8-Year-Old Divorces 50-Year-Old Husband

May 1. 2009

In Saudi Arabia, an 8-year-old girl is divorcing her 50-year-old husband. 8-years-old is way too young to be married. At 8, one has not even hit puberty yet. I believe 18 is the youngest a person should be married.

STORY SOURCE

8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband

CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.

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