A 70-year-old man who married a 15-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia has divorced his teen bride after he said he was scammed by the parents of the girl.
The man, who refuses to give his name, claims to have paid $20,000 as a dowry for his bride and that she and the family lied and said she is 25 years old.
Human rights workers say the bride is a teenager and are outraged about the situation.
"She is not 15 as everybody claims," he told CNN in an interview. "She's 25 years old and she's mature enough to make her own decisions... I was fooled by the girl's family."
This might be illegal in most Western countries, but in Saudi Arabia, there is no law that stipulates a minimum age for marriage. Human rights workers say they believe there was a fight between the teen and the man, and she ran back to her family.
The Human Rights Commission in Saudi Arabia, which is supported by the local government, are challenging the man's claims. They feel that because the man is significantly older than the girl, the transaction was not one of marriage, but rather the girl was actually sold.
"When you consider the very large difference in age, it looks more like this was not a marriage, but like the girl was sold," said Dr. Suhaila Zein al-Abedin of the Saudi National Association for Human Rights. "The girl's parents need to be held responsible for this."
