24 adult women married younger boys last year!

Twenty-four adult women married teenaged boys last year, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs. The data also showed that most of the women who married teenaged boys were in the age group 20-24, while there were also women aged above 50 who married men in the age group between 25 and 29. The minimum legal marital age for men is 18 in the Kingdom while for women it is 16. But in exceptional cases men below 18 and women under 16 can approach the Sharia court and can get a ruling in their favour to get married. In such cases the ruling will be made by a panel consisting of three judges. 

Throwing light on the subject, Shaikh Ebrahim Mattar,legal expert, said, “There is nothing wrong if you go by Sharia for a woman to marry a man who is younger or older, as long as there is competence and ability to perform the marital duties. “However, there are laws imposed by the government to manage the society, and these laws have fixed the minimum marital age for men and women at 18 and 16 respectively.” “Age differences between spouses is not a big issue. But physical and emotional compatibility and competency are things that matter the most,” he explained. 

Another cleric Shaikh Ali Al Safi said marriage is a sacred act and attainment of adulthood is the basic qualification. “Adult women marrying teenaged boys is not something that should not be welcomed.” 

Abdul Zahra Salman has a different take on the subject. “With love, everything melts, and differences will seize to exist. Love transforms negatives into positives. This can only be understood by those who have lived a true love story. People believe that love is the same as lust, but that is a false belief and that is why they misinterpret and pass judgments that are far from truth.”