Although a 2006 law prohibits girls from marrying before 18 (and men, 21) nearly half of all young girls in India are, in fact, married before this age, and child-welfare activists estimate that one-third of all child marriages take place in India. Because the punishment (when the law is enforced, which critics charge is infrequently) falls on guardians and the marriage is subject to annulment in a culture where purity is still valued, many such marriages have gone underground. Marriages are now required to be registered - but this has led to a thriving market in forged birth certificates.

The rationale is not just rooted in tradition; for poor families in rural areas, the groom's settlement is a powerful financial incentive. Marrying a daughter off means one less mouth to feed. And once married, a woman can often work and generate a little income. To offset this, the government is providing financial incentives for those girls who marry after 18. And, as the Times explains, activists are "organizing "wait till you're 18" parades, eliciting pledges, presenting puppet shows and lobbying holy men to stop officiating at underage marriages." Some charities actually lobby the individual families, talking about the benefits of education. Of course, as UNICEF pointed out in a 2009 report, "to be truly effective, these interventions must exist within an environment supportive of women's rights." But the fact that a few girls brave enough to refuse marriage have found support from their communities is heartening. Rekha Kalindi, a 13-year-old whose refusal to marry gained national attention, has become a rallying point and an inspiration.

But the bigger problem is that concerns are also "moral." As one father in the LAT article puts it, "I know the government says we should marry at 18, but even at 12 or 15, it's difficult to keep a girl's honor. And by 18, if unmarried, they get crazy thoughts." Of course, early marriage can lead to "crazy thoughts" too - girls who are basically children themselves are often unable to bond with or mother new babies. And the physical problems - girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth, not least because their marriages are often secret and tend to take place in poor communities - are legion.

Bucking the system is dangerous, too. Says the LAT,

Those trying to change this system can find themselves under attack, one reason activists tend to cite the damage to girls' health and future earnings rather than combat the practice head-on. In 1992, Bhanwari Devi, a village woman working for a nonprofit group, was gang-raped after she tried to prevent a child marriage. The accused men were acquitted on the grounds that "upper caste men, including a Brahmin, would not rape a woman of a lower caste," according to the court ruling. The decision has been appealed.

And in India, a culture that traditionally prizes parental respect, disobeying on such a scale is a very big deal. As Kalindi's mother put it, "parents have the right to control their children." And, activists would add, the duty to protect them.

More Girls In India Are Refusing To Become Child Brides [LA Times]

Related: Child Marriages Targeted In India [BBC]
Child Marriages In India: UNICEF [The Hindu]
High Prevalence Of Child Marriage In India Fuels Fertility Risks [Science Daily]
Child Marriages Persist In Rural India [Asian Tribune]
Fight Against Child Marriages In India [MeriNews]
Girl's Refusal To Be Child Bride Inspires Nation [ABC]
Young Girls Refusal To Marry Inspires Millions [Bizzom]

The abuse reportedly started in the 1970s when the victim was only 11 and continued to the present day. The unidentified man's wife says she "never suspected" her husband was abusing their daughter. • In response to the arrest and imprisonment of a journalist in Sudan for wearing trousers, Egypt's top Islamic authority has said that he is cool with women wearing pants. However, he is not a fan of "stretch" pants, which he deems "unacceptable." • Raymond Clark III was charged with the murder of Yale grad student Annie Le today, and Le's fiance issued a statement thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be." • A 23-year-old British student who was sexually assaulted in her apartment in India broke down recently in court while the defense lawyer was questioning her. He asked her whether she bathed, and whether she drank or smoke. She said she was humiliated by his questions, and found testifying almost as traumatic as the original assault. • Perhaps unsurprisingly, a study found that if one spouse smoked or drank heavily and the other did not, the relationship was more likely to deteriorate than if both engaged in the behavior. • Yesterday the Yemeni government defended their attempts to halt child marriages in a written statement. They cited a law introduced to parliament in February that would have set the minimum marriage age at 17, but did not pass due to conservative opposition. • A report released by the CDC indicates that 1 in 3 girls aged 13-17 has received the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine. The report also notes that vaccination varies dramatically state by state, with Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi falling far behind. • A 65-year-old man named Abraham Kortotki won the $20,982 first prize at an Atlantic City casino's ladies poker tournament. Unsurprisingly, some women are miffed, especially second-place finisher Nicole Rowe, who intended to use the cash to help recover from a mastectomy. • Now that the Hofstra University freshman who had accused five men of gang-raping her recanted her statement, Amanda Hess has written am interesting piece on rape culture. A snippet: "Rape culture does not only tell men to assert ownership over whichever female body they desire. Rape culture also tells women not to claim ownership over their own bodies. Rape culture also informs women that they should not desire sex. Rape culture also tells women that saying yes makes them bad women." • Surprise, surprise: Teen birth rates are highest in the most religious states. More here, here and here. • Want to wash all this bad news from your mind? Pictures of fishing cats!

