Speaking of child marriage: “Man charged with statutory rape in ‘marriage’ to 14-year-old girl,” by Christine Vendel for The Kansas City Star, November 8 (thanks to Axel):
Vincent Mosby signed a marriage contract and paid a dowry in a religious ceremony in August, police said.
Mosby, 23, of Kansas City didn’t legally wed his 14-year-old bride, however, because Missouri law won’t allow it without a judge’s order. Police said she was pressured into the union because her mother and stepfather thought she was going to be sexually active with a boy her age.
Although the bride’s stepfather arranged the “marriage,” according to court records, other relatives frowned upon the union and told police in late August. The relatives also took the girl to protect her from further sexual abuse, according to court records.
A relative told police that Mosby called and threatened violence if family members didn’t “give me back my wife in 72 hours,” according to court records. Two days later, on Sept. 9, someone fired three shots into the Kansas City home of the girl’s aunt. No one was hit.
Police arrested Mosby on Saturday for his alleged sexual relationship with the teenager. Jackson County prosecutors on Sunday filed one count of statutory rape. A judge set a $100,000 cash-only bond.
Police said the girl’s stepfather and mother became concerned that she was going to become sexually active, so the stepfather allegedly approached Mosby about marrying the girl. The girl was “strongly encouraged” to wed Mosby, police said.
The stepfather, Mosby and the teen had several “sit downs” before the stepfather arranged for a religious ceremony on Aug. 4 at her home, not far from the stepfather’s mosque.
Two members of the mosque attended, but the bride “was not allowed to be present,” court records said. She waited in her room upstairs. Her stepfather allegedly came upstairs after the ceremony, which consisted of prayers and a contract signing, to announce that she was married.
Police say they have the “marriage contract” with the signatures of Mosby, the girl and the stepfather….
In Islam, boys and girls are considered adults based on when they hit puberty, and people in some parts of the world do marry young, said Mahnaz Shabbir of Stilwell, a past president of the Heartland Muslim Council.
However, she said, Islam also says followers should live by the laws of the land….