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ISRAEL: Age of marriage

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The average age of marriage in Israel is 27 for men, 25 for women. But in certain groups — among both Jews and Arabs — marrying much younger is a cultural or religious norm. Girls may be ‘married off’ to relieve a family’s financial burden, or to protect their ‘good name’ — synonomous with that of the family’s.

In Israel, 2,000 girls younger than 17 are wed every year. Between 2000-2005, 10,000 girls under 18 were married; 90% of them were 17, and 10% even younger. Rights activists are concerned that the actual numbers are higher, with marriages being performed by religious figures but registered with state authorities only when couples have come of age. Some are even believed to send their daughters out of the country to be married. Wedding minors outside the present constraints of the law is a criminal offense and punishable by two years in jail, or a fine. Religious courts are instructed to report underage marriages to the authorities but compliance is questionable.

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The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, hosted a symposium on the subject in November. Appropriately timed for International Children’s Day, a new initiative to raise the age of marriage to 18 was brought before the ministerial committee for legislation. The bill was put forth by Rabbi Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad), a progressive legislator and member of the parliamentary committee for children’s rights, but met with religious opposition and failed to win government support. This is now being appealed, with hopes of securing the governmental support that would greatly increase this private bill’s chance of passing in the Knesset.

Israel’s present legislation on the matter dates back to 1950. It permits marriage at 17 and even at 16 under certain circumstances and subject to special approvals. This law, writes Rabbi Melchior in his bill, contradicts other legislation restricting minors’ rights, and could result in absurdities such as a 17-year-old both married and pregnant but lacking the legal power to grant consent to her own medical treatment.

‘We live in times of growing recognition of minors’ rights and the need to recognize them as people in their own right, but minors should not be abandoned to their own rights,’ explains Melchior, warning that marriage at such young ages compromises and might even violate the minors’ rights to health, education and sound development. While Rabbi Melchior agrees to leave the decision in irregular cases — such as a pregnant 16 year old — to the family affairs court, he seeks to introduce a significant change: that the minor be heard before such dramatic decisions are made about his life, or much more often, her’s. Hopefully, this could protect some teenagers from being married against their will. But raising the age could protect more.

In 2005, for example, 1,388 girls age 17 and under were married in Israel, and another 237 age 16 or younger — the incidence being 2.5% higher among Muslims than Jews. During the same year, 628 babies were born to mothers 17 and younger, according to The National Council for the Child, leading Israeli children’s rights organization. About 93% of 17-year-old Jews are in high school, and 83.5% Arabs. Some of the rest might be found in the statistics above.

Attorney Nasreen Alimi-Kabahah, of ‘The Working Group of Equality in Personal Status Issues,’ an advocacy group working mostly among Israeli Arab communities, asks the obvious: ‘You can’t sign contracts under 18, you can’t buy cigarettes or drink alcohol. So why should you be be able to marry before that age?’

Unicef report: Early Marriage — a Harmful Traditional Practice

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— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

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