Agence France Presse is reporting on the support given by the head of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood for a bill introduced in June that allowed a committee of religious leaders to authorize marriages at age 15 instead of the normal legal age of 18. According to a software translation of the report:
For the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Hammam Said “Sharia (Islamic) law allows marriage at age 18 if the spouses have reached a certain maturity.””If a girl is sexually and mentally mature, why does not she marry, rather than leaving it to the path of Western education which we all know the disastrous consequences?” He told AFP. Mr. Said has criticized the influence of women’s associations in Jordan in 2001 on the introduction of divorce law to women without husbands’ consent and without witnesses if they renounce any financial compensation, a right upheld in the amendment of the law .”We reject these traditions of the West and we oppose any suspicious parties that support the freedom of women,” he said.
A previous post reported on the opposition of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood to a U.N. treaty governing the rights of women.