Yemen: 13-Year-Old Bride Bleeds to Death
Way to go, Muhammad:
13-year-old Yemeni bride dies of bleeding
By AHMED AL-HAJ, AP – via SF Chronicle
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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.
[And, the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death. So, what they are basically saying is that if you don’t support pedophilia, err, child marriage, then you will be killed. Some religion of peace, eh?]
A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament’s constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic.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.
Explore posts in the same categories: Muslim Honor, muslim Intolerance, Religion
Doctor Bulldog & Ronin 
8 April, 2010 at 8:25 pm
These types of artocities could be stopped cold if muslims did away with an idea that muhammad was moral taking a 9 year old for a wife.
In following after his footseteps they aren’t following a Godly prophet but another freak job like so many false teachers before and after him.
8 April, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Don’t forget, she was only 6 or 7 when he took her for a wife. I’m pretty sure the only reason he didn’t rape her right there and then is because he had to wait a few years for her to *ahem* “accommodate” his…er…uhm…”ego.”
Cheers
8 April, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Sir,
I remind you it is a cultural thing, not Islam that causes this child sex sick thing.
Mohammed was the perfect human, and we all must try and murder, rape, and lie just like him.
Have a good evening, and try not to upset the moon god worshipers to much.
Over.
8 April, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Bwahahahahahaha!!!
Stop it! You’re killing me! ROFMAO!!!!
Ouch!, my sides are hurting from laughing so much.
Cheers
8 April, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Yeah… With a HEAVY Emphasis on CULT-ural….
Yeah thats true he ‘married’ her at 6 years old. Her poor father shoulda sliced the perv in two…
9 April, 2010 at 6:42 am
is, maybe if the dad had sliced the penis in two, right down the middle, things might have been better…just an idea..
9 April, 2010 at 10:42 am
Eeew… That’s just nasty.
🙂
Cheers
9 April, 2010 at 10:16 am
The San Francisco Follicle? So what does the author have a problem with? Is it the healthcare she recieved because it certainly isn’t the age of the victim. Libtards support the sexual liberation of children. I don’t even understand why this story was in a libtard fishwrap.
9 April, 2010 at 11:54 am
Islam has no regard for woman or there children look at how the woman are treaded un der shariah law i have no respect for islam i know thay been doing this for houndreds of years but its time for a change it’s reaaly time for the world to wake up and see what islam is realy about when thay can cut your head off Mahomad starded that that was his choice of killing.thay say islam is peaceful Religon if so where are those who would apose jihad and thans thay do to woman so when thay say we are a peaceful and when tay say we beleve in Jesus to YAHSHUA in hebrew in the karan its ok to do this to woman and children under shariah law the woman have no rights look up womans rights under shariah law and you will see what thay do and the Jesus if thay say we know him the one there talking about one he was jusd a prophet and the one who comes back in the karan is the antichrist the one who will kill any budy who is not of islam Jews and christians ask your self who is cuting off heads to day moore than ever in the bible rev i saw the saints who where be headed i wounder.could it be? Be where of the BEAST its coming to a town near you.And do i thank the chip is the mark no i dont heres why its just away to keep track of you islam is satans religon he will but a mark on his own if you see the jihadis with a green ban around there head in aribic it means the BEAST also YAHWEH MARKS HIS OWN
9 April, 2010 at 12:44 pm
“Beast” in Arabic is “wahash.”
Cheers
9 April, 2010 at 10:03 pm
There are whole passages in the bible about the necessity of killing off non-believers, you can’t pass that off as being a solely Islamic idea. I can’t really comment on the rest of your post because you don’t seem to observe rules of grammar and sentence structure.
In response to the actual article, and in opposition to the sentiments of tgusa, even as a “libtard” I am against the institution of a contract for sexual intercourse with minors. That said, I think what you (the general “you”) are taking your outrage against underage sexual intercourse and turning it into general outrage against muslims, which is a gross misattribution.
It is clear from the article that there are strong opponents to contracts for underage sexual intercourse judging from the fact that there were laws passed against it and from the fact that organizations such as the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights exist. This is not a case of “Us versus the Muslims”, this is a political battle currently going on in Middle Eastern countries like Yemen. Instead of antagonizing Muslims on a whole, we should be taking up the cause in whatever way we can with Muslims who are already fighting against immorality in their own countries.
10 April, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Update to the story:
Dead Yemeni child bride tied up, raped, says mom
By AHMAD AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer Ahmad Al-haj, Associated Press Writer – Sat Apr 10 2010, 9:39 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100410/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_child_bride
10 April, 2010 at 12:33 pm
jeremiah
Here is the difference between muslims and other religions.
No sane Christian or Jew use their Torah or Bible as justification to murder their fellow man.
Those that do are following their own dark heart or the teachings of their teachers.
Incidentally Jesus doesn’t command me to kill non believers.
