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At the end of October 2014, the wedding between Mr. Ahmed Muhamed Dore and young girl Safia Abdulleh took place in the city of Guriceel, in the Galguduud region, central Somalia.
What attracted public opinion is that the groom Ahmed was 112 years old, while the bride Safia was only 17 years old.
Mr. Ahmed said he was born in 1897. Previously, the groom Ahmed had 5 wives and 18 children. Miss Safia is the old man’s sixth wife.
The country of Somalia, whose people are mainly Muslim, polygamy is very common and allowed by law, so it is normal for a 112-year-old man to still marry another wife, and it is not illegal.
However, compared to the age gap between the old man and Ms. Safia is too big. They have a 95-year age gap and are described by historians in Somalia as “the first time this has happened in this country in more than a century”.
Mr. Ahmed’s age is the same as that of Safia’s great-grandfather. Mr. Ahmed said that he and the bride were from the same village and he had waited a long time, waiting for her to grow up and be old enough to get married before he proposed.
Meanwhile, the young bride’s family said their daughter is “happy with her new husband”.
This 1-0-2 wedding attracted hundreds of people to attend. On the wedding day, Mr. Ahmed shared: “Today God helped me to fulfill my dream. I did not force her, but I used my love experiences to convince her, and then we agreed to get married.
In Somalia, young girls tend to marry much older men, most of which are involuntary marriages. However, it is rare for a couple with an age difference of up to nearly a century like the above couple.
Mr. Ahmed said that all his family members and the bride’s family agreed to this marriage. The couple plans to have more children to expand their family.
Ahmed’s eldest son is 80 years old. Three of the old man’s five wives have passed away and the other two wives also agreed to let him marry a sixth wife. This is also the first marriage of Mr. Ahmed in three-quarters of a century.
