JEDDAH, (Reuters) – A 50-year old Saudi man has  agreed to divorce his 9-year-old bride, media reported yesterday, after the marriage drew international criticism.

The decision, reported by newspapers Alwatan and Al-Riyadh,  came after months of court hearings, criticism from the United  Nations and an international media frenzy about Saudi Arabia’s  human rights practices.

“This is a good step and I think the man did it because he  was in a lot of pressure from everyone,” Wajeha Al-Huaider,  founder of the Group for Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia, told  Reuters by telephone.

Al-Huaider, who campaigned for the child, said she hoped the  pressure generated by the case would eventually lead to a law  banning child marriages.

The child’s mother, who opposed the marriage which took  place when the girl was 8 years old, took the case to court  last year. The court in the small town of Onaiza upheld the  marriage on condition that the husband did not consummate it  until the girl reached puberty.

In Saudi Arabia’s patriarchal society, which applies an  austere version of Sunni Islam, fathers have the right to decide  whom their daughters marry.