Saudi Grand Mufti Says Okay For 10-Year-Olds To Marry

If marrying a child is good enough for the Prophet Mohammad it's good enough for Muslims so says Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh (Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti). Well, he didn't quite put it that way, but it was certainly implied when he stated (in response to some woman's question about forcing underage girls to marry) that according to Islam 10 and 12 year-olds are ready for marriage.  Mohammad married his prized child-bride Aisha at the tender age of 9. He probably thinks 10 is ancient, in comparison. And he definitely does not support those who are trying to make the legal age for marrying 25.

"Those who call for raising the age of marriage to 25 are absolutely mistaken," al-Sheikh said in a lecture he gave at the faculty housing mosque of Imam Mohamed bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

"Our mothers and grandmothers got married when they were barely 12. Good upbringing makes a girl ready to perform all marital duties at that age."

Good upbringing? More like ignorance and lack of education.

Of course it matters not that Saudi Arabia is a party to the UN Child Rights Treaty which prohibits child marriages. Their religious laws and interpretations of those laws take precedence over anything else. At least young girls have a reprieve of one year.