Age of Marriage – Age of Consent

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On November 16, 2007 The Jerusalem Post published an article by Dan Izenberg titled “You’re 17? Wait ‘til you’re 18!” See original article at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127517543&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

According to the article, two members of Kenesset, Gal-On (feminist) and Melchior (so called rabbi who always sides with our enemies) have introduced a bill to raise the age of legal marriage to 18, from 17. The article describes the supporters of the change, the purpose of the change and its opponents as follows:

The bill was submitted to the Knesset by MKs Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) and Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad). However, much of the work behind the bill was carried out by The Working Group for Equality in Personal Status issues. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is a founding member of the organization, which works on behalf of equality between the sexes.

According to ACRI lawyer Sonia Boulos, child marriage is a phenomenon which almost exclusively affects girls in societies that promote traditional and generally subservient roles for women. In many cases, the institution is actively supported by religious leaders and politicians.

Boulos told The Jerusalem Post that the bill is opposed by both Arab and Jewish religious parties, including Shas and Ra'am-Ta'al, except for MK Ahmed Tibi. As a member of the coalition, Shas maintains that it has the right to veto the bill because of the coalition agreement which pledges to maintain the religious status quo unless all members agree to any proposed change.

Boulos maintained there was no connection between the law and the religious status quo. She also said that child marriages are a phenomenon in Jewish haredi society as well as Arab society.

A lawyer for the so called Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Sonia Boulos, spoke in favor of the bill by stupidly claiming that

child marriage violates the right to health because the girls often become pregnant before their bodies are fully developed. It infringes on the right to education because many girls are coerced into becoming full-time housekeepers and drop out of school. It violates the right to emotional well-being because some of the girls are not yet equipped emotionally for marriage and parenthood.

In fact, a person of 17 is not a child, and the most important civil right that a person can have is the right to choose for himself or herself. The most typical diagnostic of a totalitarian state is that the state makes the decisions for you and does not give you choices.

It is also very strange that an organization calling itself “The Working Group for Equality in Personal Status” is involved in this issue. Most countries traditionally had different ages for allowing men to marry than the age for women. In Israel, the age is the same for both, so there is already equality of status.

Whom would this bill affect? Boulos said “that child marriages are a phenomenon in Jewish haredi society as well as Arab society”.

The sponsors and supporters do not want to stop young people from having sex – the legal age for consent to have sex in Israel is 16. It seems that if there is less than three years difference between the ages of the two members of the couple, the age is 14. These anti-religious feminists maintain that a woman, and a girl has the absolute right to control her body, and certainly don’t want to raise the age of consent for sex. They just want to stop people from getting married. The law is thus designed to stop religious people from having children (which they will only do after they are married) but not to stop people from acting irresponsibly or immorally.

When the law was changed to raise the age of marriage from 16 to 17, the silly argument in favor was so that we would be more like the European countries. This same stupid argument is being trotted out again. The article again stupidly says that “according to various international conventions, all individuals under the age of 18 are considered children”.

Well hello, many if not most European countries have relatively low ages of consent for sex. If their age for marriage is higher, it is for some of the same reasons of these advocates here – you are adult enough to have sex but not adult enough to act morally and get married.

Age of consent to sex in some European countries is as follows: (see http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm)

· Austria 14

· Denmark 15

· Estonia 14

· France 15

· Germany 14 (if partner is also young, 16 otherwise)

· Greece 15

· Hungary 14

· Iceland 15

· Italy 14

· Lichtenstein 14

· Lithuania 14

· Monaco 15

· Montenegro 14

· Sweden 15

In addition, most of these countries either have a specific legal exception, or de facto do not prosecute consensual sex when both parties are similar in age and maturity.

The message is clear here. Have sex, enjoy yourself, but don’t be moral and don’t be responsible – i.e. don’t get married.

Apparently, with no holidays to interfere, November is a good month for bad laws relating to sex. On November 2, 2000, this same Dan Izenberg reported in the Jerusalem Post that the age of consent for homosexual intercourse, referred to as sodomy (named after the city of S’dom) was lowered from 18 to 16. (The wonders of equality.)

Indeed, the age of legal marriage needs to be changed, it needs to be lowered. If there is any concern, establish some way to ascertain that both parties really want to marry each other. But once it is establiched that they do, let them marry at 16, 15, or less even if they are mature enough.

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