Mumsnet Talk

This is unbelievable this

So can you legally marry in Bulgaria at 11?

apparently, but not have sex until 14!!

she does not look like 11 year old
what happened to childhood

Oh and i just love the part where he says 'I'm not going to play with toys any more - I have a new toy now.'

Poor girl

she says

She looks nowhere near 11, more like 16/17. It's a lovely pic of her and her baby, but makes me very sad that she is so very young and is going to quit her education.

she looks older, will say that much but OMG she still a child!

also its clear she has no idea what this will do to her, "I have a new toy now"
She has properly still playing with her dolls till a few months ago.

I find it hard to believe that the culture is so different there that a 19 year old having sex with an 11 year old is condonable which is what the family seem to be saying.

Yes, he broke the law but you'd think the family would be more concerned about this relationship instead of getting them to marry.

well the family may be condoning it but he's being prosecuted

so does anyone know how come you can get married at 11 but not have sex until 14??

Also, if history repeats itself she could be a grandma at 22!

indeed - a time when most people still consider themselves young to be mothers!
Wonder how old the 2 grandmas are - this baby could end up being years older than its aunts and uncles!

how can an 11 year old get married??? i was still 'playing' babies and weddings at 11! could never have done it for real!

can't see it being any help to her or baby though if the dad goes to prison! its done now, they need help together rather than sending him away

I just looked it up and the legal age for marriage in Bulgaria is 18.

well according to that article the age of consent in Bulgaria is 14, he says when he met her she told him she was 15 and the baby was conceived a week after they met.

So possibly he did not know when the first had sex and the baby was conceived that he had broken the law and he is taking responsibility for his dc which a lot of men a lot older than him choose not to do.

Eleven seems drastically too young to me but the grandmother says in that article that amongst the Roma where they live , it is not unusual. In which case a lot of men must be being prosecuted surely?

sorry thats hellish

I bet the "toy" comment is badly translated - it is the Daily Mail, they are going to make her look as clueless and bimbo-like as possible. I do agree that it's awful she was allowed to have a child so young and she probably has no idea what she has let herself in for but I don't think she really thinks that a baby is a toy.

I read this at the weekend online somewhere.
In the Roam culture they live in it is not a legal wedding ceremony it is 3 days of family events that is not recognised in the eyes of the law as a marriage but it is in their culrture which is how an underage child could get married.

I thought that too Bertie about the translation

'Tis not unheard of. Didn't the prophet Mohammed marry a 6yo but abstain from having sexual relations with her until she was 8 or something? This was when he was about 80, she was his last wife.

Unfortunately womens rights don't figure highly in some of these cultures.

What would the alternative be, bertie? Forced abortion? At 11?

Horrific. I can't even begin to imagine the strain it must've put on such a young body. I hadn't even started my periods at 11!

God how awful
my DD is 10 and aksing for polly pockets for christmas

My dd is 9 and very much a little child not a precocious pre-teen. However her body is developping and I think she will begin menstruating long before I did. I did not have a period at 11 and I was not in any way ready for even thinking about sex but even back in my day, I remember one girl being sexually active at 12. She was also physically quite developped