WUNRN
YEMEN - CHILD FORCED BRIDE AGE 8
DIES OF INTERNAL INJURIES ON WEDDING NIGHT TO OLDER GROOM
By Matt
Blake - 9 September 2013
An eight-year-old child bride has died in Yemen of internal
bleeding sustained during her wedding night after being forced to marry a man 5
times her age, activists have claimed.
The girl, identified only as Rawan, died in the tribal area of
Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia.
Activists are now calling for the groom, who is believed to be
around 40 years old, and her family to be arrested so they can face justice in
the courts.
They say arrests would help put a stop to the practice of marrying
young girls to older men in the impoverished region.
The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and
has attracted the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure
the government to outlaw child marriages.
Yemen's gripping poverty plays a role in hindering efforts to
stamp out the practice, as poor families find themselves unable to say no to
'bride-prices' that can be hundreds of dollars for their daughters.
More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15,
according to a report in 2010 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.
In September 2010, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after
struggling for three days in labour to give birth, a local human rights
organisation said.
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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