Friday March 29th, 2024
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Egyptian Authorities Claim to Have Halted Viral Child Marriage, Mother Denies

This gave us commitment issues.

Staff Writer

The Egyptian National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) has claimed to have halted a child marriage after a video of the engagement of a 15 year-old boy to a 13 year-old girl in Kafr El Sheikh went viral on social media

Azza El-Ashmawy,  Secretary-General of the NCCM, said that the General Committee for Child Protection was notified through the Child Helpline (16000) and that an investigation was launched immediately. In her statement, El-Ashmawy claims that both sets of parents signed a pledge committing them to postponing the marriage until both children are of legal age.

However, the mother of the groom, Soheir Mohamed, told Masrawy that she made no such vow, going as far as denying that an investigation ever happened.

“Egypt has much more important things [to worry about] than my son,” she said. "What happened was a regular engagement, and the actual marriage will take place after they’re both legal anyway," she added, while also insisting that the engagement is still on-going and denying that the two children had been broken up, as some had claimed.

“Everyday, here in Dessouk, more than 20 children like my son, and even younger than him, get engaged. This is natural over here,” she explained.