Cairo: A wedding of a boy and a girl in a Delta village has triggered an outcry in Egypt, prompting child right advocates to demand a tougher penalty against child marriages.
Families of the bride and the groom — aged 12 and 10 respectively — allegedly held a lavish party to celebrate their unlawful marriage in the village of Al Ma’sara in Dakahlia province, around 120km north of Cairo.
Singers and belly dancers performed at the well-attended ceremony, Egyptian media reported, dubbing the newly-weds the world’s youngest spouses. Images of the couple, a seventh grader bridegroom and a fifth grader bride, went viral online showing the little couple sitting next to each other during the purported party.
The groom’s 35-year-old father was quoted in local newspapers as saying that he decided to get his son married because he was eager to attend his wedding party and to “feel joy of seeing his children” early in life. The child bride appeared at the party clad in a red dress, rather than the white gown traditionally worn at weddings, so as to avoid trouble with authorities, witnesses claimed.
In an attempt to stop child marriages, Egypt issued a law in 2008, setting marriage at 18 years for both sexes.
This law does not criminalise underage marriages, although it bans their official registration.
Child marriages are thought to be rife in Egypt’s rural areas due to cultural traditions that recommend early weddings and childbirth.
In such cases, families shun official registration of the marriage until the couples reach the lawful age of matrimony at 18. Without this registration, birth certificates are not issued for children resulting from this marriage; consequently they are denied access to state-supported health-care and education services.
The state-appointed National Council for Motherhood and Childhood has denounced child marriages as “assassination of childhood”. “Such marriages take Egypt back to the time of ignorance and backwardness,” the council’s chairwoman, Maya Mursi, said. She added that the council’s branch in Dakahlia has been asked to take legal action against families of the two children. Other rights groups have vowed to sue both families for alleged child abuse.
Dar Al Ifta, Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, has urged state institutions to make concerted efforts to stop marriages among minors.
“There are wrong concepts that prevail in society, particularly in the countryside, encouraging underage marriages,” Khalid Omran, an official at Dar Al Ifta, said.
“Marriage eligibility means the proper age of being able to build and care for a good family,” he told private television station Al Hayat.
“Many marriages end in divorce because one or both spouses were not mature.”
