Gulf | Yemen
Yemeni girls had their childhood 'returned'
Child marriage is on the rise in Yemen. Poverty, illiteracy, a growing population and a lack of legislation preventing the practice are among the major reasons behind the phenomenon.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 23:58 August 15, 2008
- The girls received gifts and toys to mark the end of their marriages.
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
Sana'a: Child marriage is on the rise in Yemen. Poverty, illiteracy, a growing population and a lack of legislation preventing the practice are among the major reasons behind the phenomenon.
A group of human rights activists, lawmakers, and journalists last week called to protect children, especially girls, from such marriages.
The call came in a gathering held to celebrate the divorces of three little girls after being forced into marriage.
The girls, 10-year-old Nejood, 12-year-old Arwa and 10-year-old Reem, were busy playing with the gifts and toys bestowed upon them, while human rights activists, lawmakers and journalists were arguing about who was responsible for destroying their childhood. Some 48 per cent of girls in Yemen marry while under the age of 18, according to recent studies.
"We are celebrating the return of these three girls to their childhood, to their toys, games and smiles, they were kidnapped, and now they are released," said lawmaker, Abdul Bari Dughaish, who called for society and the media to help him and his colleagues in parliament push for new legislation to punish parents who agree to marry off their children.
Lobby for law
The meeting concluded with two suggestions: Activists should continue to lobby until a law is issued to prevent any marriage under 18, and organise awareness campaigns to educate people about the dangers of such marriages.
Poverty and illiteracy are behind most child marriages in Yemen. Illiteracy is higher than 50 per cent and is 75 per cent among women and about 8 million people out of a population of 22 million live below the poverty line.
"It is the poverty, it's the poverty, I did not want this to happen to my daughter," the 50-year old father of Arwa told human right activists who visited him last month in his two-room house where he lives with about eight family members.
"If I did not like my daughter I would not have told her to go to court," said her unemployed father, with tears running down his cheeks.
Inspired by her father, Arwa went out one day last month to complain about her marriage. She did not know where to go. But when she saw some soldiers in uniform at the gates of a hospital in Jebel city, and she told them she wanted a divorce.
They helped her to get to a court where the judge ordered her divorce. Her father and her 40-year old husband had disagreed on the dowry to be paid for her marriage and this caused him to tell her daughter to go to court.
Yemen is ranked 13th among the worst 20 countries in terms of child marriage according to a 2007 report by a local think-tank.
Do you know of any country where child marriage is prevalent? Does the problem lie in a lack of laws pertaining to child marriages or lax implementation? How can such practices be curbed?
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