Suheir

Mosaic

That's a pretty good law I think. Prevents a young girl being forced into marriage with a very old man and also prevents any sort of trafficking as stated.

Also prevents some young 'thang" from marrying some rich silly old geezer, who can coerce into signing everything to her in his will... then keep him busy and cause a "heart attack" and run off with his money depriving his family of any inheritance ... ( saw a bit of this when living in Indonesia ... but the aim (mainly in these cases) was for the young thang to get a visa and resident permit in Aussie/NZ/USA/UK, live with said geezer for a year, spend up large then run off with some young stud a free women in a Western country. Aussie clamped down bigtime on such marriages a few years back
~Mosaic

PS: Aw shucks! I really didn't do it right when I was 17 did I! That is why I am still poor!

Lydia dubai

Thank you god for that law!!!!!!!!!

Reen.Blom

Mosaic, you made me laugh so hard again!!

*hug*

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gypsy8522

I've seen this on E! True hollywood story lol (remember anna nicole smith?)

Unfortunately, there have been many similar cases in Egypt. A typical scenario is after the man dies, his 30/40 something year old children end up taking the new wife and mother of their baby brother/sister to court (the new wife wastes no time getting pregnant, this way she's guaranteed to get at least 1/3 the fortune). Sadly this always tears families apart.

I wonder why 25 years though, that's still a huge gap in my opinion. Oh, by the way, Gamal Mubarak (our Pharoah in waiting) just got married to an Egyptian business tycoon's daughter, Khadija El Gamaal. Khadija is in her early 20's and Gamal Mubarak is 45 years old. He just meets the age limit

Khadija with first lady Suzanne Mubarak.

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Although I'm not Egyptian,I think it actually protects young, uneducated women from being exploited beyond the institution of marriage. The article mentions trafficking of young women,how prevalent is it?
Also too, there is an implicit understanding of class and socio-economic differences between Arabs of the Gulf Coast and Arabs living in Egypt et al.
How many upper class Egyptians would allow their 17 year dtr to marry a 92 year old man?
If the answer is not many...then it suggests that poorer women are often victimized(in many forms) and so this law is a form of protection of a very important resource.....women!
Yasmine

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gypsy8522

Oh you would be surprized!

The Egyptian news papers and programs/talk shows on arabic satellite channels have all been talking about this, which I think may have been a driving force behind the new law. I've seen interviews with young women and judging by their stories many of them appear to be victims. But you never know who's lying or who's telling the truth.

An upper class family would not allow their daughter to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. However, I have seen a lot of educated, independent women who accept that on themselves. My 7th grade teacher married at 29 a divorced man in his 50's and he had 3 children. She has a masters degree and her family who was opposed to the marriage is very rich. You never know what she was thinking.

Does this law apply to males, too? There's also the 90 year old western women who visit places like Sharm El Sheikh on a vacation and end up marrying a 19 year old waiter

belly_dancer

I would ass-u-me** that in the 29 year old's case... esp. if she was from a rich family(so she was not marrying for $$$)... that MAYBE it was "LOVE"???
there is a huge difference btwn a 17 yr old girl & a 29 yr old woman when it comes to these decisions!
**.... oooh... do not know if you know the american (or is it all of native english speaking people??) saying.... when you assume, you make an ass out of "u" & me)?????
though the 25 year age difference law is interesting.... (I am for it in principle... but against the idea of those kind of "personal freedom" laws!)
I think that the 92 year old/17 yr old is creepy....

Eshta

Hey, you just poo-poo'd my pension plans!

Although I'm not getting any younger .. *Sigh* might have to start saving the old fashioned way at this rate

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Caroline_afifi

I hope it does but I am not sure it will... if it does, it may prevent a few old (and not so old) ladies from losing all their life savings to a caleche driver or felucca captain in Luxor. There is a donkey sanctuary in Luxor, there should also be one for destitute Western women who have lost everything through being vulnerable and ignorant. One old lady hanged herself a few years back because her young husband took every penny of her savings to build their dream villa on the banks of the Nile. Then he dumped her after she sold her home in Germany and moved his Egyptian wife and entire family into the Villa.
This is just one case of many many many...........
I am saying this as a general feature and there are always exception to the rule. However every women thinks she will be the exception to the rule.