Authorities in Lincoln, Nebraska arrested an immigrant Iraqi father who forced his 13- and 14-year-old daughters into marrying two countrymen more than twice their age, men who then took their brides to their homes and consummated the marriages. When the older girl ran away with a boyfriend, the father and the girl's husband went to the police seeking her return. Instead of the help sought, the 39 year old father was charged with two counts of child abuse and faces up to one year in jail. His 33-year-old wife was charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors. The grooms, Latif Al-Hussani, 34, a cook, and Majed Al-Tammimy, 28, a factory worker, have been charged with rape. Each faces up to 50 years in prison. The girls were taken into protective custody. All of this is seen, by many including local officials, as being the result of a conflict between old-country culture and American justice, a conflict shrouded in issues of multiculturalism and ignorance.

"In their minds, they did nothing wrong," said Abbas al-Harmooshi, an Iraqi refugee friend of the three men. "They were only doing what we have done for centuries. This is not a case of disrespect of [Nebraska's] civil law. We did not know the law." His own wife had been 9 and he 20 when they married in Iraq. Now, at 44, he and his wife have eight children.

The accused father of the two girls was among 500 Iraqi refugees who, in 1993, began settling in Nebraska with the help of Catholic Social Services of Lincoln. He had fled southern Iraq, after siding with a rebellion against Saddam Hussein. His own wife had been but 13 when he married her. Through his friends and lawyer, Sanford Pollack, the father contends that his daughters married the men willingly and that his family was following ancient traditions of arranged marriages. The father, Pollack said, "was only doing what he thought was in the best interests of his daughters. He is just devastated."

In Nebraska, the law is clear. People must be at least 17 to marry, and it is illegal for anyone 18 and older to have sex with someone who is under 18, even if the child consents.