Today, Nujood lives with her family in a two room house in an impoverished suburb of Sana'a. She does not go to school, and, according to Paula Newton for CNN, she has changed from being a bubbly, happy child to a rather angry and sullen girl (although, who wouldn't after suffering so much abuse?). She sits down grudgingly for an interview, during which she laments the fact that she made her story public:

"There is no change at all since going on television. I hoped there was someone to help us, but we didn't find anyone to help us. It hasn't changed a thing. They said they were going to help me and no one has helped me. I wish I had never spoken to the media," Nujood says bitterly.

But one important thing has changed for Nujood. She is no longer married to her much older "husband," at whose hand she suffered horrible physical and emotional abuse. After a few weeks of being beaten and raped, Nujood turned to her family for help, but her parents told her that she belonged to her husband now, and so they could no longer protect her. Desperate to leave, Nujood hailed a taxi and traveled to the city's central courthouse, where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge. Fortunately, the judge believed Nujood's story, and granted her a divorce (under Yemen law it is legal for a 30-year-old pedophile to marry a child, but just as long as he leaves her alone until she is "mature," something we somehow doubt she gets to decide). Unfortunately, the legal system in Yemen does not punish men who have sex with 8-year-old children under the name of "marriage," and instead required Nujood's father to pay her former husband over $200 in compensation.

Nujood's story made her briefly famous, and people everywhere celebrated her victory. Her family hoped that Nujood's fame might pay off for them as well, but so far, they have received little cash for her suffering. The money that has been donated to Nujood was intended to pay for tuition at a private school, but according to Shada Nasser, the human rights lawyer who worked on her divorce, Nujood refuses to attend, and her family refuses to force her. Nasser believes that Nujood is being victimized by her family, punished for not bringing in more money.

30 years ago, Khadije Al Salame was a child bride herself. Now, Salame is a Yemeni diplomat who is working to help Nujood get her life back on track. She tells CNN, "It's good to talk about Nujood and to have her story come out, but the problem is it's too much pressure on her. She doesn't understand what's going on." It is interesting to see Salame's quote alongside an interview with Nujood, especially since she goes on to say this: "She's a little girl and we have to understand as a media people that we should leave her alone now." Although Nujood has been made into a symbol of bravery and courage, she is still just a young, confused girl. Hopefully, this will be the last interview for Nujood, at least until she is older and more in control of her life. "If we really love Nujood then we should just let her go to school and continue with her life, because education is the most important thing for her."

