Somali Man Aged 112 Marries 17-Year-Old Virgin
THE internet is alive with news that 112-year-old Ahmed Muhamed Dore has married Safia Abdulleh, age 17, in the Galguduud region of Somalia. Says Dore:
“Today God helped me realise my dream… I didn’t force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love, and then we agreed to marry.”
It’s a cracking story, and one backed up by no proof of wither parties ages, nor of their wedding. There exists no Jeremy Kyle equivalent in Somalia for us to watch the happy couple on the telly. No DNA test can prove the man’s age.
All we get is the story delivered as fact. And we get this gem from the Mail:
Somali adolescent girls are often married off to older men, but it is rare for a man as old as Dhore to marry a girl of Abdulle’s age.
Rare for a man of 112 to marry a teenager. How’s that for insight? Rare for a man to be 112 and find a need of a wife.
The BBC’s Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the marriage in the town of Guriceel is being described by Somalian historians as the first of its kind in the Horn of Africa nation for over a century.
There have been a few 109 year olds and a 105 year old who married a toddler but not a single 112-year–old has married a 17-year-old since Samira Mirza married her toyboy in 1894.
This is kind of sensational, uncorroborated news that the internet loves. One person reports it. Everyone repeats it. It becomes a fact. If you see a source for the story, do tell…
Posted: 29th, October 2009 | In: Strange But True Comments (12) | TrackBack | Permalink
