According the U.S. Agency for International Development, "women who bear children at a young age may face serious health consequences. Young mothers experience higher rates of maternal mortality and higher risk of obstructed labor and pregnancy-induced hypertension because their bodies are unprepared for childbirth. ... Girls between 10 and 14 are five times more likely than women ages 20 to 24 to die in pregnancy and childbirth ... Girls ages 15 to 19 are twice as likely as older women to die from pregnancy and childbirth. ..." Even the Saudi Health Ministry has agreed that child marriages are "one of the primary causes for the emergence of physical and psychological problems." Among the physical problems the ministry cited were "menstrual problems, infertility, and vaginal tearing." Among the psychological costs were "anxiety and marital problems" resulting from the "early withdrawal of maternal love" and the "sudden termination of childhood."
Saudi Arabia is in many respects a medieval society. But enlightenment is trickling in. The very fact that the nation now boasts a Saudi Society for the Defense of Women's Rights is notable. The group recently released a video titled "I am a Child, Not a Woman" and is campaigning to set the minimum age for marriage at 17 for girls and 18 for boys. Saudi newspaper columnists have been vehement. Writing in the daily Al-Jazirah, Jasser 'Abd Al-'Aziz called out the imams who permit the practice: "Everyone needs to ... fight ... this strange phenomenon ... beginning with the mosque imams who must address this perversion. It is paramount that they address it in their Friday sermons which are supposed to deal with problems in the religious (and general) conduct of (Muslim) society ... (When) a father (marries off his underage daughter), doesn't he realize that he is turning her into merchandise to be bought and sold, denying her humanity, and treating her like a lowly slave?"
Actually, it was only in 1962 that the Saudis outlawed slavery. But they did outlaw it because it made them feel so out of step with the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia is not the only nation in the world to oppress women, or even to practice child marriage -- just the wealthiest.
The liberal belief that America has so much to apologize for and so little to teach was not in evidence when the foreign policy question was apartheid in South Africa -- which presents the question: Why not the same urgency for child brides?