Child brides pose new challenge in ongoing refugee crisis

[pnwmom]

17. My sounds doesn't work. But it doesn't matter. Child marriage is not required by Islam

and Islamic countries can (and some do) ban child marriage.

It is an evil practice.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/12/dead-yemeni-child-bride-w_n_533959.html

SHUEBA, Yemen — A 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to death shortly after marriage was tied down and forced to have sex by her husband, according to interviews with the child's mother, police and medical reports.

The girl's mother, Nijma Ahmed, 50, told the Associated Press that before her daughter lost consciousness, she said that her husband had tied her up and forced himself on her. "She looked like she was butchered," she said about her daughter's injuries.

Elham Assi, 13, bled to death hours after she spoke to her mother and just days after she was married to a 23-year-old man. She died on April 2 in the deeply poor Yemeni village of Shueba, some 200 kilometers northwest of the capital. Her husband, Abed al-Hikmi, is in police custody.


The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen where a quarter of all females marry before the age of 15, according to a 2009 report by the country's Ministry of Social Affairs. Traditional families prefer young brides because they are seen as more obedient and are expected to have more children.

Legislation to ban child brides has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders. There has been no government comment over the case.

The girl – one of eight siblings – was pushed into marriage after an agreement between her brother and her future-husband to marry each other's sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices – a common arrangement in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

SNIP