Child Brides

Talk talk talk discuss discuss discuss do nothing do nothing do nothing. Good luck getting the marriages of your 13 and 14-year old daughters overturned. And look at the bright side: At least they are not 8 and 10-years old. I don't quite understand how the "system" works, but apparently if you are a husband and wife with children and you get divorced, the wife/mother only gets custody of the children for a short period of time - say until they are 7 or 8 - at which time, then the husband/father gets custody of the children and can do whatever he wants with them and the [former] wife/mother has no say. Or, something like that.

In this particular case, however, the mother says that the father wanted nothing to do with his two young adolescent daughters until a month ago when he called and told them to get dressed up because he was taking them to a "family occasion." Oh sure, you can call your own wedding to a pedophile an old man a "family occasion," I guess.

The mother's story is that she was married to the man for eight years during which she had six children. It was "an abusive marriage." She says that "her ex-husband was aggressive, uncivilized and irresponsible." [Wait a second. Weren't we told, just yesterday or the day before, that only marriages that take place in "the West" are the ones with "shockingly high" abuse rates? Yeah. I think that is exactly what we were told.] After finally going to court to obtain a divorce, the mother's "difficulties increased as her husband used her children to make her life more difficult... Sometimes, he would take them and forbid me from seeing them for months." A bit of a discrepancy in her story, here, where she then says that her "ex-husband totally ignored her children for 18 months before their marriages." No matter. Fact-checking, as we have all learned from the AP and newspapers in "the West" is of little or no relevance.

After the husband had the girls dress up for the "family occasion," the mother learned from her sister that a "marriage contractor had begun" marrying off her daughters. She has since contacted different ministries and the Social Services Department to interfere but "things got stalled" as her ex-husband "has many connections because of his line of work." [What, exactly does the ex-husband do that he has so many connections? Hmmm???] The matter is being looked into by The Human Rights Commission.

"In the meantime" the mother has been "prevented from seeing her daughters by her former in-laws." Those little girls are married now. You can go ahead and kiss them goodbye. She says, "I wonder when there will be a law protecting women and children from being lost in this weird system." Yeah. Don't be holding your breath.