# Child Bride Dies



## 1feral1 (10 Apr 2010)

http://www.news.com.au/world/yemeni-child-bride-dies-of-bleeding-after-intercourse/story-e6frfkyi-1225851585843

Yemeni child bride dies of bleeding after intercourse 
By AFP From: NewsCore April 08, 2010 9:33PM 

 A 13-year-old Yemeni girl who was forced into marriage died five days after her wedding when she suffered a rupture in her sex organs and hemorrhaging, a local rights organization said today. 

Ilham Mahdi al Assi died last Friday in a hospital in Yemen's Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab Forum for Human Rights said in a statement quoting a medical report.

She was wedded the previous Monday in a traditional arrangement known as a "swap marriage," in which the brother of the bride also married the sister of the groom, it said.

"The child Ilham has died as a martyr due to the abuse of children's lives in Yemen," the non-governmental organization said.

Her death was a "flagrant example" of the results of opposing the ban on child marriage in Yemen, which was leading to "killing child females," it said.

The marriage of young girls is widespread in Yemen, which has a strong tribal structure.


Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The death of a 12-year-old girl in childbirth in September illustrated the case of the country's "brides of death," many of whom were married off even before puberty.

Controversy heightened in Yemen recently over a law banning child marriage in the impoverished country through setting a minimum age of 17 for women and 18 for men.

Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law.

A lesser number of women rallied at the same venue a few days later in support of the law, the implementation of which was blocked pending a request by a group of politicians for a review.


_______________________-


OWDU


----------



## REDinstaller (10 Apr 2010)

Thats just so wrong.


----------



## 1feral1 (10 Apr 2010)

Truly so, T18A, but at least they're trying to do someting about it.

"Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law."


Edited to "repair" T18A's name


----------



## REDinstaller (10 Apr 2010)

And it probably won't change much if anything due to the deeply rooted custom of the areas involved.


----------



## 40below (10 Apr 2010)

The idea of marrying off girls almost at the moment they are physically able to bear children is atrocious to us, but we're not living in a country where life expectancy is less than 60 years and the under-5 child mortality rate is 80 of each 1,000 live births (as opposed to under 6 in Canada).


----------



## vonGarvin (10 Apr 2010)

40below said:
			
		

> The idea of marrying off girls almost at the moment they are physically able to bear children is atrocious to us, but we're not living in a country where life expectancy is less than 60 years and the under-5 child mortality rate is 80 of each 1,000 live births (as opposed to under 6 in Canada).


Wrong is wrong.  Time, manner and place have no bearing, just as 2+2=4 is true now, was true for the Romans, and will continue to be true long after the zombies eat us all.

The solution to high mortality rates isn't to marry off 13 year old girls.


----------



## Journeyman (10 Apr 2010)

Overwatch Downunder said:
			
		

> Truly so, T18A, but at least they're trying to do someting about it.
> 
> "Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law."


What do you believe the Islamists are trying to do about it?   ???



You do understand that _opposing_ the law (banning child marriage) means the Islamists _support_ having these children married off, right?


----------



## pbi (12 Apr 2010)

> Controversy heightened in Yemen recently over a law banning child marriage in the impoverished country through setting a minimum age of 17 for women and 18 for men.
> 
> Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law.



These women were out demonstrating in support of this hideous practice and against the law that proposed to ban it. They apparently like the idea of child marriage, probably because in a very poor country it's linked to social and financial security.

Cheers


----------



## armyvern (12 Apr 2010)

40below said:
			
		

> The idea of marrying off girls almost at the moment they are physically able to bear children is atrocious to us, but we're not living in a country where life expectancy is less than 60 years and the under-5 child mortality rate is 80 of each 1,000 live births (as opposed to under 6 in Canada).



May I suggest that their life expectancy may increase and their infant mortality rate decrease WHEN these girls are physically mature enough to actually bear children in a healthy manner? And, I don't know too many young girls of 13 years old who are mentally, physically, emotionally or socially mature enough to even begin to understand HOW to care for and nurture a newborn child so that the child has the opportunity for a "healthy start" in life.

One problem simply results in the other and the circle contiinues.

This article does not even begin to address the numbers of these "child brides" who also die in the labour process; it only touches upon those who die in the sexual act itself because they are not physically mature enough to survive the process of getting pregnant in the first place.

Children tend to do better in life when their mother is not also a child.

Just my .02cents worth.


----------



## GAP (12 Apr 2010)

Another article on the same incident....

Dead Yemeni Child Bride Was Tied Up, Raped, Says Mom
AHMAD AL-HAJ | 04/10/10 
Article Link

A 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to death shortly after marriage was tied down and forced to have sex by her husband, according to interviews with the child's mother, police and medical reports.

The girl's mother, Nijma Ahmed, 50, told the Associated Press that before her daughter lost consciousness, she said that her husband had tied her up and forced himself on her. "She looked like she was butchered," she said about her daughter's injuries.

Elham Assi, 13, bled to death hours after she spoke to her mother and just days after she was married to a 23-year-old man. She died on April 2 in the deeply poor Yemeni village of Shueba, some 200 kilometers northwest of the capital. Her husband, Abed al-Hikmi, is in police custody.

The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen where a quarter of all females marry before the age of 15, according to a 2009 report by the country's Ministry of Social Affairs. Traditional families prefer young brides because they are seen as more obedient and are expected to have more children.

Legislation to ban child brides has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders. There has been no government comment over the case.

The girl – one of eight siblings – was pushed into marriage after an agreement between her brother and her future-husband to marry each other's sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices – a common arrangement in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

According to police notes from the interrogation of the husband, he was upset because he could not consummate their relationship and felt under pressure to prove his manhood.

Assi's mother said she also tried to persuade her daughter to have sex with her husband so as not to shame the family.

Al-Hikmi took his young bride to a nearby medical clinic, asking a doctor there to administer her tranquilizers so she would not resist his advances. The clinic said it refused.
More on link


----------



## pbi (13 Apr 2010)

> Children tend to do better in life when their mother is not also a child.



This goes through my mind every time I see some forlorn-looking little teen mom pushing a baby carriage in the mall, sometimes accompanied by her equally hopeless-looking teen partner.  Kids are best raised by adults who have their own lives sorted out.

Cheers


----------