Child Bride's Nightmare After Divorce [CNN]

Related: 8-Year-Old In Yemen Takes Abusive 30-Year-Old Husband To Court, And Wins!, 8-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Wins Divorce From Gross Husband

• You can also buy a book that allows you to put your dick in a hole, if you have one, since some men have the need to make everything about their dicks. • The Wall Street Journal investigates the pink taxi service launched in Beirut in March, which provides a safe mode of transportation for women. Many Muslim women, who are barred from riding in cars with men other than their husbands or relatives, find the service especially helpful. • Mazen Abdul Jawad was arrested in Saudi Arabia earlier this month for bragging about his sex life on the Lebanese television show "Red Lines." He reportedly discussed his enjoyment of sex and how he lost his virginity at age 14. According to a Saudi daily newspaper, Abdul Jawad has issued a public apology about his behavior. • Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the FDIC, on her side career as a writer: "I discovered children's picture books when I had children and began reading to them. I loved the combination of the written word and a visual depiction... That gave me the idea to write children's books that would educate children about finance. I thought it could be a powerful way to convey information to children, and that parents would pick it up, too." • Nearly 71 percent of cats live in multiple cat households, so there are a lot of people unhappy with the "crazy cat lady" moniker. • Chief justice Abdul-Raoul Halabi of Gaza said on Monday that he plans on instituting a ban on female lawyers who do not dress in accordance with Islamic law when the court returns from summer recess in September. Women will be required to wear a headscarf and a long, dark colored cloak in order to appear in court. • The Hindustan Times reports on the sad truth of child marriages in India. Despite the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriages Act, almost every child in the village of Kachoulia is "married," usually to a much older husband. • An Amnesty International report shows that the recent full ban on abortion in Nicaragua is causing women and girls to kill themselves, be deprived of treatment for cancer and AIDS and carry unwanted children to term — even their own half-siblings. The government and Catholic Church continues not to care. • According to a recent study released by the nonprofit Catalyst, 75% of women of color working in U.S. law firms are likely to leave their jobs within the next five years because of job dissatisfaction that results from the the unique barriers minority groups face. The Chicago Sun Times put it a slightly different way: "75% bail within 5 years due to barriers." • Crazy Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann thinks that Obama's health reform plans are just an effort to make us more like Cuba. Yes, Michelle Bachmann thinks: she doesn't do so with any insight or logic. • Crazy Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe's spokesman says "His focus is on issues" rather than the comments he made legitimizing the Obama birther nonsense. • White American Congressman Thaddeus McCotter wants to get Congress to make the President apologize to the white cop that arrested Henry Louis Gates inside his Harvard home. Earlier this year, Congress apologized for slavery 146 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. • A baby bit Al Franken and there's a picture. • Researchers from the University of Chicago and John Hopkins University found that divorce and widowhood have a lasting detrimental impact on health. This may be due in part to increased stress over shared child care, and the decreased income of a single-parent household. •

Last April 439 children were seized from the ranch. Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein testified in a House Human Services Committee hearing that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints group now realizes forcing teenage girls into marriage is sexual abuse. However, committee members said she may be too optimistic, since the group has been known to coach the children to give misleading information. They suggested that there is no way to be sure if church members are being honest about underage marriages now. [UPI]

[The person seen in the image at left is not the girl in question] The girl's mother petitioned for the annulment in December, but was refused on a technicality. The eight-year-old's father arranged the marriage between his daughter and a "close friend" in order to settle debts with the man. According to Al Arabiya News Channel the marriage contract was created as part of a loan repayment agreement. In exchange for the girl, the groom agreed to deduct the equivalent of $8,000 from the debt owed him by the girl's father.

The judge ruled that the child bride will be allowed to petition for divorce once she has reached puberty. Her husband was also forced to sign an agreement that he will not have sex with her until then. There are reports that the judge initially tried to negotiate with the groom, asking him to divorce the girl in exchange for monetary payment. The girl's uncle was unhappy with this idea. "We cannot accept that. It's like rewarding him. The court has to make an example of him so that others won't try to do the same thing," he said. An unnamed relative told the press that the girl's mother plans to continue to seek an annulment for her daughter.

Many members of the Saudi government maintain that it acceptable for girls as young as 10 to wed. "It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," said Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, during an lecture on underage girls being forced into marriage. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her." Al-Sheikh also reassured the public that "sharia law has not brought injustice to women."

