April 9, 2026
Age of marriage

I happened to read that Lord Acton, at the age of 64, married a 13-year-old girl who was also the daughter of his younger brother. At the time, this was considered completely normal—just imagine what would happen today. In all past civilizations, girls could marry as soon as they began menstruating (even earlier, without consummation).

Only recently has the Western world changed, and we now think that these marriages are something horrible. But to an Arab, our rule might seem just as horrible—that a girl can have sex at 14 as long as it is not with her husband (sexual freedom but no marriage).