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[JEDDAH, 8 February 2010] - Saudi Arabia's human rights commission has hired a lawyer to help a 12-year-old girl annul* her marriage with her 80-year-old husband, the lawyer said, a move activists hope will lead to a ban on child marriages.
Saudi Arabia, a patriarchal society that applies an austere version of Sunni Islam, has no minimum legal age for marriage. Fathers are granted guardianship over their daughters, giving them control over who their daughters marry and when. The girl from Buraidah, a conservative town near the capital Riyadh, was married to her father's elderly cousin late last year for bridal money of 85,000 riyals (15,554 pounds), her lawyer Sultan bin Zahim told Reuters. Activists see the annulment proceedings as a test case that could pave the way for introducing a minimum age for marriage in the world's largest oil exporter, where child marriage is common in poorer tribal areas. The child's mother had earlier filed for annulment on her daughter's behalf but withdrew without giving a reason after a second court hearing in early February, bin Zahim said. The government-affiliated rights watchdog then took over the case, again filing for annulment on the child's behalf. "I became involved in this case as a public rights issue... This case is still valid even after the mother withdrew," bin Zahim said. This is the first time the commission intervenes in a case of child marriage in the kingdom, an issue that was previously seen as a "family affair" and outside of the commission's realm of duty. Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, which considers those under the age of 18 as children. "This case is an investment in order to push for a law," said Wajiha al-Huweider, a Saudi rights activist. "We need to affect public opinion and I believe that Saudi Arabia will issue a law preventing child marriages soon." Zuhair al-Harthi, a member of Saudi Arabia's advisory Shoura Council, said that a draft law on banning child marriages was being studied by a government committee. But activists fear it could be a while yet before this law is passed. "Such a law will take a long time to be passed as there are social, religious, and cultural aspects," said Mufleh al-Qahtani, chairman of the National Society for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. Harthi said a quicker way to address the issue could be for the government to ban notaries from performing marriages for girls under the age of 18 years, which would be an intervention on an administrative rather than legal level. The girl's lawyer said he expected the judge presiding over the case to make a decision shortly. "Within days we expect the judge to take into account our objection and issue an annulment, or this case will be taken to higher judges at the appeals court," bin Zahim said. * Please note that CRIN substituted the word 'divorce' for 'annulment' because, in this case, the legal matter is annulment and not divorce. A divorce is where a previously valid marriage has been legally dissolved. An annulment is the declaration that the marriage that is to be annulled was never valid in the first place. Further information