Spain plans to raise marriage age to 16 years

[News_Editor]

Spain plans to raise marriage age to 16 years

2011-02-02 23:18:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

MADRID (BNO NEWS) -- Spain is planning to raise the minimum legal marriageable age from 14 to 16 years, Health and Social Policy Minister Leire Pajín said Wednesday, the daily El País reported.

The Minister said a committee of experts, which is currently working on new legislation to protect children, was considering addressing the issue. However, no final decision has been taken, Pajín said.

The goal, according to Pajín, would raise to 16 the minimum age for marriage, considering that at that age young people "can make decisions about their bodies†with some considerations of the parents, as in the case of abortion. The abortion law allows women of 16 and 17 years to make decisions alone, but must inform the parent and that parent has to go to the clinic with them.

The minister added that the number of boys and girls who marry at such young age is "exceptional."

Since 2005, 1,265 women and 168 men under age got married, according to official statistics.

Last October, the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended Spain to raise to 16 the minimum age for marriage.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-02

[ukrules]

What kind of an idiot would want to get married at the age of 14 ?

Edited February 2, 2011 by ukrules

[bangon04]

What kind of an idiot would want to get married at the age of 14 ?

Well Spain has a large Arab population - I suppose it is relevant to them for a start.

It is with parental consent, of course.

In modern Europe it should be standardised at either 15 or 16, depending on the majority - probably 16.

[LaoPo]

What kind of an idiot would want to get married at the age of 14 ?

Well Spain has a large Arab population - I suppose it is relevant to them for a start.

Not correct.

If there is an Arab minority it is VERY MINOR, but certainly not large.

There are about 500.000 Moroccans in Spain but they are not always considered Arab as such (although technically some groups are Arabs) but considered Moroccans, and that's only a little over 1% of the total Spanish population.

LaoPo

Edited February 2, 2011 by LaoPo

[LaoPo]

When the govenment decides to raise the age that youngsters can marry to 16 you can't point the finger to a certain group.

It is very rare that youngsters marry at the age of 14-15:

"And people as young as 14 years may marry provided they have special permission from a judge who needs to first question the couple and their family members.

About 340 people aged 14-15 years have married in Spain over the past decade."

That's 34 young people of 14-15 per year in a country of some 45 million people. That's 17 couples.

From: http://www.khaleejti...ernational&col=

Your presumption that children of that age are married or given away to paedophiles is a risky thing to write.

Not that I favor children that age, marrying; on the contrary; I think children that age should NOT marry!

But Spain is a Catholic country with still strict family rules on the countryside and it could be that in special cases 2 families decided it was better to marry (for a son + daughter) rather than to see a girl/daughter to have a baby at such a young age and be/stay alone in a small community where everybody would frown upon such a girl and she would have no future nor respect.

In such a case it might be better to marry.

LaoPo

[siampolee]

'Twould seem as if some of our posters have short memories, child brides were not just the monopoly of Muslims.

I am old enough to be able to remember the whole incident.

Meeting the star at the airport, Tanfield noticed that there was a very young girl in The Killer's party. Tanfield asked whom she might be.

"I'm Myra," answered the girl. "Jerry's wife."

Tanfield was astonished. "And how old is Myra?" he asked Jerry Lee.

'The Killer': Jerry Lee Lewis' nickname

"Fifteen," the singer replied, obviously thinking that sounded suitably mature.

It wasn't. Despite Lewis's assertions that Myra was "a grown woman", as far as Britain was concerned, she was below the age of consent.

The headlines the next day were not good for the star's first day in Britain.

But they were about to get much worse when it was quickly discovered that Lewis, 22 at the time of the wedding, had been lying.

Myra wasn't 15. She was 13, and, therefore, absolutely not a "grown woman".

What's more, she was the singer's first cousin once removed.

And if that wasn't enough, it was also revealed that he may have been bigamously married to her, since he hadn't yet become divorced from his second wife, whom he'd married at 17, having wed his first wife at 14.

If you're becoming confused, think how we must have felt back in 1958 as the hillbilly courting behaviour of some citizens of America's Deep South unfolded in our newspapers.

We'd heard about the phenomenon of the child bride in fiction from the Tennessee Williams' play and the film Baby Doll. But buttoned-up, respectable, repressed Fifties Britain had never come across the real thing before.

With Jerry Lee, the Louisiana swamps had exceeding all expectations in what they had thrown up.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1CqjXT4Gk

Edited February 3, 2011 by siampolee

[endure]

Gosh it's the Daily Mail - the newspaper that supported Hitler

[Lite Beer]

Post deleted . Replies to it have been edited or deleted.

7) Not to post slurs or degrading comments directed towards any group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

[LaoPo]

Post deleted . Replies to it have been edited or deleted.

7) Not to post slurs or degrading comments directed towards any group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

LaoPo

[LaoPo]

Edit: posted a comment to Geriatrickid's post but noticed his post was deleted because of racial slurs so I decided to delete my comment.

LaoPo

Edited February 3, 2011 by LaoPo