Minister says marriages for girls need new rules

Plans are underway to regulate the marriages of young girls in Saudi Arabia, with hopes to set the minimum age for marriage to 18.

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA // The ministry of justice announced plans this week to regulate the marriages of young girls in Saudi Arabia, but observers are sceptical of the ministry's ability to set the age of majority at 18 because of huge resistance from religious institutions. The minister of justice, Mohamed al Issa, told the Al Watan daily newspaper that his department is drawing up a list of recommendations for the regulation of the marriage of young girls that, among other things, would limit the control of the girl's legal guardian - thus giving her more choice over who she marries and when - and encourage the minimum age for marriage to be set at 18 .

Mr al Issa made his announcement after a Saudi judge this week refused for a second time to annul a marriage between an eight-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. The plan has been well received by rights activists, though few believe religious authorities who have power of veto over such bills will permit it to pass."I am happy to hear that the ministry of justice is conducting a study on underage marriages but I am not optimistic about the ability of the ministry to impose any regulations soon to end these marriages," said Saud Kateb, a Saudi professor and children's rights activist.

"The religious institution is resisting any attempt to define the age of majority at 18, and the results of the ministry of justice study are not obligatory [legally binding] for the country's top clerics," Prof Kateb said. The majority age for women in Saudi is defined by puberty, which is linked to menstruation. "I refuse to link girls' adulthood with menstruation as girls can get their period at different ages starting from eight years of age," Prof Kateb said.

Pressure from social activists to end child marriages led members of the Shoura Council - Saudi Arabia's parliament - to pass a resolution in November setting the age of majority at 18 for both men and women. And the ministry of health endorsed the council's views by stating that permitting girls to marry under the age of 18 could damage their health. But Saudi Arabia's top cleric refused to accept either the resolution of the council or the recommendation of the health ministry.

"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, declared in January. "A girl age 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her," he said. With the country's top cleric taking such a stand, many believe it will be difficult to set the majority age at 18.

"If the grand mufti describes officials attempting to set the majority age at 18 as ignorant people, how will it be possible to change the marriage age in Saudi?" said Waleed abu al Khair, a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist. Human rights groups in the kingdom have repeatedly voiced their opposition to child marriages and pushed for the age of majority for women to be raised to 18. The National Society for Human Rights, a non-governmental Saudi organisation based in Riyadh, said in a report issued last month that the government must not allow girls under 15 to marry.

The former head of the kingdom's governmental human rights commission, Turki al Sudairi, characterised underage marriage as a human rights violation, saying it contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a signatory. Mr al Sudairi, who was removed from the post in February, called on the Saudi authorities to put an end to the practice, and to raise Saudi families' awareness of its negative consequences.

Under Sharia, a virgin woman needs the approval of her guardian, usually her father, to get married. Fathers cannot force daughters to marry, and the marriage must be consensual. But under the Hanbali doctrine, which is applied in Saudi Arabia, the father can issue a marriage contract that can be terminated by the girl when she reaches puberty. Mr al Khair said the Hanbali legal school, one of four major schools in Sunni Islam, gives the guardian complete control over the girl, and this is the source of many social and family problems in Saudi Arabia. "How can a girl who can't terminate a marriage contract be part of a marriage? This is a major contradiction in the Hanbali system," he said.