I was just doing my morning news round and I came across an important article in Al Rai newspaper. The article treats the subject of early marriage in Jordan, and why it will sap this country of its riches.

According to Jordanian law, the legal marriage age is 18, which is reasonable. But there is a special clause that basically says that a judge has the authority to marry off a 15 year-old girl whenever he sees fit, or when he sees that the marriage will be for her own good. Of course, a religious judge (which is the type of judges that does marriage procedures) or a Sheikh authorized to write the marriage contract (el ktab) seldom if ever object to marrying off an underage girl. I say this because I have heard from my mother, time and again, how the Sheikh married this girl or that girl although she was only 15-16. Beddo yostor 3aleeha, i.e. he believes he is doing good and preserving her honor (followers of this logic believe that a woman is a scandal waiting to happen).

Al Rai article details the health, financial, and psychological consequences for young marriages and criticizes the legal exception granted to judges to marry off underage girls. In essence, the exception annihilates the actual law, because like I mentioned, very few judges or Sheikhs would object to underage marriages because according to their religious views; they are saving society from the evils of adultery. Never mind the fact that they are helping perpetuate gender inequality and tens of social dysfunctions, not to mention literally endangering the girls’ healths and education and characters by marrying them off to, dare I say this, pedophiles who hunt young brides to “mould them” into the submissive wife-maids they wish. Never mind all that, they are saving society.

According to the article, the percentage of underage marriages is 14%, which translates to 7598 marriages. That is inaccurate, because judges and Sheikhs when they draft up the marriage contracts do NOT put the actual ages of the girls when they are underage, they simply write 18! So that 14% is only what got reported, but not the actual percentage.

Jordan has one million girls under the age of 15, who are alive right now. I did the math; this means that 140,000 girls between the ages of 15-18 WILL get married within the next 15-18 years. That is a huge number! Let’s assume that each one of these girls will only deliver three babies, that makes it 420,000 babies IN ADDITION to the other births from legal marriages. Naturally, the men who marry underage girls do not only want three babies. They want five, six, maybe more, and their child-wives are fertile enough to keep on popping kids for 15 years. And don’t forget, 14% is not the actual percentage of underage marriages in our society.

Can you imagine what will happen to the population of Jordan at this rate? Can you imagine the health bill that will come out of the birth complications and other child-related problems? Can you imagine the thousands of children who will be born to semi-illiterate mothers, what will become of them? Can you imagine what will happen when Almighty Daddy can’t take care of his dozen children?

He will marry off the girls at 15.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Jordan, Wonder Woman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.