Young Brides for Sale

Poor Egyptian families definitely see marrying their young daughters off to wealthy Gulf men as a win-win scenario; the girls are supposedly provided with a chance to escape poverty, and their families get financial aid and remain with one less mouth to feed after the marriage. In today’s news:

The Egyptian authorities have banned a 92-year-old man from marrying a 17-year-old girl, the Egyptian al-Akhbar newspaper has reported.

The ministry of justice invoked a law which says the age gap between spouses should not exceed 25 years.

Egypt brought in the law prohibiting the marriage of elderly men to very young girls during the Gulf oil boom.

It was an effort to prevent wealthy men from the Gulf states seeking young poor brides from the Egyptian countryside.

Not much is known about the 92-year-old man who tried to marry an Egyptian girl of 17 except that he is an Arab from the Gulf.

This is not exclusive to Egypt, of course. Young women all around the Arab world and in other countries as well are usually traded off like sacks of wheat in such transactions, particularly if they come from poor families. This is not to say that well-to-do families don’t practise similar trade, but they do it with more pomp: the dowry in proportion to the girl’s education or her father’s social standing, the extravagant wedding to signal status, the expensive gifts, and all the other ornateness a marriage entails. It all boils down to the same thing in the end: a commercial transaction similar to any other.

It’s a good thing that Egyptian authorities banned that 92-year old man’s marriage to that girl. Sadly though, this is one case in many, many others that don’t get reported and are not banned. The Egyptian law also has a loophole regarding this, and for all we know that 92-year old man can use it and marry the girl after all:

However, in special cases, the justice ministry does allow foreign men to marry Egyptian women more than 25 years their junior if they deposit a very large sum of money in the name of their wife at the Egyptian National Bank.

Needless to say, the objectification of women is thus made legal by the very law that intends to limit it. That’s like saying: Hey! If you have THAT much money (about $80,000) and you put it in an Egyptian bank and let us work it for you, then OK, you can have that girl. She’s probably worth a lot less, but it seems you really like them young and fresh and poor, you rich pedophile you! Go on now, take your young virgin bride to your high-walled mansion and do what you please to her. Who cares if you’re perverted? Her family can’t afford to care, and her country has been paid to keep mum. She’s all yours.