Will the 8 year old girl be permitted to divorce her 58 yr old husband by the Court of Cassation?

Her father did this? If he lived in the USA, he would be a teacher. This is just so wrong on so many levels.

another victim of the public school system?

how do u go from a person doing this , to a person being a teacher....fascinating leap

dean - this is the loving nature of some in the muslim world. you know like iraq when saddam was in charge. then the evil americans kicked him out. now those kids who was in prisons (their crime..being born to parents who spoke againest saddam) are free. if obama don't screw things up they can grow up to be whatever they want.

I seriously doubt Obama could do any worse than Bush.

"to be whatever they want"
this ain't true for most citizens of the US, nor of those in many other countries .... I doubt this is true for quite anyone in Iraq.

okay, at least they are free. if they had the money, they could buy themselves a future.

@dean:

I was thinking about the other question http://www.hubdub.com/m26406/Which_group_of_states_will_have_the_most_offenders_listed_on_teachercrimecom_when_school_gets_out - but there are other stories too:

Coach, 40, Weds 16-Year-Old Student
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3305652&page=1

Teacher who 'married' student in pagan ritual tried for sexual assault
http://www.courttv.com/trials/news/0405/20_miklosovic_ctv.html

And we all know the Mary Kay Letourneau storey, so no more details are necessary there.

Ok - that was the serious and disturbing stuff - and now, for an explination of why that is serious and disturbing... here is a comedy about it :-)
http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1134989797/Teacher_Marries_Student

does this count as a 'no'?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/23/saudi.arabia.child.marriage/index.html

The question is about the appeal of the original case. That won't be for a while. So please stop sending in settlement requests that relate to the original judges ruling. If the article doesn't say that the Court of Cassation ruled whatever, but instead that a judge ruled "no divorce", then that's already known and covered by the question's background and supporting link.

I new the girls ex-husband. I guess she is kind of grouchy.

Just a friendly reminder: there was a December ruling by a judge in a lower court in which the judge denied the annulment/divorce. That ruling is well-known, but not the one the question is seeking. Rather, the girl's mother said after that lower court ruling that she'd take the case to the Saudi "Court of Cassation", which is superior to all other courts in the land, and, in fact, roughly equivalent to the US's Supreme Court. This market will only settle as a 'Yes' if A) that mother indeed takes the case to the Court of Cassation, B) that court elects to hear her plea, and C) the ruling is that the divorce/annulment is granted. Any other outcome--that is, if the high court denies the request, or refuses to hear the case at all, or the mother fails to take her case to the court, or if there's no ruling by the suspension date--the market will settle as 'No'.

UPDATE March 25: The Saudi Court of Cassation has rejected and refused to certify the lower court ruling allowing the marriage. That means that, while the marriage is still valid, the challenge to the marriage is still alive. The case now goes back down to the original lower court. If that lower court decides to stand by its decision allowing the marriage, the case will go back up to the court of cassation; if, on the other hand, the lower court reverses its decision, the marriage is over and the case is closed.

In other words, we still have some waiting to do.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/24/saudi.child.marriage/index.html

UPDATE April 12: As expected, on Saturday, the lower court judge--again--refused to allow the divorce/annulment. (This was, of course, after the Saudi Court of Cassation last month declined to certify that lower court's original ruling.) The case now goes back up to the Court of Cassation again; it is scheduled to be heard next month. What'll happen there is anybody's guess. The case could be sent back down to the lower court, or the higher court could overrule and allow an annulment. As this market is scheduled to run through summer, we'll have to wait and see...

There seems to be some confusion as to why we're not settling this one yet. Here’s a timeline that may make our reasoning easier to understand:

1) July 2008: The 47-year-old man marries his neighbor’s 8-year-old daughter as repayment for a debt;
2) August 2008: The girl’s mother—who’s separated from the girl’s father—makes a plea with a lower court in Unayzah (Onaiza) to allow her daughter to divorce.
3) December 2008: A judge at that lower court dismisses the plea because, he says, the mother doesn’t have the right to file such a case, as she’s not the girl’s legal guardian. (As a condition, however, the judge makes the husband agree not to consummate the marriage until the girl reaches puberty.) The mother vows to take her case to the Saudi court of cassation (equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court).
4) March 2009: The court of cassation refuses to certify the lower court’s ruling. This has the effect of leaving the marriage intact, but the mother’s challenge still alive. The case is sent back to the lower court for reconsideration.
5) April 2009: Upon that reconsideration, that lower court judge refuses—again—to allow the divorce. The mother vows to appeal again to the higher court of cassation, where another hearing is set for ‘next month’.
6) May 2009 (tentative): the court of cassation has the following options:
a. Overrule the lower court judge, and allow the marriage to be annulled…
b. Or agree with the lower court judge that the marriage should stand, effectively ending the appeals process;
c. Or refuse again to re-certify the lower court’s decision, and send it back down for yet further reconsideration (at which point it’s believed that the mother could again take the case back to the higher court, and so on, and so forth).

This is a confusing one, to be sure, but we’re watching it closely. Luckily the market is scheduled to be open for another 20 weeks, so there’s no real rush to settle now.

Hey, I'm happy I lost this one...