On Monday, UNICEF expressed its "deep concern" over the court ruling.

"Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF.

"The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision."

Many believe that the mere fact we are talking about this, and that the young girl's mother would have the courage to petition the courts, signals a change in attitude. Christoph Wilcke of Human Rights Watch tells CNN that he hears of cases like this every few months, and not because the practice is new: "Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger — especially so when girls are traded off to older men," he said. Further support comes from the Saudi Society for the Defense of Women's Rights. Recently the group released a video titled "I am a Child, Not a Woman." They are also campaigning to raise the legal age of marriage to 17 for girls and 18 for boys.

And there may be hope yet for the 8-year-old bride: Earlier today, the justice minister announced plans to regulate the marriages of young girls. Justice Minister Mohamed al-Issa told newspapers that they aim to "to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls."

Saudi Judge Refuses To Annul 8-Year-old's Marriage [CNN]
8-Year-Old Girl's Marriage Ruled Legal [UPI]
No Divorce For 8 Yr. Old Saudi Girl, Says Judge [Al Arabiya News Channel]
Saudi Arabia To Regulate Girls' Marriages [Reuters]
Liberals And Child Brides [NRO]
UNICEF 'Deeply Concerned' Bbout Marriage Of 8-year-Old [CNN]

• One woman's request for police to search her ex-boyfriend's laptop for child porn horribly backfired when they found two pictures of her engaged in illicit acts with a dog. She has been charged with two felony bestiality counts. • A 43-year-old Muslim cleric from Indonesia has been detained on suspicion of violating the child protection law after he publicly married a 12-year-old girl. • A new study shows that black girls are 50% more likely to suffer from bulimia than white girls. • Nudists apparently have a solution to the teen pregnancy problem, and it (obviously) involves being naked. • An awesome 78-year-old woman named Doris Henion helped police catch a serial robber after he threatened her at gunpoint. • New trend in broadcast journalism: female reporters! Apparently, more stations are hiring young women in attempts to improve their ratings. • The Catholic Church is pissed at Spain because of recent plans to loosen legal restrictions on abortion. The Church has launched a campaign to stop the government from approving the changes. • A new ad campaign in New Mexico seek to target female drunk drivers. • Netflix has become a sponsor of Women in Film's Finishing Fund, an organization that gives money to women who are just a little bit short of completing their movies. • The U.K. has just approved Azzalure, a French, Botox-like drug, for sale in Britain. • Many Israeli women claim "religious modesty" as a reason for avoiding military duty, but the Israeli Army isn't buying it. They have started a surveillance program to catch female "draft-dodgers". • Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani rape victim-turned-advocate, has married. The wedding was a simple ceremony in her hometown. Congrats! • A new study from the University of Illinois has found that co-parenting with a violent ex is possible, but only if the violence was "situational" rather than "intimate terrorism." • Employers in Denmark have begun the process of compensating female workers who developed breast cancer after working night shifts. • 

Good Morning America ran a preview of tonight's episode and the folks at ABC News were clearly excited that this week's ridiculous stunt involved the actors wearing elaborate prairie costumes. Though it's pointed out that the polygamists in Colorado City, AZ don't like outsiders, apparently they'd be willing to eat out at a local restaurant and talk loudly about the teenager's impending marriage. Luckily, several women step in to help the girl and unlike last week, anchor John Quinones doesn't attribute it to "one thing that's foolproof: A woman's tears." Clip at left.

A pan-Arab newspaper picked up the quote by the country’s grand mufti, which made its way to the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper. The remarks were made during a lecture Monday, in which the cleric also stated that those who believe women should not marry before 25 are following a “bad path.” His comments come in response to recent attempts by Saudi human rights groups to put an end to marriages involving children. The National Human Right Commission has condemned the practice of marrying off young girls as an “inhumane violation.”

