any proof that age 9 is considered the age of consent across all Islam?
Who said anything about consent?
You seem to be once again averting your eyes from the truth and again trying to make some vague equivalence in Christian marriages.
Happens a lot in Saudi - the clerics are not against the practice either.
en.wikipedia.org
Pakistan
Main article: Child Marriage in Pakistan
According to two 2013 reports, over 50% of all marriages in Pakistan involve girls less than 18 years old. [101] [102] Another UNICEF report claims 70 per cent of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 16. [103] As with India and Africa, the UNICEF data for Pakistan is from a small sample survey in the 1990s.
The exact number of child marriages in Pakistan below the age of 13 is unknown, but rising according to the United Nations. [104] Andrew Bushell claims rate of marriage of 8- to 13-year-old girls exceeding 50% in northwest regions of Pakistan. [105]
Another custom in Pakistan, called swara or vani, involves village elders solving family disputes or settling unpaid debts by marrying off girls. The average marriage age of swara girls is between 5 and 9. [103] [106] Similarly, the custom of watta satta has been cited [107] as a cause of child marriages in Pakistan.
According to Population Council, 35% of all females in Pakistan become mothers before they reach the age of 18, and 67% have experienced pregnancy — 69% of these have given birth — before they reach the age of 19. [108] Less than 4% of married girls below the age of 19 had some say in choosing her spouse; over 80% were married to a near or distant relative. Child marriage and early motherhood is common in Pakistan. [109]
Bangladesh Child marriage rates in Bangladesh are amongst the highest in the world. [16] Every 2 out of 3 marriages involve child marriages. According to statistics from 2005, 49% of women then between 25 and 29 were married by the age of 15 in Bangladesh. [68] According to the "State of the World's Children-2009" report, 63% of all women aged 20–24 were married before they were 18.[ citation needed] According to a 2008 study, for each additional year a girl in rural Bangladesh is not married she will attend school an additional 0.22 years on average. [110] The later girls were married, the more likely they were to utilize preventative health care. [110] Married girls in the region were found to have less influence on family planning, higher rates of maternal mortality, and lower status in their husband's family than girls who married later. [110]
Mia's Law was enacted in 2006 to protect child brides from abuse following the torture and murder of Mia Armador, an 11-year-old who was killed by her abusive 48 year-old husband. This law requires all marriages under 13 to require special government permission. [111] The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs is making progress in increasing women's education and employment opportunities. This, combined with specific education about child marriage and cooperation with religious leaders, is hoped to decrease child marriage.[ citation needed]
Nepal UNICEF reported that 28.8% of marriages in Nepal were child marriages as of 2011. [112] A UNICEF discussion paper determined that 79.6 percent of Muslim girls in Nepal, 69.7 percent of girls living in hilly regions irrespective of religion, and 55.7 percent of girls living in other rural areas, are all married before the age of 15. Girls who were born into the highest wealth quintile marry about two years later than those from the other quintiles. [113]
Middle East A 2013 report claims 53% of all married women in Afghanistan were married before age 18, and 21% of all were married before age 15. Afghanistan's official minimum age of marriage for girls is 15 with her father's permission. [114] In all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, the customary practice of ba'ad is another reason for child marriages; this custom involves village elders, jirga, settling disputes between families or unpaid debts or ruling punishment for a crime by forcing the so-called guilty family to give their 5- to 12-year-old girls as a wife. Sometimes a girl is forced into child marriage for a crime her uncle or distant relative is alleged to have committed. [115] [116]
In Iran, girls may marry at 13 and boys at 15, and children under 10 may marry if their guardian approves it. According to a 2013 report, about one million children, including those under age 10, are married every year. About 85% of these married children are girls. As in Western Pakistan and Afghanistan, in some cases, girls are married to settle disputes between families. [117]
Over half of Yemeni girls are married before 18, some by the age eight. [118] [119] Yemen government's Sharia Legislative Committee has blocked attempts to raise marriage age to either 15 or 18, on grounds that any law setting minimum age for girls is un-Islamic. Yemeni Muslim activists argue that some girls are ready for marriage at age 9. [120] [121] According to HRW, in 1999 the minimum marriage age 15 for women was abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted by conservatives to be at age nine, was set as a requirement for consummation of marriage. [122] In practice "Yemeni law allows girls of any age to wed, but it forbids sex with them until the indefinite time they're 'suitable for sexual intercourse" [118] As with Africa, the marriage incidence data for Yemen in HRW report is from surveys between 1990 and 2000. Current data is difficult to obtain, given regional violence.
In April 2008 Nujood Ali, a 10-year-old girl, successfully obtained a divorce after being raped under these conditions. Her case prompted calls to raise the legal age for marriage to 18. [123] Later in 2008, the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood proposed to define the minimum age for marriage at 18 years. The law was passed in April 2009, with the age voted for as 17. But the law was dropped the following day following maneuvers by opposing parliamentarians. Negotiations to pass the legislation continue. [124] Meanwhile, Yemenis inspired by Nujood's efforts continue to push for change, with Nujood involved in at least one rally. [125] In September 2013, an 8-year-old girl died of internal bleeding and uterine rupture on her wedding night after marrying a 40-year-old man. [126]
The widespread prevalence of child marriage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been documented by human rights groups. [127] [128] Saudi clerics have justified the marriage of girls as young as 9, with sanction from the judiciary. [129] There are no laws in place defining a minimum age of consent in Saudi Arabia, though drafts for possible laws have been created since 2011. [130]
Research by the United Nations Population Fund indicates that 28.2% of marriages in Turkey — almost one in three — involve girls under 18. [131] [132]
Child marriage was also found to be prevalent among Syrian and Palestinian Syrian refugees in Lebanon, in addition to other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. Marriage was seen as a potential way to protect family honor and protect a girl from rape given how common rape was during the conflict. [133] Incidents of child marriages increased in Syria and among Syrian refugees over the course of the conflict. The proportion of Syrian refugee girls living in Jordan who were married increased from 13% in 2011 to 32% in 2014. [134] |
