Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations, but loopholes are leaving young girls in the deeply conservative kingdom unprotected, campaigners said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, approved regulations on Wednesday to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15, and those under 18 will need approval from a specialized court, according to council member Lina Almaeena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage, and women live under a guardianship system where they must have permission from a male relative to marry, work and travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almaeena said the approval by the council, which does not have legislative powers but can propose laws to the king and the cabinet, is a \u201cgreat accomplishment\u201d for the kingdom in protecting its young citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere were no marriage limitations before, so for this to be passed and prohibit marriage for a child under 15 is a huge accomplishment because you will be protecting young boys and girls,\u201d she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Globally, 12 million girls marry before age 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides, a coalition working to end child marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations regards the practice as a human rights violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heather Hamilton, deputy director of Girls Not Brides, said it is \u201cencouraging\u201d that the kingdom is setting age limits for marriage, but the rules are a \u201cfar cry\u201d from protecting children under 18, who can still marry with court approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGirls are still at risk of being forced into marriage if their parents can persuade a court to agree,\u201d she said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that even in countries like the U.S. and U.K., courts offer little protection to girls who don\u2019t want to marry but risk alienation or retribution from their families if they tell court officials their real feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Child marriage – defined internationally as marriage under 18 – remains legal in Britain. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent. In Scotland, they do not need consent.May suffers another Brexit blow in parliament<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The majority of U.S. states do not lay out a minimum age for marriage if statutory exceptions are met, such as parental or judicial consent or in case of pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campaigners say children married young are more likely to leave school, get divorced, experience domestic abuse and mental health problems and live in poverty than those who marry later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere needs to be a complete ban on child marriage – with no exceptions. You have to make it clear to society that this is a negative social phenomenon and it should be stopped,\u201d said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
source: reuters <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations, but loopholes are leaving young girls in the deeply conservative kingdom unprotected, campaigners said on Thursday. The Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, approved regulations on Wednesday to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15, and those under 18 will need approval from a specialized… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}