Remember the story making the internet rounds about a 70-year-old Saudi man who bought a teen bride for $20,000? They are reported to have divorced. Turns out he was more like 85, too, and it was less of a marriage than the sale of a young woman as property, by her parents.

  • jandrese

    Is this story really that surprising?  The idea that women are people and not property is not universal, especially in highly patriarchal societies. 

    • gracchus

      Even in a culture with attitudes toward women as screwed up as KSA’s, I suspect a 70-year-old guy marrying a 15-year-old girl would raise eyebrows.

      • C W

        I assume that it wouldn’t, for exactly those same reasons.

      • jackbird

        Absolutely!  I mean chattel slavery’s been outlawed there since 1962.

  • gracchus

    And now everyone in the neighbourhood is tsk-tsking, saying “gee, they were the *last* couple on the block I expected to split up.”

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/KV3PDLBSUEJ3YCGEWYUGDQ664E Leo

    That old bastard tried to ‘catfish’ her!

    • Henry Pootel

      Noodling?

  • http://twitter.com/rvitelli Romeo Vitelli

    Are the parents checking to see if the divorce ruined her resale value?

  • Boundegar

    I am shocked to learn this man lied about his age.  Thank goodness for the Internet, where that cannot happen.