WORLD BRIEFING / SAUDI ARABIA
A 50-year old Saudi Arabia man has agreed to divorce his 9-year-old bride, media reported, after the marriage drew global criticism.
The decision, reported by newspapers Al Watan and Al-Riyadh, came after months of court hearings, criticism from the United Nations and an international media frenzy about Saudi Arabia’s human rights practices.
The marriage took place when the girl was 8, and the mother, who opposed it, took the case to court last year. The court in the small town of Onaiza had upheld the marriage on condition that the husband did not consummate it until the girl reached puberty.
In Saudi Arabia’s patriarchal society, fathers have the right to decide whom their daughters marry.
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