A 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of injuries to her genitals four days after a family-arranged marriage, a human rights group said.
The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has drawn the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages.
Legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry is in serious peril after strong opposition from some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders.
The 13-year-old girl from Hajja province, northwest of the capital, died on April 2, four days after her marriage to a 23-year-old man, said Majed al-Madhaji, a spokesman for the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights.
A medical report from al-Thawra hospital said she suffered a tear to her genitals and severe bleeding.
Authorities detained the husband.
The Yemeni rights group said the girl was married off in an agreement between two men to marry each other's sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices.
The group said that was a common arrangement in the deeply impoverished country.
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 in the hundreds of dollars for their daughters.
More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15, according to a report last year 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.
Last month, a group of the country's highest Islamic authorities declared those supporting a ban on child marriages to be apostates.
A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic.
The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation this month.
Some of the clerics who signed the decree against a ban sit on the committee.
Further imperiling the effort is the weak government's reluctance to confront the clerics and other conservative tribal officials, whose support is essential to their fragile hold on power.
The issue of Yemen's child brides got widespread attention three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly 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.
In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization 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.
- Sitiemilia , Singapore.
காவல்துறையிடம் புகார் தந்திருக்கும் முகமது பாருக்கை மண்ணடியில் நாம் சந்தித்தபோது “”"நான் அவரோட ஆசிரமத்தில் கொஞ்சகாலம் தங்கி யிருந்தேன். அப்பதான் அவரோட செக்ஸ் ரீதியிலான நடவடிக்கை களைப் பார்த்து அதிர்ந்துபோனேன். மந்திரிச்சி தண்ணீர் கொடுப்பார். பிறகு கற்கண்டு கொடுப்பார். அதை சாப்பிடும் பெண்கள்… கண்செருகிப் போய்டுவாங்க. அப்புறம் அவர் இஷ்டப்படிதான் அவங்க நடக்கணும். இதேபோல்… சின்ன பையன்களைக் கூப்பிட்டு… என்னோட செக்ஸ் விளையாடினால் உங்களுக்கு ஆயுள் அதிகரிக்கும்னு தன் அறைக்குள் கூட்டிட்டுப்போய்டுவார். இந்தக் கொடுமைகளையெல்லாம் பார்த்து… இஸ்லாத்தின் மாண்பை இப்படி இந்த ஆள் கெடுக்கிறாரேன்னு கோபமாகித் தான்… அங்கிருந்து வந்தேன். இதை என் நண்பர்கள்ட்டசொல்லி நான் புலம்பினேன். அவங்கதான் என்னை போலீஸ்ல புகார் கொடுக்கச் சொன்னாங்க. இந்த சர்க்கார் வாப்பாவின் முகமூடியை நான் கிழிக்காம ஓயமாட்டேன்”’’என்றார் எரிச்சல் மண்டும் குரலில்.
