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Something New? Saudi Cleric Condones Child Brides
A ceremonial wedding between a girl and a frog sounds like child's play compared to a real wedding between a girl and a middle-aged man. Yet the practice continues to cross our screens and affect real lives around the world. And it's not stopping anytime soon — at least not in Saudi Arabia.
Two Indian Girls Marry Frogs (Literally), Not Even the First Time
Villagers carried two 7-year-old girls on their shoulders and two frogs on garlanded sticks as they walked them to a temple where they were married. Afterward, the girls returned to their parents while the frogs were thrown into a muddy pond.
The ceremony goes back to a centuries-old tradition.
Eight-Year-Old Saudi Cannot Divorce Her 58-Year-Old Husband
An eight-year-old Saudi girl will not be able to divorce her 58-year-old husband until she reaches puberty. A Saudi court rejected her mother's divorce plea, ruling that the marriage contract — signed by the groom and the father with the verbal condition that the marriage would not be consummated for 10 years — was valid.
In exchange for his child's hand in marriage, the down-on-his-luck father received $7,500.
8-Year-Old Bride Escapes Husband, Gets Annulment
If it takes three stories to make a trend, here's your third with an arguably happy ending.
Nojoud, an 8-year-old Yemeni girl forced to marry a man in his 20s, took her destiny into her own hands. She ran away from her husband, and took a taxi to a judge's office.
9-Year-Old Brides Traded For Food in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, a startling trend is emerging. Recently a family of a 13-year-old girl received 40,000 Afghani ($800) for allowing the girl to marry her father's cousin, and nine-year-old brides are traded for wheat and two cows. As a result of the trend of young girls being sold into marriage, midwives are helping girls as young as 10 years old deliver babies, only to see many mothers perish in childbirth.
You Know You're Obsessed With the Big Polygamy Story
Authorities trying to talk to some of the kids taken from this weekend's big polygamy raid aren't getting much information. After state troopers raided a 1,700-acre West Texas ranch last Friday looking for evidence of the teen, who placed a call authorities a week ago, some 220 women and children have been removed from the premises. The tipoff call came from a girl who allegedly had a baby at 15 and was married to a 50-year-old (under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval).
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Runaway Brides in China Taking Their Bride Price With Them
With a surplus of bachelors in China thanks to the one-child policy and cultural preference for boys, the country is starting to see more runaway brides — who run away with the bride price their grooms-to-be saved up for the bride’s family.
“Cai li,” the set amount the groom’s family pays the bride’s family, used to be a small sum in the '80s. But since the country has become more prosperous and prospective brides more scarce, the sums have risen to sometimes several years’ worth of a farming family’s income.
You Asked: How Do I Tell My Bridesmaid to Back Down?
Dear Sugar,
I recently got engaged, and as you can imagine, this is an extremely exciting time for me. I am beginning to plan and consider ideas for the wedding, but one thing I've already gotten out of the way is the bridal party. I have a very close family and was having a difficult time choosing between my two cousins as bridesmaids.
You Asked: She Invited Her Family to My Wedding!
Dear Sugar,
My fiancé and I are pulling together our wedding on our own with no help from a wedding planner and minimal financial help from our families. We are trying to keep our guest list reasonable so that we can stick to our budget. This has proven to be difficult since we both have large extended families, so we've had to pick and choose who we're inviting.
Where Do You Stand: Kid-Free Weddings
Earlier this week, Broke Bride Brooke was put in an awkward situation when one of her guests asked if she could bring her parents to Brooke's small wedding to care for the guest's 2-year-old child. This created quite a dilemma because the bride really can't afford to have them there, which is why I (semi-jokingly) thought TidalWave's suggestion of making it a kid-free wedding was a pretty good one! Now I've never received an "adult only" wedding invitation, and while part of me thinks it makes sense, another part of me thinks it's pretty tacky.
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