WUNRN
YEMEN - AGE 12 GIRL, CHILD BRIDE OF
FORCED MARRIAGE
DIES IN PAINFUL
CHILDBIRTH - INFANT ALSO PERISHES
By Mohammed Jamjoom
CNN - September 14, 2009
AMMAN,
Jordan (CNN)
-- A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, died during a
painful childbirth that also killed her baby, a children's rights group said
Monday.
Fawziya
Ammodi struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a
hospital on Friday, said the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.
"Although
the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of
education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening," said
Seyaj President Ahmed al-Qureshi.
Born
into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Fawziya was forced to drop out of
school and married off to a 24-year-old man last year, al-Qureshi said.
Child
brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs
hold sway. Hodeidah is the fourth largest city in Yemen and an important port.
More
than half of all young Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18 --
many times to older men, some with more than one wife, a study by Sanaa
University found.
While
it was not immediately known why Fawziya's parents married her off, the reasons
vary. Sometimes, financially-strapped parents offer up their daughters for
hefty dowries.
Marriage
means the girls are no longer a financial or moral burden to their parents. And
often, parents will extract a promise from the husband to wait until the girl
is older to consummate the marriage.
Children's
organization UNICEF issued a statement Monday saying: "Child marriages
violate the rights of children in the most deplorable way. The younger the girl
is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks for her and her
baby.
"Girls
who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in
childbirth than women in their 20s. Child marriage denies girls of their
childhood, deprives them of an education and robs them of their
innocence."
"More
must be done to address the underlying causes in order to prevent tragic deaths
like those of 12-year-old Fawziya and her baby," the statement added.
The
issue of Yemeni child brides came to the forefront in 2008 with 10-year-old
Nujood Ali.
She
was pulled out of school and married to a man who beat and raped her within
weeks of the ceremony.
To
escape, Nujood hailed a taxi -- the first time in her life -- to get across
town to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a
judge.
After
a well-publicized trial, she was granted a divorce.
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