'Set minimum age for marriage'
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article28934.ece By YUSUF MUHAMMAD | ARAB NEWS Published: Mar 12, 2010 02:06 Updated: Mar 12, 2010 02:06 MADINAH: Participants of a debate Monday evening at Taibah University have called for a fatwa establishing a minimum age for marriage. Abu Bakr ibn Ahmad Bagadir, undersecretary for international relations at the Ministry of Culture and Information said child marriage "have serious social implications." Bagadir said the fatwa should establish the framework for protecting underage girls. Ghazi ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Shammari, chairman of the Takafol family program in the Eastern Province, said he approved of the marriage of underage girls, but warned against premature sexual relations. The age at which a child becomes an adult in Saudi Arabia is generally determined to be 18 in civic matters. However in Shariah the age of adulthood and consent is determined by the physical appearance of puberty, which can vary among individuals. Ahmad ibn Hafeez Hafiz, director of a mental hospital in Madinah spoke about the medical and psychological implications of such marriages. He cited a number of cases that came to him in the hospital in which young married girls suffered from depression and a hatred of men. "Poverty, the desire to protect the girl from an early age and using the girl as a commodity are the main causes of underage marriages," he said. Saud Al-Anzi, undersecretary of the High Institute for Imams and Preachers, presided over the debate.
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