Another 14 year old Islamic bride in the US.

www.kansascity.com...

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.

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[edit on Fri Nov 13 2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

Its a question of Morality and New Religious Findings. Back in the Day 12 to 14 year olds were being married here in the US. Although I agree that at that age they wont realize what they are getting themselves into, its a question of times not law.

How the hell could anybody let this pass? In the STATES?

Wow, people are bloody sick.

Yeah sure, get your 14 year old married, it will prevent her from having sex with people her age, she'll be having sex with the pedophile who married her.

I'd rather my children do the nasty with kids their age than some 30+ year old man.

This is sick.

~Keeper

Regardless of how the west feels about this, arranged marriages and child brides are a normal practice in many parts of the world.

My father was friends with a chinese guy in his mid 40's who was married to a 17 year old girl. However when they actually married she was only 13.

So scoff all you want, judge em all day, but everything is relative, ... I'm sure we take part in things other culture's would view as disgusting and barbaric.

reply to post by IntastellaBurst


Maybe it is common practice in some parts of the world, but in the U.S.
it is illegal. The age for consentual sex is 18 or 16 depending on state law.

Marriage is a legal contract which must be entered into by an adult who is 18 years old. (In most states). As stated in the OP, if there are extenuating circumstances, a Judge can issue an order to provide for it --- or make it legal.

My thoughts are, the marriage of this child is not legal. It should be that the court will appoint her a guardian ad litem, who might easily file a motion for an annulment and have no problems getting a Judge to sign it. (If that much is even needed, as there was no ceremony in which the victim was present, no consent, etc.)

when I was 17 and a senior in high school my girlfriend was 14 and we had sex. big whoop. and like the other poster said, 203 hundred years ago it wouldnt have mattered

Err.... some of you may be interested to know that it is perfectly legal to get married at 14 in Arkansas, New York, and others (with parental consent.)Marriage Laws by state and age

Why all the fuss. Mormons have been doing this for years.

reply to post by dashen


Thanks for posting this information. However, I couldn't help but notice that the parents must be present for a person less than 18 to "give consent", not "force consent."

Just sayin'......

This is another example of Sharia Law creeping into the US.

Custom or not, as far as science goes we know that the brain doesn't mature until a person reaches 18-25 years of age. Since children are not mature enough to make life-long decisions such as entering into legal contracts with adults, marriage to minors is illegal.

In some cultures the parents arrange marriages between their children when they're as young as 8 years old. Just because it has been done for hundreds if not thousands of years, doesn't make it right. Hundreds of years ago life expectancy was much lower than it is today. Maybe the reason marriage was rushed then (aside from combining property of two families or earning a dowry) was because men and women were not expected to live long. The younger the bride, the more likely she would have been healthy, capable of giving her husband many children.

We don't have that problem here anymore. People live to reach as much as 100 years, though it's not exactly common. Some couples have children well into their late 30s, sometimes even 40s. There is no need to impregnate a girl at the age of 13 anymore, so why do it?

Think about your own life for a moment. Would you have liked it if your parents had decided your life before you even had the ability to understand it? There are cases where arranged marriages work out and the two people learn to love each other, but there are even more cases in which people are unhappy, because they are not in love. They are together out of duty, they respect each other and work together, but underneath it all happiness may be missing from their lives in respect to feeling 'in love'.

What is love and/or lust? Why do we feel and experience it for the opposite sex? What attracts us to other people and why? From a biological standpoint I would think we would be attracted to people who posses characteristics we would like to see passed on to future generations. Is it better that you choose your own mate, or is it better to have others decide who you will spend the rest of your life with? I'd like to see some studies on that. We don't always make the right decision in picking a mate, that's obvious,... but is it better than an arranged marriage? What is more beneficial to the human race? Arranged marriage, or finding love on our own?

If she feels coerced in any way (which seems to be the case), this is against natural law.

Coercing someone to wed against their own will is wrong, regardless of age, no matter where they live. Coercion is the threat of violence, and it seems Mosby has already acted in violence. Jail the hell out of him.

Parents that force their daughters and sons into marriage against their will are wrong, and their children should rebel. It was wrong when they did it back in the day, it is wrong when they do it now.

It is however, a different story when the couple have an arranged marriage and both consent. In most cultures that are involved in arranged marriages, all parties consent. This is due to their upbringing.

Originally posted by DINSTAAR
It is however, a different story when the couple have an arranged marriage and both consent. In most cultures that are involved in arranged marriages, all parties consent. This is due to their upbringing.

