Ten-year-old girls are ready for marriage, according to Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric.



Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, the country's grand mufti, told Al Hayat newspaper that those saying ten or 12-year-old girls are too young to marry are being 'unfair' to them.



Al Sheikh's comments come at a time when Saudi human rights groups have been pushing the government to put an end to marriages involving the very young and to define a minimum age for marriage.



In the past few months, Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or very young boys.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom's grand mufti, prays during the funeral of the Saudi woman and her daughter last February

Though the mufti's pronouncements are respected and provide guidance, the government is not legally bound by them.

On Sunday, the government-run Human Rights Commission condemned marriages of minor girls, saying such marriages are an 'inhumane violation' and rob children of their rights.

The commission's statement followed a ruling by a court in Oneiza in central Saudi Arabia last month that dismissed a divorce petition by the mother of an eight-year-old girl whose father married her off to a man in his 50s.

Newspaper reports said the court argued that the mother did not have the right to file such a case on behalf of her daughter and said that the petition should be filed by the girl when she reaches puberty.

Responding to a question about parents who force their underage daughters to marry, the mufti said: 'We hear a lot about the marriage of underage girls in the media, and we should know that Islamic law has not brought injustice to women.'

The mufti said a good upbringing will make a girl capable of carrying out her duties as a wife and that those who say women should not marry before the age of 25 are following a 'bad path'.

'Our mothers and before them, our grandmothers, married when they were barely 12,' said Al Sheikh, according to the Al-Hayat newspaper.

There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year.

It is also not clear whether these unions are on the rise or whether people are hearing about them more now because of the prevalence of media outlets and easy access to the Internet.

Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty dowries or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.

Portuguese Church: 'Think twice about marrying Muslims'



Meanwhile the head of the Catholic Church in Portugal is advising Portuguese women to think twice before marrying a Muslim.

Cardinal Jose Policarpo says Christians should learn more about Islam and respect Muslims.

But he says marrying a Muslim man can bring 'a whole lot of trouble' because Christian women become subject to Muslim conventions.

Policarpo insists the Portuguese church has warm relations with the country's Muslim population of around 100,000.

Policarpo's comments were made at a public debate late Tuesday and were broadcast by local media Wednesday.

There is no recent history of animosity between Christians and Muslims in Portugal, where 85 percent of people say they are Catholic.