Yemeni Child Bride, 12, Dies in Labor

(AP)  A 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said.

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 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, Ahmed al-Quraishi, chairman of Siyaj human rights organization, said Saturday.

Al-Quraishi, whose group promotes child rights in Yemen, 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."

Impoverished parents in Yemen sometimes give away their young daughters in return for hefty dowries. There is also a long-standing tribal custom in which infant daughters and sons are promised to cousins in hopes it will protect them from illicit relationships, he said.

Al-Quraishi said there are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed every year.

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.

In February, parliament passed a law setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But some lawmakers are trying to kill the measure, calling it un-Islamic. Before it could be ratified by Yemen's president, they forced it to be sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review.

Such marriages also occur in neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia, where several cases of child brides have been reported in the past year, though the phenomenon is not believed to be nearly as widespread as in Yemen.
By Associated Press Writer Ahmed Al-Haj

[xjessmillerx]

What a waste of space this society is on earth...

[HeatherAnnastasia]

Another tragic outcome of the practice of child brides: fistulas.

"An obstetric fistula develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and the bladder (and/or rectum) is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor. The tissues die and a hole forms through which urine and/or feces pass uncontrollably. Women who develop fistulas are often abandoned by their husbands, rejected by their communities, and forced to live an isolated existence." -www.fistulafoundation.org

Little girls are still treated worse than farm animals in so many parts of the world.

Next time you see your daughter or granddaughter or niece, give her a hug and tell her how precious she is. She may have it better than many girls in the world, but she's still fighting an uphill battle in a world that values her beauty over her brain.

[evezwish]

Hello? What in the world is the real argument? Is it about religion or the fact the this country is using religion as an excuse for allowing child rape. Is it really just the muslims? What about the christians...mormans, for one. What about the cults that use sex with children as a form of worship? It's not so much a religious problem as a human problem. Any man/woman reguardless of race, religion or financial statis has been capable of this hanis crime (child rape) but some pedifiles insist on standing behind the sheild of religion or culture to justify what they truely know in their hearts is wrong.

[Yeahbut48]

That poor child ! These people are nuts. After all, they are inbread.

[sbelknap01]

Wherever the poverty and ignorance is deep, this kind of thing will happen. I know it would be pretty to believe that if the impoverished ignorant were just members of YOUR religion, they would be incapable of such a thing, but it just isn't true. Unreasonably young girls give birth here in the US in numbers correlating to their education and poverty level. Save the Children has a good website and runs good programs - if you care, check them out and donate a couple of bucks. Many of their programs do wonderful work here, others in much more seriously affected foreign countries. Regardless of culture or predominant religion, child marriage disappears as education increases and poverty is relieved.

[Fatesrider]

Ah, I get it now... Islam isn't about Peace. It's about Pedophilia...

[CompletelyFrustrated]

This is sick, this is done just to anger us because this is illegal in the USA, but it is not Yemen.

We have no control over their laws or their behaviour.

For me the girl's father and the disgusting pedophile who raped her should be force to watch a video of this child in pain, bleeding and ultimately dying, while someone stand over them with a nail gun and nails their testicles to a board until the gun is empty, pull the nails out and do it again for three days, when they cry for death throw them in a pit and walk away!

[mary-miami]

Horrible. This is what happens with "religions" that refuse to acknowledge that females are intelligent human beings and not objects.

[DoubleHappiness88]

I attended a Saudi wedding in Dammam, only to discover that my 34 year old co-worker's bride was 13. It is a profoundly sick culture.

Religion poisons everything, especially children.

[kansas1946]

Since men make these religious laws, it is not wonder that young women suffer. Those religious leaders make sure no one can stop their lust for young girls. It is really disgusting.