By Fady Ashraf
A Mansoura fifth-grader, Omar, 11, celebrated his engagement to a third-grade girl, 9, on Thursday night. Parts of the party were documented in a video which has since gone viral on YouTube.
Mansoura-based journalist, Tamer El-Mahdy confirmed that the engagement party happened. El-Mahdy added that the children’s parents “do not see anything wrong in what they did, and are welcoming media covering it.”
Fady Wagdy, lawyer at Egyptian Coalition for Children rights (ECCR) said this is a crime of endangering children, which includes marriage before legal age (18-years-old). Sanctions for such crime are two to five years in prison for the parents and a fine between EGP 10,000 and EGP 50,000.
UNICEF says that between 2002 and 2011, 2% of children under 15 are married while 17% of children below 18 were married over the same time.
