Monday, August 8, 2016

Age of consent: Saudi Arabia and Yemen

In Saudi Arabia, any sexual act outside of marriage is illegal, but you can marry anyone at any age. A 2 year old can marry a 1 year old, a 1 year old can marry a 30 year old, a 20 year old can marry a 6 year old. That's the law. In traditional societies, the age of consent for a sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. In most cases this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man i.e. biology (Bullough, Vern. "Encylopedia of Children and Children in History and Society)





In Yemen, the age of consent is 9 years old. I recently read they changed it to 15 or 18 (unclear), they 'changed' it in 2008 because of international headlines (a 10 year old girl wanting a divorce), though it being tribal, tribal law trumps 'legal law' there.

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