MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Rana Muhammad Taha, Daily News Egypt – “Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), stated that the marriage of Egyptian males to female Syrian refugees in exchange for money is a form of human trafficking.

The National Council for Women (NCW) sent two letters to Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim and Minister of Justice Ahmed Mekki on Thursday requesting the ministries’ intervention in combatting this phenomenon.

Eid stated that such marriages taking place is a political disaster. ‘It’s disastrous that female refugees fleeing their warring country would meet such treatment in Egypt,’ he said.

In a statement released on Thursday, the NCW cited a memorandum sent last week to President Mohamed Morsi by the International Union for Egyptian Women, calling for immediate intervention to stop such marriages.

The union stated that Syrian women are made available for marriage to Egyptian men in exchange for EGP 500 per wife, adding that such marriages are especially abundant in 6th of October City, 10th of Ramadan City, and New Cairo, as well as the Alexandria, Al-Daqahleya and Al-Gharbeya governorates. In one year 12,000 marriages have taken place, the union claimed..” Read more.

Rich Saudi Men Paying For Minors To ‘Marry’ – “Um Majed sets down small cups of hot Turkish coffee to ease the tension. Nezar is a Syrian refugee and looking for a husband for her daughter. She lists the girl’s qualities. ‘She is tall and pretty,’ she tells Um Majed. ‘She finished the seventh grade.’ ‘There is one available. He is Saudi,’ Um Majed answers. This is what Nezar wants to hear. Saudis, flush with petrodollars, will pay well. She has high hopes for this Saudi… The legal age of marriage in Jordan is 18 but some religious clerics will marry underage girls for a small fee. This puts the girls at even greater risk for exploitation because some of Um Majed’s clients want a temporary union lasting a few weeks or months after which the girl is returned to her parents. In other words, it is religiously sanctioned prostitution. ‘One of my brides has been married three, four times,’ Um Majed says. ‘She is 15.'” Read more.

Flashback: New Saudi Fatwa Defends Pedophilia as ‘Marriage’ – “Muslim ‘child-marriage’ — euphemism for pedophilia — is making headlines again, at least in Arabic media: Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, just issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married ‘even if they are in the cradle.’ … Fawzan insists that nowhere does Sharia set an age limit for marrying girls: like countless Muslim scholars before him, he relies on Koran 65:4, which discusses marriage to females who have not yet begun menstruating (i.e., are prepubescent) and the fact that Muhammad, Islam’s role model, married Aisha when she was 6-years-old, ‘consummating’ the marriage — or, in modern parlance, raping her — when she was 9.” Read more.