Hissam Hussein Dehaini, 65, reportedly married the former beauty queen the day after she turned 16 and appointed his new mother-in-law the following day.
The mayor of a city in Brazil married a 16-year-old girl and appointed his new mother-in-law to Secretary of Culture and Tourism.
The Brazilian prosecutor’s office is investigating Hissam Hussein Dehaini, 65, for nepotism after the marriage sparked outrage. The civil marriage took place a day after the former beauty queen turned 16.
The day after the wedding, the town’s official gazette published the decree by which the mayor appointed his new mother-in-law as Secretary of Culture and Tourism, with a salary of some 4,200 dollars a month.
Until then, the mother-in-law worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Education with a much lower salary.
Although the marriage in this case was legal, it has raised a strong debate in Brazil about the age in which people can get married
According to the UN, around 26 percent of women in Brazil live in a couple before the age of 18, including six percent who marry before the age of 15.
The case also caused a political scandal in the town because it was Araucaria’s own deputy mayor, Hilda Lukalski Seima, who, as head of the town’s civil registry, made the marriage official.
Both were elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020 by a coalition of conservative parties.
This is not the first time this mayor has been involved in a similar scandal. During his previous term in office, in 2010, Dehaini granted public office to his then wife, two of his daughters and a brother-in-law who, at the time, was under investigation.
Hissam Hussein Dehaini, mayor of Araucária, with a fortune of around 2 million euros, married for the fifth time to a “miss teen”.
According to Brazilian law, minors under the age of 16 are allowed to marry, as long as they have the authorisation of their parents or guardians or, failing that, as long as they have managed to obtain their emancipation.
According to local media, young Kauane Rode Camargo, the now fifth wife of Hussein Dehaini, reportedly presented her papers as an emancipated minor on April 12, the day the marriage took place.
However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paraná announced that there are “some proceedings in progress” about the situation, with actions being handled confidentially because they involve a minor.
As for the accusations of nepotism, a list of the mayor’s relatives who hold positions in the municipality was published in the Brazilian press.
According to CNN Brazil, the scandal forced Hussein to take drastic decisions. He resigned from the Cidadania party, which he had joined in 2009.
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“I, Hissam Hussein Dehaini, announce my retirement from the CIDADANIA party, thank you for the role I have always had in the party since 2009, being my only party of affiliation. Thank you for the warm welcome,” he wrote in a statement.
The following day, he announced the dismissal of his mother-in-law Marilene Rode from the Secretary of Culture and Tourism, which he himself had given her after the wedding with Kauane.