Friday, August 01, 2008

Controversry Over 10-Year-Old Bride

This has generated much controversy, the marriage of a 10 year old girl to a 60 year old man. I blogged it. As I was reading the comments that this article generated, I saw one that said, "There is no universal 'appropriate age' for marriage. IN Maliki Muslim Libya its 20 for a girl and in the United States its 13. It varies from one society to another and in the case of the US one state to another." Well, I was ready to pounce on that and defend the US to say WHERE IS IT LEGAL TO MARRY AT 13?!? Damn. It is legal to marry in New Hampshire if you are 13 with parental consent and the approval of a judge. New Hampshire - of all places!!! One of the most conservative states in the U.S. I lived there for seventeen years and never heard of anyone getting married at 13 years old. The requirements do vary from state to state; they can be found here.

2 comments:

  1. To say that the US allows for children of 13 to get married is so misleading. That still of course doesn't make a ten year old marrying right. Especially in this country when a ten year old is seen as a child, not a capable adult.

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  2. Well in all correctness, the person who left the comment should have said that it is legal for a 13 year old to get married in New Hampshire IF she has her parents permission and petitions a court and gets a judge to allow her to do so, so I agree with you NZ, it is misleading. And NOTHING will ever make it right for any TEN YEAR OLD CHILD ANYWHERE to get married - here or on the moon!

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