112-year-old weds teen

Updated on: 30 October,2009 08:03 AM IST |
Agencies |

Somalian man already has 13 children with his five wives

Somalian man already has 13 children with his five wives

Love Aaj Kal: Ahmed Muhamed Dhore with his sixth wife Safiya Abdulle (17)

Dhore who says he was born in 1897, the year that Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee already has 13 children by five wives, but said he would like more with his newest, Safiya Abdulle.

Hundreds of people attended the extraordinary ceremony this week in Guriceel, in the region of Galguduud.
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"Today God helped me realise my dream," Dore said. He and his new wife, who is almost a century his junior, are from the same village in Somalia, he said, adding that he had waited for her to grow up to propose.

He says his children and two other wives agreed to the marriage, as did Abdulle's parents.

"I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love, and then we agreed to marry," the groom said.

The bride's family said she was "happy with her new husband". Somali adolescent girls are often married off to older men.

Dhore has 101 grandchildren. His oldest son is 80 and three of his wives have died. This was his first marriage for three quarters of a century.

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