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RCMP prepare to visit U.S. as part of polygamy investigation The Canadian Press Date: Tuesday Aug. 9, 2011 8:24 PM ET VANCOUVER — The RCMP is preparing to head to Texas to look for more than two dozen brides from Bountiful, B.C., who were allegedly sent across the border as teens to marry older men, including a polygamous leader now facing a life sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls. The Mounties launched a new criminal investigation into Bountiful earlier this year after a constitutional case examining Canada's anti-polygamy law heard allegations of cross-border marriages in the 1990s and early...

A 13-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal injuries four days after a family-arranged marriage to a man almost twice her age, a human rights group said. Ilham Mahdi al Assi died last Friday in a hospital in Yemen's Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab Forum for Human Rights said, quoting a medical report. She was married the previous Monday in a traditional arrangement known as a 'swap marriage', in which the brother of the bride also married the sister of the groom, it said. Sigrid Kaag, regional director for UNICEF, said in a statement that the United Nations child agency was...

Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad. Top immigration officials in Canada and Pakistan say all they can do is reject the sponsorships of husbands trying to bring their child-brides to Canada. The men have to reapply when the bride turns 16. The marriages are permitted under Sharia Law. Muslim men, who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, return to their homeland to wed a “child bride” in an arranged marriage in which a dowry is given to...

It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées — or braver ones — than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali. Nujood is a Yemeni girl, and it’s no coincidence that Yemen abounds both in child brides and in terrorists (and now, thanks to Nujood, children who have been divorced). Societies that repress women tend to be prone to violence. For Nujood, the nightmare began at age 10 when her family told her that she would be marrying a deliveryman in his 30s. Although Nujood’s mother was unhappy, she did not protest. “In our country it’s the...

A gala event has occurred in Gaza. Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples. Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten. Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration. “We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness,” Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp. Each groom received...

A 19-year-old Canadian must wait two years before she can return to the United Kingdom to be reunited with her husband after a law meant to protect vulnerable young women from forced marriage helped tear them apart. The newlyweds have become the unintended victims of changes to British immigration law meant to discourage Britons and their families from bringing young, unwilling brides from overseas and forcing them into often abusive marriages.She entered the country on a six-month visa with plans to leave again a month later, but she fell in love and decided to marry and begin a life in...

There is a first-hand undercover investigation being done in Al-Farooq mosque in Nashville, TN. What has been exposed is unthinkable. This is video footage of a first-hand undercover investigation done in Al-Farooq mosque. Listen to a 7 year old talk about her husband and how they are beaten during shariah class. The video is just the sound, as these kids are in tremendous danger and the undercover person inside needed to hide the camera deeply. We are working on the sound quality. Listen to the girl stating how kids are beaten as she begins to cry.The teachers, "they hit...

Introduction The Saudi press has lately been discussing the custom of child bride marriage, especially cases of middle-aged or elderly men taking prepubescent girls for their wives. The religious justification for this custom, which has been prevalent in Saudi Arabia and in many Muslim societies since the early Islamic era, is that the Prophet Muhammad married his wife 'Aisha when she was only six years old. Recent press reports on child bride marriage in Saudi Arabia sparked a wave of criticism among columnists and social activists, who called for abolishing the custom and for setting a minimum age for marriage...

A Washington County judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order and injunction sought by a polygamous sect spokesman, who is accusing a Cedar City investigator of harassment. Fifth District Judge G. Rand Beacham set a hearing for July 23 on the action sought by Willie Jessop. Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, filed the request against private investigator Sam Brower on Tuesday. He claims Brower has a "long history of following and photographing FLDS members," often leading to confrontations, and has engaged in a "pattern of continual harassment" that includes making...

Aired on LBC TV (Lebanon) - June 19, 2008 - 00:03:08 : Dr. Ahmad Al-Mub'i, a Saudi Marriage Officiant: It Is Allowed to Marry a Girl at the Age of One, If Sex Is postponed. The Prophet Muhammad, Whose Model We Follow, Married 'Aisha When She Was Six and Had Sex with Her When She Was Nine : (excerpts) Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: Marriage is actually two things: First we are talking about the marriage contract itself. This is one thing, while consummating the marriage – having sex with the wife for the first time – is another thing. There is...

On the lam with Warren Jeffs A single misstep and Musser's world comes apart By Brooke Adams ©2007, The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:04/28/2008 03:36:12 PM MDT     Story originally published April 29, 2007     For seven months, Wendell Musser served in Warren S. Jeffs' inner circle, working as a courier and family caretaker for wives of the fugitive polygamous sect leader. Musser's clandestine "mission" had a story line drawn from a spy novel. There were midnight rides to secret locations; shifting hideouts; disposable phones; high-tech tracking equipment; a fleet of expensive vehicles; disguises.     There...

A YEMENI court has granted a divorce to an eight-year-old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage. "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school,'' Nojud Mohammed Ali said, after a public hearing in Sanaa's court of first instance. Her former husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents'' but that he did not object to her divorce petition. In response to a question from Judge Mohammed al-Qadhi, he acknowledged that the "marriage was consummated, but I did...

In northern Afghanistan it appears some parents are being driven by poverty and hunger to marry off their daughters at an early age.

In a well-intended bid to make the state’s laws more accommodating to cultural diversity, the Arkansas Legislature passed a bill that allows Arkansans of any age — even infants — to marry if their parents agree. The bill’s sponsor Representative Will Bond (D-Jacksonville) said “An arranged marriage between children or even between a child and an adult is a common feature in many cultures. With a growing Muslim contingent in our state we felt we needed to be sensitive to these different cultural norms.” Many who voted for the legislation admitted that they had not carefully read it. “I thought...

Question: I have not yet reached the age of puberty. Is it correct that a girl could get married before her menses start, or is that just a traditional myth?. Answer: Praise be to Allaah. Firstly: Marriage to a young girl before she reaches puberty is permissible according to sharee’ah, and it was narrated that there was scholarly consensus on this point. 1 – Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And those of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the ‘Iddah (prescribed period), if you have doubt (about their periods), is three months;...