22 April, 2008

Get 'em While They're Young

I know kids mature faster these days but this is just sad. An eight-year old Yemeni girl was recently divorced. Her father arranged the marriage for her two and a half months ago as he feared that she might be kidnapped. And so, instead of, say, sending the girl to live with a relative in another town or moving, her parents gave her to a real class act of a husband as if she were a heifer. Here's what the 28-year old ex-husband said in court:

[the] marriage was consummated, but I did not beat her.

He consummated his marriage to a second grader. I know that men tend to like younger women but that's taking more than a bit too far. So, is there a cultural thing that obligated him to beat her or is beating just so common that everyone assumes husbands just beat their wives?

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