I work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. One of my workmates, Marwan is getting married in a few weeks.
We were talking about it, and marriage customs in general. It is not worth mentioning he is marrying a cousin, I understand that is legal in the US.
However this 25-year-old is marrying a fifteen-year-old girl. At this point in the converstaion I swallowed my objections and started chanting “curtularal sensitivity” over and over again.
Islam does not have avy any age of consent. Mohammed (PBUH) married a girl (his ninth wife) who may have nly been nine years old.
OK, let’s say Mr & Mrs Marwan come tot he US for a honeymoon. Could he be arrested?
In general would US law (or UK law) recognized this union? What if he was travelling with two wives?
The laws in the US would depend on the state and I am not a lawyer. But, AFAIK generally a 15 year old can get married in the US with parental consent. And, there are no laws prohibiting sex with your wife no matter how old she is as long and the marriage is legal.
New pending legislation on child protection in the UK makes specific provision for such marriages, so the husband of a fifteen-year-old wife would not be prosecuted for relations with her.
I don’t know what would happen if she was nine though.
However, AFAIK this only applies to couples that arrive from abroad already married. Getting married at 15 in the UK I think is still a no-no (although there may be special dispensation if she is pregnant, there used to be in France at any rate).
But as for eg a muslim couple leaving the UK to get married abroad when she is only 15, this may fall foul of child sex tourism laws, but I haven’t studied the clauses that closely.
There would be problems with anyone resident in the UK being sent abroad to marry at such an age.
At the very least it would arouse suspicions of arranged citizenship by marriage, and there is legislation outlawing this.
Any UK child sent abroad would be covered under the Child Protection act, and would make the individual a ward of state, pending further investigations.
As for an adult with a child of nine years, I think this would still fall outside our laws, and IIRC, Muslims agree to abide by the laws of the state in which they reside, so that would mean they would understand that in one country this might be acceptable, but in another it would not.
Hey, Paul in Saudi, what is a Muslim wedding ceremony like? I would imagine in Saudi Arabia, the wedding party is separated by gender, but do the bride and groom stand before an imam and say their vows? Is anything about the ceremony recognizable to westerners? What about the reception? Are there wedding planners in Saudi?
Hardly any cerremony at all. A contract is signed and witnessed and that is that.
The reception is segregated by sex. The ladies like comparing dresses (and probably telling dirty jokes I suppose) the men just tell dirty jokes. Honeymoons are getting more and more common now.