JEDDAH // The Saudi government is looking to prevent child marriages by setting a minimum age, but activists say reconciling any new law on the matter with the kingdom's religious authorities will be difficult.
The head of the government-run Human Rights Commission (HRC), Bandar Al Aiban, said that government bodies, including his, rights groups and others were holding talks to draft a new regulation to set the minimum age between 16 and 18.
"This is under serious review ? we are discussing what is the appropriate age for marriage," he said.
Saud Kateb, a Saudi university professor and children's rights activist, said girls younger than 17 were too emotionally immature to be married. "I don't know how they want to allow a girl that has not completed her elementary school to get married?" he said.
"If the parties involved in drafting the regulation reach an agreement on any age below 18, they will need to convince the government to grant full legal rights to girls at that age."
In Saudi, although girls can marry even before reaching puberty, they cannot terminate the wedding contracts according to the Hanbali legal school, one of four major schools in Sunni Islam, which gives complete control over the female to the male guardian.
Setting the minimum age of marriage for women in Saudi Arabia is a controversial issue because the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Shaeikh, and many senior religious scholars define the age of adulthood for women as puberty.
But after facing heavy international pressure for permitting pre-teen and prepubescent girls to be married off by their parents, the Saudi ministry of justice is trying to find a way to legislate for an end to child marriages by setting a minimum age.
Child marriage has existed for centuries in Saudi but it aroused controversy after an international outcry late last year when an eight-year-old girl in the city of Onaiza, north of Riyadh, was forced by her father to marry a man in his 50s as a part of a debt settlement.
The girl's mother challenged the marriage in court but it was upheld twice. In April, the parties agreed under heavy public pressure to a divorce in an out-of-court settlement.
Under most versions of Sharia, a female virgin needs her guardian's approval (usually her father) to be married. Fathers cannot force daughters to marry, and the marriage must be consensual.
However, under the Hanbali interpretation of Sharia, which is applied in Saudi, the father can issue a marriage contract without the consent of his daughter, though it can be terminated by the girl when she reaches puberty.
Human rights groups in the kingdom have repeatedly opposed child marriages and asked for the minimum marriage age for women to be set at 18.
The National Society for Human Rights, a Saudi non-governmental organisation, said in its March report that the government must not allow women younger than 15 to marry.
The former head of the government-run HRC, Turki al Sudairi, said underage marriage was a human rights violation, contravening the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a signatory.
Mr al Sudairi, who was removed from his post in February, called on Saudi authorities to end the practice and raise awareness in society of its negative consequences.
The Saudi parliament, the Shoura Council, passed a resolution in November setting the age of majority at 18 for both men and women.
The ministry of health endorsed the council's views by saying that permitting girls younger than 18 to marry might damage their health.
Saudi Arabia's top cleric, the Grand Mufti, who has the final say on religious laws, refused to accept the resolution and it was not passed.
wmahdi@thenational.ae
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Saturday's results
Brighton 1-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Cardiff City
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 0-3 Liverpool
West Ham United 0-4 Manchester City
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
RESULT
Uruguay 3 Russia 0
Uruguay: Suárez (10'), Cheryshev (23' og), Cavani (90')
Russia: Smolnikov (Red card: 36')
Man of the match: Diego Godin (Uruguay)
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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All or Nothing
Amazon Prime
Four stars
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Results:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 (PA) | Group 1 US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
Winner: Goshawke, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) | Listed $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Silva, Oisin Murphy, Pia Brendt
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) | Conditions $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
Winner: Golden Jaguar, Connor Beasley, Ahmad bin Harmash
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) | Group 3 $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
Winner: Drafted, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Capezzano, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
Winner: Oasis Charm, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Winner: Escalator, Christopher Hayes, Charlie Fellowes
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs: 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 60kWh battery
Transmission: Single-speed Electronic Precision Shift
Power: 204hp
Torque: 360Nm
Range: 520km (claimed)
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
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The five pillars of Islam
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding