SAN'A, Yemen - A 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after
struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human
rights organization said Saturday.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while
giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of
Hodeida province, 140 miles (223 kilometers) west of the capital
San'a.
Child marriages are widespread in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest
country, where tribal customs dominate society. More than a quarter
of the country's females marry before age 15, according to a recent
report by the Social Affairs Ministry.
Youssef was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old
man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, said Ahmed al-Quraishi,
chairman of Siyaj human rights organization, which promotes the
rights of children in Yemen.
Al-Quraishi said that he stumbled upon Youssef in the hospital
while investigating cases of children who had fled from the
fighting in the north.
"This is one of many cases that exist in Yemen," said al-Quraishi.
"The reason behind it is the lack of education and awareness,
forcing many girls into marriage in this very early age."
The issue of child brides vaulted into the headlines here two years
ago when an 8-year-old Yemeni girl 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.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090913/twl-ml-yemen-child-marriage-1be00ca.html
what kind of shit is this ...
