i did a search on NL and didnt find that gem of a story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_child_marriage

CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.

A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.

But there has been a push by Saudi human rights groups to define the age of marriage and put an end to the phenomenon.
It was not clear if the man received money for the divorce settlement. The man had given the girl's father 50,000 riyals, or about $13,350, as a marriage gift in return for his daughter, the lawyer said.

The 8-year-old girl's marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.

Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.


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THATS JUST FUKCING WRONG!!!!!!!
whats wrong with some citizen of this planet? parents marrying their KIDS because of a handfull of dollars.
Parents like that should be sent to jail for life but, then again, we read the story about the death row inmate who had his 15yr old daughter forced into marriage to his cell mate and we realize that kids arent safe anywhere, anymore.

its only MY view but arranged marriages with non consenting participant is just WRONG!!!!
its ok for parents to advise children on who would be best to marry but the final say should lie with the ADULT persons involved (bride/groom) and no one else.

it is absolutely disgusting in my view for a parent to allow her 8yr to marry a 50yrs old man who should be thinking of his death

i guess somethings will never change in this world. lawd knows if it was me that man will surely die of arsenic poisoning nonsense

then again, this what poverty causes, it makes people lose their sense of common reasoning

in dis day and age, dis na modern organised pedeophile setting

their government needs to review their laws again concerning this issue

I hope he also knew the proper way to beat her
The mecca of Islam