“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).” — Bukhari 7.62.88
Child marriage is common in some areas of the Islamic world in imitation of Muhammad’s example, since Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct for Muslims (cf. Qur’an 33:21). And so here again we confront the irony: Islamic spokesmen in the West routinely denounce as “Islamophobes” those who point out that Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha when he was 54 and she was 9, and claim that Aisha was much older, but in the Islamic world the Misunderstanders of Islam once again abound, and engage in or condone child marriage in imitation of Muhammad.
Note also in this story how the girl is considered to be the possession of either her husband or her father, with no say of her own.
Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: “80-year-old man marries 14-year-old,” from Emirates 24/7, November 3 (thanks to Heart of a Lioness):
A Saudi old man aged above 80 years has married a 14-year-old girl and is refusing to divorce her unless she pays him back his wedding money, the Saudi Ajel Arabic language online paper reported on Wednesday.
The bride’s father, Showan Ateen, said his daughter had been forced to marry that man from the southwestern town of Sabya but that she has not moved in with him yet. He did not say who forced her to marry him.
“The father and the bride now want a divorce but the husband is refusing to divorce her before they pay him back his SR-17,000 dowry,” Ajel said.
“Her father said he does not have the money and is appealing for all benevolent people to help him so he will regain his daughter…the old man has threatened that they either pay him or he will take her by force.”
The report comes amidst furor in the Gulf Kingdom over widespread teen age marriage and calls for enacting laws to curb such practices.
Good luck with that.