Girl, 8, divorces husband, 50

An eight-year-old girl has divorced her 50-year-old husband, her lawyer today revealed. The couple married in Saudi Arabia last August, but the girl’s mother has been trying to split them since then.

The girl’s father had allegedly forced her to marry, and a Saudi judge had since rejected two pleas by the mother to allow a divorce. Western countries such as the US and the UK have sharply criticised the practice of child marriages, and Saudi human rights groups have pushed the kingdom to end such marriages.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage.