Child Marriages

From earliest Greece, and ancient Roman society, to imperial China, and the Middle East, it was common for girls to marry young.

Fathers arranged and contracted the marriage of their daughters. Most girls were wedded by age 15.

Child marriages have become less of a customary practice and figures have declined in most parts of the world. At present the countries with the highest rates of child marriages below the age 18 are: Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guinea, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, and Central African Republic.

Islamic Sharia law rests of the life and practices of Prophet Muhammad, who married his third wife Aisha, when she was about the age of 6, and consummated the marriage when she was age 9.

Mainstream Islamic scholars have suggested that the chronological age of a wife does not matter because the marriageable age under Islamic law is the age when the girl’s guardians feel she has reached sexual maturity; a personal and biased judgement.

Based on sharia, marrying a girl aged 13 is acceptable Muslim practice.

Some Islamic marriage practices permit the marriage of girls below the age of 10.

“Test the orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if you then find sound judgment in them, release their property to them”.      (Quran 4:6)

Some African nations have passed marriageable age laws (16 to 18) but local customs, religious laws, poverty, and war keep Sub-Saharan child marriages high.

In Yemen some girls are married by the age of 8.

The nations Sharia Law Committee continue to block attempts made to increase the marriage age. Protesters argue that some girls are ready for marriage at age 9 and any attempt to set a minimum age for girls to marry is un-Islamic.