The wedding, scheduled for Friday, May 24, was being promoted by Abdul Malik Sarkindaju, speaker of the Assembly of the Muslim-majority state of Niger, who assured local media that none of the girls was under 18. The politician had described the wedding as a humanitarian gesture to support the girls - whose exact age EFE has not been able to determine - who had lost their parents in attacks by armed men who threaten the region. The news of the wedding sparked outrage in the country, especially in civil society, with many voices classifying it as a violation of the girls' rights. In particular, the Nigerian Minister of Women's Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, condemned the initiative and threatened to go to court to prevent it. A source from her department, who asked for anonymity, confirmed to EFE today that the minister has finally gone to court, which has issued an injunction to prevent the wedding. "Judge Abdullahi Mikaili of the Niger High Court granted the injunction on the grounds that the planned marriage of the 100 girls violates their rights," the source said. In response to this move, the Council of Imams of Niger State criticized the minister on Wednesday, accusing her of making an Islamophobic gesture. According to the clerics, there is nothing wrong with sponsoring marriages of the poor or orphans. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) organization also criticized the minister's "harsh and hasty decision" on the issue, considering that "it is totally outside the scope of her ministry". "The minister's attempt to demonize in the media the marriage of a hundred poor and orphaned girls, largely traumatized after losing their parents to banditry and brutal and bloody insurgency, revealed her ignorance of the culture and traditions of the Muslim north," the organization criticized. The organization also accused Kennedy-Ohanenye of having "a lack of empathy, compassion and respect for other people's culture and traditions". Mass marriages are common in northern Nigeria, where it is not uncommon to see girls as young as nine years old getting married. According to a 2023 UNICEF report, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where child marriage poses the greatest threat to girls, with countries like Nigeria leading this scourge that cuts short their education or isolates them from their environment, among other problems. One in three girls marries before the age of 18 in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to seven of the 10 countries in the world with the highest prevalence of early marriage in the total population. Read Also: Nigeria. 'Mass' wedding of 100 young people scheduled (and sparked outrage) (Portuguese version)