Divorce isn’t a pleasant thing to have to go through, and often affects the children just as much as the adults involved. However, when the wife seeking the divorce is a child herself, it must be so much worse. That’s exactly what is happening in Saudi Arabia, where an eight year old girl whose mother has filed for divorce on her behalf from her husband, who is in his fifties!

The girl, who is getting ready to begin the new year at her primary school, lives with her parents and doesn’t even know that she is married. She was married without her knowledge to the man by her father.

The mother of the girl does not want her daughter to be married off, and sought legal help on the divorce from human rights groups, who put the family in touch with divorce lawyers.

Her husband protests the claim, saying he hasn’t done anything wrong.

The justice system in Saudi Arabia is an interpretation of Sharia law, and although arranged marriages involving child brides is fairly common, sometimes the older husbands are reported to the authorities.

In April this year, another girl aged eight years old legally divorced her husband, who was twenty-eight.