Oh…blech. Blech and ick upon Saudi Arabia, whose system still considers it right and proper that a father can marry his 12-year-old daughter off to his 80-year-old cousin in exchange for an ample dowry. At least this time, this suck-tastic story comes wrapped in a possible not-so-miserable ending. The country’s Human Rights Commission has interceded in the case, assigning the girl a government lawyer to argue her side before a local court. Whether this will do the poor child any good remains to be seen.

Traditionalists are arguing to keep the practice, because, hey, the Prophet Muhammed had a 9-year-old bride! Top Saudi Cleric Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh argued just one year ago that people who say a girl under 15 can’t take a husband are being “unfair” to the child. At the time, Al-Sheikh, a.k.a. His Venerable Horniness, was reacting to a judge who had refused to annul the “marriage” of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old degenerate.

Sigh. And you wonder why some people hate religion. Two words, Saudi Arabia: human trafficking. These aren’t marriages. These girls were sold into sexual slavery.

I’m no American exceptionalist, but I’m glad to live in a country where men who even contemplate this are considered candidates for state-sponsored castration.

feminism, islam, marriage, saudi arabia, women