Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Another victim of child marriage in Yemen

It's not child marriage, it's child rape. Period. Apparently, Yemen's government finds that difficult to understand.

 Source: huffingtonpost

I've been working as a report at Yemen Observer newspaper since early 2009 in Sanaa and the issue of child "marriage" has been the most frequent topic I used to report about. It's been always tragic reality for those little girls brides. I reported many deaths. In 2010, I rallied among dozens of activists in front of Yemen's parliament to demand passing a minimum age for marriage, to contribute in stopping this tragedy; because many factors play a role in forming the issue of child marriage in Yemen and elsewhere. Making the government take an action would be the first step and many other steps should follow.

As a woman myself, I can't imagine what my life would have been if I was married off at 8, 10, 13..like those little girls. The issue hits my heart and I strongly believe that those men who make "a sexual intercourse" with those little female infants are rapers. I find no other way to see it.