't be allowed to say anything to her, let alone touch her. And there were things worse still...

TV Host Sheikh Khaled Abdallah: The people of Egypt should know what those secularists are trying to do. The man is a member of the Constituent Assembly. It's not me saying this. "Child protection" means that if your child goes astray, you cannot discipline him, beat him, or even say a word to him, or else he might call 911 like they do in America. Your wife will act insolently, and you won't be able to say a word to her. Forget about your manhood. If you dare to say anything to her, she will call the police on you. They want to exclude the Islamists from formulating the constitution, and do things that contradict the shari'a and the teachings of our Prophet. Go ahead.

Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari: If your wife claims that you were intimate with her without her consent, it will be considered rape according to the law. This is part of women's protection from violence. If you have full sexual relations with your wife against her will, she will be able to file a complaint against you. That's where things are headed.Source: Memri.

Hmmm.......Obama says the Koran teaches that, "Be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the 
other."

142m girls at risk of child marriage, U.N. urges governments to take swift action against child marriage.

142m girls at risk of child marriage, U.N. urges governments to take swift action against child marriage.(Dawn).Calling for zero tolerance towards child marriage, a latest report of the United Nations has feared that the number of girl child marriages will increase dramatically over the next 10 years and more than 142 million girls are at risk of this human rights abuse. 
The number of children marrying each year will grow by 14 per cent from 14.2 million in 2010 to 15.1 million in 2030 if current trends continue, warns the report titled “Marrying too Young: End Child Marriage” released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
In South Asia alone, the number of child brides is likely to increase from 24.4 million (4.9 million per year) in 2010 to 27.9 million (5.6 million per year) in 2030.
South Asia has the highest prevalence of child marriages with 46 per cent followed by sub-Sahara Africa with 37 per cent. In Pakistan, the report says, about 5,000 new cases of obstetric fistula occur every year, with young girls disproportionately affected. The UNFPA launched a fistula repair project in Pakistan as part of an overall program to improve maternal health and now it is launching another program with focus on ending child marriage and early pregnancy. In Punjab, the UN agency supported the formulation of a youth policy which addresses child marriage and early pregnancy. Youth networks raised awareness in their communities about the danger of child marriage, the report said.

More here "To Young To Wed"

Top 12 Countries Where Girls Are Most Likely to Be Child Brides.

No. 12 India: 47 Percent
With a population of more than 1.2 billion, India has the second largest population in the world after China. India would be ranked No. 1 in terms of the absolute number of young women who have entered marriage before age 18.
No. 11 Burkina Faso: 48 Percent
Home to 16.4 million people, this western African country is one of the least developed in the world. Nearly 30 percent of rural adolescent women between 15 and 19 have already begun childbearing.
No. 10 Sierra Leone: 48 Percent
With a population of nearly 6 million, Sierra Leone ranked last of 179 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index in 2008. Until recently, this western African country did not have a minimum age for marriage under customary law.
No. 9 Madagascar: 48 Percent
Malagasy law only required women to be 14 years old to be married before a new 2007 law set marriageable age at 18. In an island country with 21.3 million residents, 34 percent of women begin childbearing while between age 15 and 19.
No. 8 Malawi: 50 Percent
In this southern African country, about half of the women between 20 and 24 years old were married before their 18th birthday. In 2010, women aged 20-24 in rural areas were twice as likely to be married before 18 than those living in urban areas. The U.N. has been working with locals to launch an advocacy campaign aimed at policymakers.
No. 7 Mozambique: 52 Percent
On average, one out of every two girls in Mozambique will be married before the age of 18. The number of child marriages is declining however, with a drop of 4 percent over the past 10 years.

No. 6 Mali: 55 Percent
In this landlocked country of mostly desert or semi-desert, the median age at marriage for women is 17 while for men it is 26. Just over half of Mali’s 15.8 million population lives on less than $1 a day.
No. 5 Central African Republic: 61 Percent

Despite the legal minimum age for marriage being 18 in the Central African Republic, three out of every five girls are married before they turn 18.
No. 4 Guinea: 63 Percent
Guinea’s 10.2 million residents are predominately rural and poor. The median age at marriage for women is 16 while that for men is 26.

No. 3 Bangladesh: 66 Percent
Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries with an estimated population of 150 million. This is the country with the highest prevalence of child marriages in South Asia. Despite legislation in place the practice of child marriage is pushed by strong social and cultural norms.
No. 2 Chad: 72 Percent
Child marriage prevalence in Chad is notably higher than the sub-Saharan Africa regional average. Once the girls are married, only 7.4 percent of them are using contraception.

No. 1 Niger: 75 Percent
In this Western African country where women on average give birth to seven children, three in every four young women aged 20 to 24 were married before they turned 18. The United Nations has been working at the community level to tame the social-cultural factors that increase girls’ vulnerability to child marriage.Hmmmm..........AS USUAL the Report LEAVES OUT THE PERCENTAGE OF ISLAMIC COUNTRIES INVOLVED in this INHUMANE PRACTICE.Source : HT: Epoch Times.

Pakistan - Child marriages accounted for 32 per cent of all marriages in the country.

