The marriage of young girls to elderly men in the Kingdom has been in the media focus recently, provoking public discussions and encouraging officials and associations to launch campaigns for setting up a legal minimum age of marriage. However, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Teraifi, a researcher in the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, told Saudi Gazette that he was critical of media campaigns that call for disallowing marriage of young girls to elderly men. “Much of the public discussion of the issue is based upon a few reports that have appeared in newspapers, which is insufficient reason to start campaigns to restrict such marriages,” Al-Teraifi said. “Outlawing the marriage of young girls to elderly men will have a negative effect on Saudi society as it will lead to mixing of the sexes which is impermissible in Islam, ” he said. “In addition, delaying the marriage age to 18, for example, will delay the age of wearing the Hijab (the scarf covering a woman's head and hair) to later ages. Girls under 18 will be allowed to meet men and boys and deal with them freely without wearing the Hijab, and this is completely against Islamic rules,” Al-Teraifi added. “Age has nothing to do with the validity of the marriage contract, but consummation of marriage should be only when the bride reaches the age of puberty,” he said. Saudi Gazette also spoke to Dr. Mansour Bin Askar, an Islamic social researcher and professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, and asked what effect setting a minimum marriage age would have on Saudi society. “The true meaning of early marriage, from the medical and scientific point of view, is marriage before puberty, where a girl is married before she experiences menstruation,” Bin Askar said. This age varies from child to child and in different countries of the world it ranges from between nine to 16 years of age, he explained. “Scientific studies suggest that the marriages of young couples who may lack intellectual growth and maturity often end in divorce as the young marriage partners are not prepared for the responsibility of the married life,” he added. Although the legal minimum age of marriage has not been defined in Islam, most Arab and non-Arab countries have set such an age in order to ensure social stability. “Islamic law does not specify a certain minimum age for marriage, but countries, such as Syria, Jordan, the UAE, and Tunisia have set the age at 15 for females and 16 for males,” said Bin Askar. The marriage of young girls to older men is not a recent phenomenon in the Kingdom. It has been there since ancient times for a number of reasons. “There have long been social, economic, political and religious reasons which have encouraged the need for early marriage in Saudi society,” Bin Askar said. “During times of war, for example, the marriage of minors helped increase the number of family members which subsequently increased the influence of the tribe, as a tribe's power was based upon its size,” he added. From the social and economic perspective, this increase in the size of the family provided more members to work in grazing, agriculture and small industries, thus increasing the economic well-being of the family and the tribe,” Bin Askar explained. The early marriage of young girls is not necessarily wrong, but it does need to be controlled, he said. “It is wrong to believe that early marriage has many advantages and no disadvantages, or to believe the opposite. Getting married at an early age can be suitable for one girl, but unsuitable for another. This all depends on different social, economic, cultural, and psychological factors,” Bin Askar said. Attitudes about the marriage of minors differ from one family to another, depending upon the family's social, financial, psychological, and cultural background. However, there are certain conditions that must be met. “From a medical standpoint the marriage of minors should not affect the health of the couple, especially that of the young bride,” Bin Askar said. And an early marriage requires the complete acceptance of both the partners, especially of the girl, who should announce her agreement in front of a judge, he added.
