WUNRN
Yemen - Islamic Clerics Oppose Child
Bride Ban - Government to Decide
March 22, 2010
Ahmed Al-Haj,Hadeel Al-Shalchi
Yemeni women hold up the Quran and Arabic placard reading
"yes to the legal rights of the Muslim woman" as they take part in a
protest outside the parliament in San'a, Sunday, March 21, 2010. AP
PHOTO
SAN’A, YEMEN—Some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders,
including one the U.S. says mentored Osama bin Laden, have declared supporters
of a ban on child brides to be apostates.
The religious decree, issued Sunday, deeply imperils efforts to
salvage legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to
marry.
The practice is widespread in
More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15,
according to a report last year by the Social Affairs Ministry. Tribal custom
also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into
an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.
A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but
it was repealed and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for
review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to
make a final decision on the legislation next month.
Some of the clerics who signed Sunday's decree sit on the
committee.
The group behind the declaration also includes Yemen's most
influential cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, whom the United States has
branded a spiritual mentor of bin Laden. Al-Zindani denies being a member of
al-Qaida.
In a further challenge to the rights groups pushing for a ban,
government officials are reluctant to challenge al-Zindani and other
conservative tribal and religious figures whose support they need to hold onto
power in the fragile nation.
The religious leaders organized a protest against the
legislation on Sunday by a group of women. Hidden behind black face veils and
robes, the women carried signs that read "Yes to the Islamic rights of
women."
"I was married at 15 and have many children now," said
one of the women, Umm Abdul-Rahman. "And I will marry my daughter at the
same age if I decide she is ready for it."
The issue of Yemen's child brides vaulted into the headlines
three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom
and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually
won a divorce, and legislators began looking at ways to curb the practice.
In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after
struggling for three days in labour to give birth, a local human rights
organization said.
A rights group pushing for a ban planned a protest for Tuesday.
"The government has two options: to give girls in Yemen a
chance at life or to condemn them to a death sentence," said Amal Basha,
chairwoman of the group, Sisters Arab Forum in Yemen.
Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but
parliament annulled that law in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a
daughter marries.
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