60-year old postpones marriage to 10-year old girl

A 60-year old Saudi man has agreed to postpone his marriage to a 10-year old girl after protests from a human rights group.

The elderly man decided to take a second wife in a challenge with the girl’s father, who said he was afraid of his first wife and dared him to take a second one.

But the man agreed to postpone his marriage after the Saudi National Human Rights Association sent a letter to the Emir of Hail, a city in northwestern Saudi Arabia, AlArabiya.net reported on Sunday, citing Saudi newspaper Al-Madina.

The report did not say for how long the groom has agreed to put off the wedding.

Saudi sociologist Abdullah Al-Harbi said that marriages like this one usually involve the groom-to-be paying huge amounts of money to marry a much younger girl.

In this case the father of the girl asked for a 100,000-riyal ($26,656) dowry.

“These marriages usually end up in failure, and the girl usually goes through trauma due to living with a man who is much older,” he told the newspaper.