Report: Senior Saudi Cleric OKs Girls To Marry [MSNBC, via AP]

The man allegedly sold his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat. Police learned of the deal after the man went to retrieve his daughter because he was not paid as promised. An 18-year-old man (who we can only assume was the "husband") has also been arrested on suspicion of statutory rape. The girl claims that she went willingly with her older neighbor, but since she is too young to consent under California law, her "husband" will still be charged. Sadly, cases of arranged marriage involving underage girls have become increasingly common in this small farming community. [MSNBC]

After the girl's father married her off for a £5,000 dowry, the girl's mother, who is separated from her husband, filed for divorce on behalf of her daughter. "The judge has dismissed the plea because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," said lawyer Abdullah Jtili. Relatives say the father and husband have a verbal agreement that the marriage will not be consummated until the girl turns 18, and she still lives with her mother. [The Daily Mail]

• Thomas Daley, a Pennsylvanian landlord, is accused of wiretapping and secretly recording footage of his female tenants in their apartments for 20 years. • According to a new studyconducted in conjunction with Clairol Nice n' Easy, women who dye their hair feel more confident. • UC Santa Barbara has created a graduate program that will offer a MA and a PhD in feminist studies, beginning in the fall 2009 semester. • A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that self-harm among teen girls has risen by one-third in the past eight years and is more likely to cause hospitalization. • Sally Cluley will become England's youngest pilot this weekend when she receives her Private Pilots License on her 17th birthday on Sunday. • The FDA launched a crackdown today on eye wash and papain-based eye creams that are currently not approved by the FDA. • A lesbian soldier is seeking about $800,000 in compensation after a male officer in the Royal Artillery made sexual advances on her and then told to keep quiet by other unsympathetic officers.• A town in northern Italy joins a Tel Aviv suburb in using a DNA database to fine dog owners who don't scoop their dog's poop. • Ever wanted to tear someone a new asshole but found the job physically impossible? Now you can do it! • A radiation seed implant called ballon brachytherapy can shorten radiation treatment for breast cancer and will hopefully lead more women to seek out radiation therapy. • Morocco's top body of Islamic scholars have condemned a Muslim theologian's decree that girls as young as nine can marry. •

• Many facial plastic surgeons are turning away potential patients because their expectations are too high. • The ACLU is helping a woman from Pennsylvania fight for her right to get a permit to open a pole-dancing workout studio. • More on the Indian Vogue scandal: Turns out fashion people are tasteless when it comes to stirring up sales. • The Spanish government's Socialist Party is forming a panel to amend its restrictive abortion law, which only allows abortions to be performed in the first 12 weeks in cases of rape, 22 weeks in cases of fetal malformation, and at any time if a psychologist deems pregnancy harmful to the woman. • The level of acceptance of transgender workers is growing in top companies, with 125 of the Fortune 500 currently including "gender identity" in their nondiscrimination policies. • Infant abductions are increasingly rare in the U.S., with most of the abductions taking place at the mother's home or in public and the average kidnapper being an overweight woman who feigns pregnancy. • The house and museum of Edith Warton in Massachusetts (called 'The Mount') is facing foreclosure. • Author Ruth Butler chronicles the muse-wives of famous painters in her new book, Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives Of Cezanne, Monet and Rodin. • 2channel and Komachi are two of Japan's largest anonymous online forums for women, where women talk about their personal lives, troll, and get into arguments.

The Ministry of Justice has refused to endorse the marriage, which will make it impossible for the man to leave the country with his bride. However, there is of course a loophole. If the husband deposits money into an account at the Egyptian National Bank in his wife's name, the Ministry can approve the marriage. Last year, 173 men deposited an average of $80,000 USD and subjected themselves to some unspecific screening in order to marry their much-younger wives.

I mean, Egypt sounded kind of cool there for a second, right? Like all, "we don't countenance child brides or women being sold of like such chattel," which sounded great right until I got to the part where it's cool as long as you pay the government in addition to the family. Sigh.

Egypt Bans 92-year-old's Marriage [BBC]