Child bride in Yemen dies of internal bleeding on wedding night

[jake]

An eight-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said, in a case that has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides.

Arwa Othman, head of Yemen House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl, identified only as Rawan, was married to a 40-year-old man late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province in northwestern Yemen.



"On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death," Othman told Reuters. "They took her to a clinic but the medics couldn't save her life."

Othman said authorities had not taken any action against the girl's family or her husband.
A local security official in the provincial town of Haradh denied any such incident had taken place. He did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

But two Meedi residents contacted by Reuters confirmed the incident and said that local tribal chiefs had tried to cover up the incident when news first broke, warning a local journalist against covering the story.

Many poor families in Yemen marry off young daughters to save on the costs of bringing up a child and earn extra money from the dowry given to the girl.

A U.N. report released in January revealed the extent of the country's poverty, saying that 10.5 million of Yemen's 24 million people lacked sufficient food supplies, and 13 million had no access to safe water and basic sanitation.

Human Rights Watch urged Yemen's government in December 2011 to ban marriages of girls under the age of 18, warning it deprived child brides of education and harmed their health.

Quoting United Nations and government data, HRW said nearly 14 percent of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 15 and 52 percent before the age of 18. The group said many Yemeni child brides-to-be are kept from school when they reach puberty.

Discussions on the issue were shelved by political turmoil following protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh
in 2011 that led to his ouster.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...98910N20130910

[raynaputi]

I've read this yesterday...DISGUSTING!

[Terpe]

[grahamw48]

Damned animals.

[Michael Parnham]

Poor child, she hadn't even completed her life as a happy child should, the parents and the child's husband should be put down

[Arthur Little]

... I just CANNOT, for the life of me, comprehend WHY such primitive, barbaric practices are tolerated in the 21st Century.

Where the are all the so~called "Human Rights" activists when this sort of thing's happening???

[Dedworth]

A toilet state to be expected

[joebloggs]

a 40yr old having sex with an 8yr old
now what we do call that in the west

[Dedworth]

a 40yr old having sex with an 8yr old
now what we do call that in the west

We live in a 21st century multicultural country and we must respect other religions

[bigmarco]

... I just CANNOT, for the life of me, comprehend WHY such primitive, barbaric practices are tolerated in the 21st Century.

:

Alas Arthur these are the practises of primitive barbaric states who wish to follow the teachings of their prophet ,who was himself a paedophile.

[joebloggs]

talking about primitive states,

Hardwick's Marriage Act 1753 UK

Hardwick's Act fixed the lower legal age of marriage as 14 for men and 12 for women. This was raised to 16 for both sexes in 1929, although parental consent was still required for brides or bridegrooms under age 21.

260yrs ago , but only raised to 16 in 1929 some countries have a lot of catching up to do