Pakistan - Child marriages accounted for 32 per cent of all marriages in the country.(PT). ISLAMABAD: Marriage at an early age is a harsh reality for many young women, with dire repercussions for them, their children and the community. Still, according to UNICEF, child marriages accounted for 32 per cent of all marriages in the country from 1987 to 2005. During a consultative meeting that was held to discuss the sensitive topic on Monday, it was shared that not much is expected to change in the next decade if the government does not take the issue seriously. Around 100 million girls are expected to enter into child marriage in the next decade, it was said.
Participants got together to map out the social, medical and legal work being done to decrease the prevalence of child marriages. Qindeel Shujaat, legal adviser on human rights, said that while there are laws to prevent child marriages, the Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929 hasn’t been modified in 82 years. “The punishment for violating the law is a fine of Rs1,000, or one month imprisonment. If a marriage involving children takes place, the adults are punished, but the marriage is not dissolved,” she said.
However, according to Shujaat, the law’s implementation is non-existentant. Participants recommended that the minimum punishment be increased to two years and the fine to at least Rs100,000 to deter offenders. Penalties should be applicable on parents of both the bride and groom. Also, the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls should be 18 years. While a 16 year-old girl is eligible for marriage, she cannot vote, drive or open a bank account. The groom is required by law to be 18 or above. In addition to the legal framework and social implications, health consequences of child marriages were also highlighted. Girls are at a higher risk of birth-related morbidities such as fistula, post-partum haemorrhage, sepsis and hypertensive disorder. The underage mother and child’s psychological health is also adversely affected as the transition to motherhood is abrupt and premature. “Young girls lose control over their bodies and lives. Patriarchy determines the girls’ fate and they are imprisoned in an adult life while still children,” said Uzma Tahir, policy manager Actionaid. She also stated that it was imperative to change the societal mind set that considers women the personal property of their male family members. “The difficulty in bringing about reforms is doubled as laws are not conducive to change,” Tahir said. Rutger’s WPF Country Director Qadeer Baig said, “We want to engage the media to raise awareness on early marriages and pregnancy and influence policy makers and government officials to bring about legislative change in the minimum age of marriage.” The event was jointly arranged by Actionaid, Bedari and Plan International.Read the full story here.

Egypt sheikh says girls should be married, have children starting at 14-years-old.

Egypt sheikh says girls should be married, have children starting at 14-years-old.(BM).CAIRO: An Egyptian cleric and member of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting Egypt’s new constitution has said that girls 14-years-old are permitted to have sexual relations under Islam and has proposed reducing the marriage age limit as a result. “It is permissible for the girl at the age of 9 or 10 to marry,” Yassir Barhami said in discussing a woman’s sexual reproduction and his interpretation of Islam. The Salafist – ultra-conservative – preacher claimed that under Islam when a girl begins to ovulate she is ready for marriage. He added during a television debate on Dream TV last Tuesday that “marriage of a girl would not be a supplement for education,” but added that it “was better” to marry a girl young “than falling into sin with customary marriage.”
The cleric cited the Qur’an in arguing that any girl who is menstruating should be married and begin having children. At the same time of advocating the marriage age be dropped to 14-years-old, he argued that the Salafist Constituent Assembly is also pushing for a law that denies “slavery against women” in the new constitution. Manal al-Taibi, a now resigned member of the Constituent Assembly, said that this call is the promotion of child marriage and is akin to rape. She has resigned her position on the assembly in protest to the overuse of Sharia law, or Islamic law, permeating the drafting process.Read the full story here.

Nuclear Idea: Iran Moves To Legalize Marriage For Girls Under 10 Years Old.

Nuclear Idea: Iran Moves To Legalize Marriage For Girls Under 10 Years Old.(DJ).When Saudi Arabia announced three months ago that girls as young as 10-years old would now be allowed to marry, Iran decided to drop the age limit even further. Iranian Christian news service Mohabat News reports a member of the Iranian Parliament (Majiles) Mohammad Ali Isfenani, “we must regard 9 as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married. To do otherwise would be to contradict and challenge Islamic Sharia law.” He argues,

“Before the revolution girls under 16 were not allowed to marry. Parents determined to get around the law would often tamper with their daughter’s birth certificate. Under the previous constitution, people were legally regarded as adults when they were 18. After the revolution the age at which children were regarded as going through puberty was lowered to 9 for girls and 15 for boys. 

Mohabat News reports statistics that show over the past few weeks, over 75 female children under 10 were forced to marry much older men. And in nearly 4000 cases, both the bride and groom were under 14. The Examiner says according to a news release from the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, the current civil law, drafted before the revolution in the late 1970’s regarding the legal age of marriage for girls under the age of ten, is considered “un-Islamic and illegal.” Majiles (Iranian Parliament) is now expected to vote on the proposal to bring civil law more in line with Sharia Law. The Women’s News Network reports that there are more than 10-million girls under the age of 18 married each year around the world, usually without their consent and to much older men.Hmmmm.........Obama says the Koran teaches that, "Be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the other." Read the full story here.

Number of marriages among children under-10 increases in Iran.

Number of marriages among children under-10 increases in Iran.(TI).The number of marriages among children under-10 has increased in Iran. In 2010 the country registered 713 such cases which is twice more than in the previous three years, a member of the Union for the Protection of Children's Rights Farshid Yezdani said, the Iranian Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday. Recent statistics was released in 2010, Yezdani said. According to these, some 342,000 marriage contracts were registered in Iran among adolescents under 18 years, of which 42,000 - at the age of 10-14 years. The website of the Iranian parliament with reference to the Head of the Civil Registry in Tehran reported that in 2011, some 75 marriages among children under 10 years were recorded in Tehran province, 3929 - aged 10-14 and 1927 - aged 15-19 years. In fact, the number of marriages among children aged 10-15 years is more than statistics shows, Yezdani said. Some 55 per cent of child marriages are registered in cities, while 45 per cent in the villages, Yezdani added. He said the number of divorces among children is also growing. Statistics for 2005-2011 shows that 37,000 marriages among children aged 10-18 years have ended in divorce. Hmmmm........"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing." ~ Edmund Burke.Read the full story here.More here.