Child flees after marriage to 90yo Saudi
A 90-year-old Saudi Arabian is suing his 15-year-old child-bride after she locked herself in her bedroom on their wedding night.
The Daily Mail reports this morning that the terrified teenager secured the door from the inside so that her new husband could not enter. Two days later she fled to her parents' home.
Now her elderly husband wants the $17,500 dowry he paid the young girl's Saudi mother and Yemeni father to make the marriage "legal and correct", according to The Daily Mail.
Activists on Twitter said the arranged marriage was "child trafficking" and "prostitution".
One said: "Is this a case of human trafficking crimes punishable by law?".
Another Tweeted: "She is still considered as a product! A father sells his daughter without mercy, to be bought by money and status and power; all of it for the sake of fulfilling a desire."
Saudi National Association for Human Rights spokeswoman Suhaila Zein el-Abedin called on Saudi authorities to "save this child from tragedy".
"Marriage in Islam must be based on mutual consent," she said.
She also blamed the girls parents for accepting the dowry and marrying off their daughter to a man 75-years-older than her, The Daily Mail reports.
