CAIRO — The recent announcement of two children — a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy — getting engaged has renewed the debate about child marriage in Egypt.
The news of the engagement in a village in Sharqia governorate emerged in December, including photos of the two children at the ceremony. While the family insisted the engagement was part of a "tradition" aimed at unifying the families, and that the wedding would only take place after they had reached legal marriage age, it sparked an outcry over the all-too-common custom of child marriage in the country.
