Human Rights minister to Yemen has condemned child marriage and wants it outlawed following international outrage over the death of an 8-year-old child bride who had died of internal injuries on her wedding night.
Reports surfaced last week of Rawan, 8, from the North Yemeni town Haradh, dying a few days after her marriage to a 40-year-old man, due to extensive injuries she suffered on her wedding night. Yemenis were horrified at the news.
The incident highlighted al already tense issue on the case of child marriages in Yemen, where the practice is still considered legal. Haradh residents have reported that the child had died of internal bleeding, result of sexual intercourse. Her uterus and internal organs had been ruptured. However, local officials have denied this story, claiming that Rawan's father had come to them with a child he claims was named Rawan, and the child is now under police custody.
Officials have refused to allow children's rights groups to speak with "Rawan"or her father. Different sources tell different things on the matter, with some saying that the girl was still alive, while others say her body had been secretly buried.
Hooria Mashur, Human Rights Minister to Yemen, have declared amid conflicting reports, that "enough is enough," telling the public that international rage over Rawan's death have presented Yemenis with a choice to do what is right. She says that it was not the first case of deaths related to child marriage, with young girls being sold to older, wealthier men for marriage every year.
Yemen, deeply conservative and loyal to tribal traditions, have had several religious leader declare that the government's movements to restrict the legal marrying age to a minimum of eighteen years old was "un-Islamic," citing that there was no age restrictions to marriage in the Qur'an.
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