An eight-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal sexual injuries after
spending her wedding night with a husband five times her age.The girl,
identified as Rawan, is believed to have suffered tearing of her genitals and a
uterine rupture, Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Watan reports. It says Kuwaiti
activists have called for action against the man, who is 40, as well as the
girl’s family for allowing the marriage. The girl died in the tribal area of
Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. Gulf News quotes blogger Angry Man as posting the husband is “an
animal who deserved to be punished severely for his crime.”
“All those who supported such a crime should also be punished,” he
added.
Al Bawaba reports over a quarter of young girls in Yemen
are married before the age of 15.
It points the country passed a law in February 2009 setting the minimum
age of marriage at 17, but that it was repealed after conservative lawmakers
declared it “un-Islamic”. In 2010 a 13-year-old Yemeni girl who was forced into an arranged
marriage died five days after her wedding when she suffered an
internal rupture, a local human rights organisation declared.
Ilham Mahdi al Assi died in Yemen's Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab
Forum for Human Rights told the AFP in a statement quoting a medical report. According
to a World Vision study released in March, more child brides are being led into arranged marriages due
to an increase in global poverty and crises. Parents who live in fear of
natural disasters, political instability and financial ruin look to arranged
marriages as a way to save their struggling families.
Every day, 39,000 girls younger than 18 will marry, according
to the World Health Organization. This madness must stop!
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