Egypt: 13-year-old weds 10-year-old

The important thing is to get married — love will come later, an Egyptian father told his 13-year-old son Shams as he married him off to a 10-year-old girl, Iman.

The child marriage took place recently in El Senbellawein, in the Dakahlia Governorate of Egypt.

In a video report on the event translated this week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the groom’s father said the family “wanted to make sure they marry someone with the proper lineage,” and so decided to marry young Shams off to a family very close to his own.

“We saw that Shams was fond of Iman, so it all worked out, Allah be praised. You are never too young to be married. We could have just told him to marry his cousin, and he would have. He would have had no say in it. The important thing is to get married. Love will come later,” the father, Mahmoud Shams, said.

According to the report, both Iman and Shams agreed to be married and said they were happy to be tying the knot.

“I love Badran [father of the bride]. He’s like a father to me. I love him, and he has always loved me,” said the young groom, an aspiring engineer who wants to complete his studies now that he is a married man.

“[I wanted to marry her] because she is Badran’s daughter, and he is a good man,” he said of his child bride, adding that he had agreed to go through with the wedding because his parents had asked him to.