I'd like to give an example of why even "consenting" children shouldn't enter the contract of marriage. Think back on when you were a kid. If your parents taught you to obey and do what you're told, would you say "no" to them? Most of the cultures where arranged marriages happen parents are strict, and kids are brought up to agree with their parents on everything. In my culture we don't have arranged marriages, but if we disobeyed our parents we would suffer the consequences. We were taught that parents were right, and we were wrong. Kids don't know what they are consenting to even when they say yes. They are too young to fully realize that this is the rest of their life being decided. The parents know what they're doing, but the children just go along with whatever makes their parents happy. It doesn't sound right to me that my parents should have the right to decide for me how I'm going to live the rest of my life. Maybe that's just me.

Here's another "honor" incident, glad these are coming out in the news and our laws are prosecuting these crimes.
"the Ottawa Sun, November 10:

The city's taxi union boss was handed a year in jail Tuesday for what a judge deemed an "honour crime."
Yusef Salam Al Mezel, 44, had pleaded guilty to criminally harassing his 23-year-old daughter, Eman, over three weeks in July 2007.

"Mr. Al Mezel has threatened his daughter with serious violence and has caused her to fear for her safety in the name of honour," Judge Lynn Ratushny wrote. "He has committed the crime of harassment against her in the name of honour."

Al Mezel admitted to pushing his daughter, threatening to break her legs and kill her and smashing her computer. When she fled marriage to a Syrian man for a $9,000 dowry, he stalked her to a shelter and a friend's home."

Originally posted by Totalstranger
when I was 17 and a senior in high school my girlfriend was 14 and we had sex. big whoop. and like the other poster said, 203 hundred years ago it wouldnt have mattered

I don't think it's wise to incriminate your self online dude! - Not in this day in age... I'm not judging you, just pointing out that what you've done there is announce to the world that you are guilty of statutory rape... In the eyes of the law you are a rapist... And jail time however short is notoriously painful for rapists - not to mention the sex offenders register...

Originally posted by 2manyquestions
Custom or not, as far as science goes we know that the brain doesn't mature until a person reaches 18-25 years of age.

I recall the studies showing 25 is the span required for the brain to develop completely. Of course individual cases of medically proven cases of physiological aspects vary, some age rapidly, other never fullt develop, 25 though is from my recollection the average or mean as it is called.

Great post.

To make this on topic, yeah sick concept of child brides. But is is a cultural aspect, and from my reading I have found that in the mid evil or rennisance (sp?) too early to think definitively..... any way, in those times, people married younger in general.

Life expectancies were lower, or people lived shorter lives. So, in retrospect, seeing how some cultures are reminicent of those times today, one can see where it stems from.

Whether or not we see it as right, is a different matter. We as a majority know it is not. But some don't see it that way, perhaps it will become much like other civil rights activities.

Womans rights and before then blacks, children have rights as well.
Since they don't have a voice to use as a representative, we as a people need to stand up and do the right thing.

pedophilia is a crime, abusing a child sexually or emplacing them in a situation or enviornment in which they could be violated, is in my opinion as giving the ok to allow such.

And as a hypocryte, asmention and admitted by myself, I feel should be a crime punishable by a means chosen by the victims. Rape is rape, consentual or not, it is a violation of a humans rights.

No one should be in a situation that endangers their growth, mentally and physically.

Those children are scarred, for life.


Mixed emotions on this for me, I am angery and sad, because it is horrible.

Children experimenting as teens with teens their age are developmentally on schedule. But when that development is hindered or forced, is when it become a crime or violation in my opinion.

One, which ought to be severly punishable.

Clearly arranged marriages like this one are like slave trade.

Any grown a** "man" over 17 dont got no biz playen with no "girl" under 17 yrs of age. And if they try it via religion they should be set on fire ASAP very weak. I cannot stand men scared of grown women they age what is the problem foreal? ok NUFF SAID HERE

More child abuse

"A SYDNEY couple has withdrawn their two children from a public primary school, claiming their 11-year-old son was bullied by Muslim students because he ate a salami sandwich during Ramadan."

im amazed at some of the stupid responses in this thread. who cares if its ok somewhere else in the world!?!?!?!?!? who cares if they did it back in the old days!?!? the girl is 14 YEARS OLD! we know better now, that is to young for sex and to young to make a decision about marrage. this 23 year old perv should be shot in the head.. if it were legally aloud i would be more than happy to do it myself