Girl, 8, gets divorced in Saudi Arabia

By Richard Spencer in Dubai

The case has prompted the kingdom to re-evaluate its conservative attitudes to marriage.

The girl's marriage was arranged by her father and backed twice by a judge on the condition that it was not consummated until she reached puberty.

Her mother, who is separated from the father, objected to the arrangement and twice sought a divorce on her daughter's behalf. It was refused both times by the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, after the girl's husband refused to agree.

The judge did say that when the girl reached puberty she could herself seek a divorce.

The case was widely publicised and prompted heated debate in the country, which is currently giving more rights to women than have previously been granted. It was also condemned by human rights groups abroad.

King Abdullah, seen as a reformist, appointed the first ever woman deputy minister earlier this year.

One of his advisers, Mohsen al-Obaikan, an Islamic scholar, went public to demand that a legal age for marriage be set at 18. The justice ministry said it was considering reforming the law, which until now has given no minimum.

The justice minister said he wanted to end the "arbitrary" control of marriages by girl's fathers.

However, the country's highest religious authority, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Shaikh, said that marrying girls even under the age of 15 was not against Sharia - Islamic law which forms the basis of the Saudi legal system.

The Saudi Gazette reported that the marriage of the eight-year-old, who has never been named, was annulled in a private out-of-court settlement between the two families in the city of Onaiza.

Most such marriages are arranged by families in return for money. In this case, the father was said to need to pay off a personal debt to the husband, a friend.

The girl herself has been living with her mother, and was never told that she was married, or of the international controversy her case had provoked.

Earlier, Anne Veneman, director of Unicef, said: "Unicef joins many in voicing concern that child marriage contravenes accepted international standards of human rights."