A Saudi Arabian justice minister has instructed officials throughout the kingdom to refrain from confirming any marriage contracts that include a person under the age of 18.
The directive comes after the Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s formal advisory body, passed an amendment to the country’s Child Protection Law earlier this year that instituted a marriage ban for children under 15 years old.
Teenagers under 18 years old who wish to marry will now be referred to specialized courts that will determine if the marriage is in the best interest of the underage participant. Issued by Dr. Walid bin Mohammed al Samaani on Monday, the order stipulates, “it is necessary to ensure that a person marrying under the age of 18 will not be harmed, whether male or female.”
As Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammad bin Salman attempts to modernize the kingdom, new laws governing the rights of women and children have been among his top priorities in 2019. In August, he oversaw the passage of new laws that allow women to travel abroad and apply for a passport without the permission of a man. In 2018, the Gulf nation began to allow women to drive cars.
The ban on marriages involving participants under 15 years old was almost a decade in the making, with several failed votes before its January passage.
“You cannot expect a girl of 10 or 12 to understand what marital relations are or for her body to correctly carry a baby. There are a lot of health issues involved,” Shura Council member Dr. Hoda al Helaissi remarked after the memorandum was adopted.
Saudi Judge Issa al Ghaith, a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, also celebrated the move on social media, tweeting his support for “setting a minimum age that is forbidden” earlier this year.
Child marriage legality in the United States is dependent on state law. Research found that more than 200,000 American minors were wed between 2000 and 2015. A report by the United Nations suggests that one billion underage girls will marry by 2030, and the Pew Research Center found that child marriages are still legal in more than 110 countries worldwide.
