
There’s cultural differences on one side and there is just plain wrong on the other. For the 15-year-old Saudi teen no longer married to her elderly husband, she is back with her family but is that really a good thing?
The elderly man who had said he is 70, but in actuality might be as old as 86, or even 90, complained that the bride’s family swindled him out of the nearly $20,000 he paid them to, in essence, buy their daughter because they took her back.
Other reports say the teen ran away and went back to her family.
She was reportedly so scared that she barricaded herself in the bedroom and wouldn’t come out.
He’s saying he thought she was 25 years old and not a teenager. Remember, he also said he was 70.
There’s no law that mandates a minimum age when a girl can get married in Saudi Arabia. That decision has traditionally been left to the parents, who are usually influenced by how large a dowry the prospective groom pays to buy their child.
Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission got involved in this particular case and offered legal assistance to the girl’s family.
The good news is that, in this case, a divorce was granted.
But there is a downside.
The girl is back with her family. The same family that initially sold her to an elderly pervert.
They either sold her very willingly, or as some allege, used her as part of scheme to defraud the man out of the money he paid to buy her by taking her back.
If the girl went back on her own, is it not surprising that she went back to the only safety she knows. Her parents.
The people that are supposed to protect her from harm and keep her safe.
The people that are supposed to teach her about life and instill the belief in her that she can be anything that she wants to be.
Now that the 15-year-old is back with them, what will they do when another offer comes along? Will they sell her again or plot another scheme to defraud someone else?