The National Council of Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) has succeeded in stopping a marriage that was to take place between a 12-year-old girl and a 32-year-old man who is moreover on police probation. The marriage was to take place in a village in the west-Delta province of Beheira, and the NCCM was notified of on its hotline 16000 by a relative of the girl bride, who said that the wedding was scheduled to take place by the local ma’zoun—the notary in charge of registering marriages and divorces—directly after Eid al-Adha, the Muslim sacrificial feast that begins on 21 August and extends to 24 August.
The NCCM directly informed the office of the Prosecutor-General’s Human Rights Administration which in turn notified the Interior Ministry; the case falls within the charge of human trafficking. The girl was taken from her father’s custody and handed to her mother who is separated from the father. The mother signed a pledge to adequately care for the girl.
The girl’s father, the would-be bridegroom and his uncle, and the ma’zoun were all caught and will be prosecuted.
Child marriage is a serious social ill which Egypt is battling; its tradition runs deep in rural areas.
Watani International
20 August 2018