Egypt minister: shocking number of under-age girls married to elderly Arab men

Egypt minister: shocking number of under-age girls married to elderly Arab men

CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of State for Family and Population Moshira Khattab said last week that a recent study from the ministry revealed that there is a “shocking” number of underage girls wedding elderly Arab men in the country. Her statements come after she recently said a new bill would be proposed to Parliament to criminalize this behavior and make efforts to end these marriages from occurring.

Khattab said that the study prepared by the ministry, pointed to “the need to exert more effort in mobilizing the government and private efforts to combat the phenomenon of marriage ‘brokering’ in the country,” which has seen hundreds, if not more young girls married off to Arab men.

Although she spoke of the “shocking” data, the ministry did not reveal specifics during a meeting with Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, Director of the office to monitor and combat trafficking in people of the United States Department of State. She said that the meeting aimed at exchanging experiences with the “unit of preventing trafficking in children” with Egypt’s American counterparts.

CdeBaca stressed that the serious steps taken by Egypt in this field will be completed when the common law for trafficking human beings is passed. The bill is expected to be voted in Parliament in the new year.

The ambassador said that Egypt’s efforts in combating trafficking in human beings is “in accordance with U.S. efforts in terms of trafficking in children,” which he considered as a kind of modern slavery.