This shit needs to stop

In Saudi Arabia, an 8 year old girl was in an arranged marriage with a 50 year old man. The marriage has now been annulled.

If you have not heard about this news story, I'll give you a brief rundown.

The girl was given up by her father in order to pay a debt to his friend. The man was told that he could not have sex with her until she hit puberty. The girl's mother filed for divorce twice, but the judge refused to end the marriage. A new judge was appointed and the marriage has now been annulled as the husband admitted that it was illegal.

This sounds like the sort of story that you read about in the Old Testament, not on BBC news. Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Islamic state and allows fathers to wed their children to whomever they want. I'm actually stunned. I couldn't believe it when I read about it. What type of father would sell his 8 year old daughter to pay off a debt? What type of state would make that legal?

Now I'm not one of these "we need to get rid of religion because it's evil" people. I think that religion can have its positive aspects for people who need it. However, this is far too far. Something has to be done about Islamic states like Saudi Arabia which allow this sort of shit to happen. This is so disgusting. These people think that they are serving a god by selling their own daughters? When will they realise that some things are more important than a mysterious person in a book. Priorities need to be set. I'm sorry but if your god comes before your child then you are not a good parent and you should not have the privilege of being one. There are people out there who are loving and would be a wonderful parent, but will never be able to be one. Then there are these other people who would sell their own daughter to pay off a debt.

I'm amazed. The shocking lack of human rights in these countries astounds me. It's worse that the judge denied a divorce twice. He obviously deemed it to be morally and legally sound for an 8 year old to be sold to marry a 50 year old.

This is a disgrace. I'm going to stop writing or I'll just keep saying the same things over and over again.

When will these people realise that the Old Testament is not a guide to how a country should be run?

Eugh.

I hate fundamentalist Islam. I was on a trip over the weekend and I saw a Muslim woman who had the veil covering her face. I was scared. Not because she looked like some kind of ninja/nun hybrid. It was because I was frightened that this woman would be so subservient. Anyway, that's another point.

Time to go, there will be another post later on today, I just wanted to make this now because I just read it and had to put my thoughts down.

You can read the original story here