It is rare for victims of minor marriages to speak out, but Rasha did. A victim of parental divorce, little Rasha was married off when she was only 10 years old to a man in his 80s whom she has never ever seen. After 8 years of a marriage that she only recently knew about, she is now seeking divorce, Al-Riyadh daily reported. Rasha was born before her parents were divorced, growing up in her grandmother's house. Living in total isolation from her mother who married another man a year later and her father who disappeared, she had a difficult journey from childhood through early adulthood. But how did Rasha find out that she had been married off to an old man without her knowledge? “I was admitted to elementary and intermediate school with my birth certificate as my ID, but when I was ready to go into high school, I was asked for an official ID,” Rasha said. She reported to the Civil Status Department in Taif for an official ID. “You are married and you have been added to your husband's family card,” an official told her after going through the records. “I was shocked and could not believe what I heard,” Rasha said. Her complete file was searched, and a copy of the marriage contract signed by her husband, father, witnesses, and marriage contractor was found. With such hard evidence it was impossible to deny the marriage. She broke down emotionally right there in the office, gaining the sympathy of the people around her. “I was advised to take my case to court and sue both my father and my husband,” Rasha said. When she presented her case before the judge, he asked her to search for them and to try to settle it out of court if possible. Her search led her to a man who knew of the case telling her that her father had married her to the old man for a dowry of SR30,000. Through the man who mediated between her and the husband she had never met, she learned that the husband refused to divorce her unless he was paid in full the SR30,000. After hearing this, she began to look for SR30,000 to buy her freedom. This was almost impossible for a teenage girl with no job, family, or any source of income except her daily school pocket money. A gleam of hope was flashed on the horizon with a generous contribution from a princess to purchase her freedom. She took the money to court to finalize her divorce, but as soon as she came before the judge, he dashed her hope. “Your case is being tabled and no divorce will be granted to you,” the judge told her, she said, feeling that she was suffering from damaging psychological torture. She accepted the ruling in silence and went on to lead the rest of a “miserable life” endorsed by a court ruling, she said. But that life would need support to go on. Rasha went to the Social Security Department for support. Again, she found that her husband had used her name to get financial support for himself and his other three wives. “This is an irresponsible marriage,” said Masturah Al-Waqdani, head of Thaqif Female Charity Organization, who is also head of Foreign Education in Taif Education Department. “How could the marriage contract be signed like that? Didn't the marriage contractor look at the girl's age or even bother to ask for her personal consent,” she added. She is officially married, but not in reality. Rasha has to face this reality until the court decides to reconsider her case. “Can the husband and the father get away with this just because the court has kept the case indefinitely?” Al-Wagdani questioned the legal standing in the case. “For a sane mind, it isn't fair to marry off a 10-year-old girl to a man who is 70 years older than her. The court should reopen the case and hand down a just verdict,” she said. Rasha was married off before she had attained the age of discretion to be able to choose a life partner with her own free will, and the marriage should be nullified on the grounds of her being a minor, she argued. With the increase of arranged marriages, minor girls, or even adult ones, in the Saudi context may not be able to make free, voluntary, and informed decisions regarding any issue including relationships and marriage. That should call for attempts to curb early marriages such as Rasha's who said she would take her case further to the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, and National Society for Human Rights. __