10 April, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I would argue that no sane person would use any justification to murder their fellow man, Christian or otherwise. However, the article gives no indication that the husband will not be prosecuted for the death of his wife, so murder really is not the issue here, the issue is tolerance towards sexual contracts in which one party is underage.
I would further point out that we’ve had major problems in the US in the past dealing with the morality of certain issues, most notably of slavery. Slavery is, in fact, promoted in the bible (“However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.” (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)) The current conflicts of morality in Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen are analogous to the slavery debate in the US in the sense that there are two sides, one of which believes in the morality of what they are doing based in no small part on tradition and religion, and the other of which believes that such practices are immoral and antiquated.
Once again, my view is that rather than antagonizing all Muslims in general, we need to identify those issues which are being violently debated and try to do whatever we can to aid those who are fighting for what we believe to be the most moral position in the modern world.
10 April, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Jeremiah
Yes the Torah, Bible has a lot to say regarding subjects like slavery, warfare etc.
But the point you seem to miss is that both Jews and Christians gave up slavery and varied other subjects in order to live mostly at peace with both thier own sects and those who don’t share their beliefs.
As for muslims they follow traditions and a system that doesn’t match with Western morality, philosophy or beliefs.
So what can be done?
For our part, we use criticism to move muslims into a different way of thinking. Instead of following muhammad’s example like in the hadiths they should realize by now that young persons’ bodies are meant to be unviolated. Underage marriage regardless of location and culture is a horrific perversion.
And this is only one of many stories that show that the islamic system needs to be dumped and replaced with a better system where they can protect both the muslimah and under age girls born into their culture / system.
10 April, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Yeah, it’s true the the US officially made slavery illegal in 1865 (although desegregation and true equal rights only came many years later), but there are still numerous countries in Africa and South America where slavery exists and where the population is majoritarily Christian.
I’m only using the example of slavery to show that just because there are instances of child marriages in the Qur’an, it does not mean that Islam itself is immoral. Just as most Christians and Jews “gave up slavery and varied other subjects in order to live mostly at peace”, most Muslims have given up or want to give up child marriage and other practices that we know believe to be immoral.
However, our animosity and the warfare that we have created or encouraged in the Middle East has done a great job in hindering this progress by allowing extremism to become popular. Rather than ramping up our antagonism, we need to step back and try to do whatever we can to help the citizens of countries like Yemen to effect their own change in a way that avoids violence and bloodshed loss of innocent life to the greatest degree possible.
10 April, 2010 at 9:58 pm
“but there are still numerous countries in Africa and South America where slavery exists and where the population is majoritarily Christian.”
Really where?
I think we can agree to an extent Jeremiah that the ills within islam do need to be addressed.
But without specific criticism on specific ills muslims either don’t know, don’t care how to secularize their religion / system to benefit their own people.
Muslims who do enact change within the Islamic system are typically shown the door.
There in lies the greatest problem within islam… Their propaganda tells the world they have a ‘perfect system’ but in reality it is as flawed as any system we already have in existence.
Muslims alone can change islam… Meanwhile all we can do as non muslims is show our imperfect ways and try to lead them out of the 14th century.
11 April, 2010 at 3:33 am
Right, I agree that theocracy and lack of separation between church and state is causing many of the problems here. However, we can’t simply topple the government and try to rebuild it into a secularized government; the problem is much more complicated than that as we’re learning in Iraq.
What we can do is identify powers already working in the country for reform and make public our support of that reform.
10 April, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Jeremiah
Various aspects of the Islamic system are immoral at least when compared to the West.
(Examples:)
When a daughter is raped in the West she is not honor killed by her father.
A rapist is not set free in secular courts but is given a DNA test and imprisoned.
Apostates within islam are killed
Christians, Jews are given a head tax (Jizya)
Persons can marry regardless of religion in the West. Not so under Islamic Governments.
11 April, 2010 at 3:29 am
Most of those problems are products of the Theocratic system in general, and not the religion of Islam specifically.
Look, I seriously get it, there are big problems that exist in the middle east today, and many of those problems can be traced back to religion. I’m not arguing that. What I am arguing is that the answer is not to condemn Muslims as a whole, the answer is to identify the two sides of the argument and seek to aid those Muslims who are fighting for reform.
11 April, 2010 at 8:21 am
Yemen doesn’t have a single moderate muslim voice with a following.
11 April, 2010 at 11:34 am
The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen. Legislation to ban child brides has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders. A sexual intercourse with such a young child is a crime anywhere in the civilized world. But it’s a common practice, a culture in muslim countries such as Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. The child brides are being sold and raped by their husbands at very young age. If muslim men inflicting such excruciating pain on those little girls (very often even as young as five years old) don’t see anything wrong with it -because it originates in Islam, and after hearing Assi’s story and other horrifying reports about sexual abuse and tragic lives of child brides, then only one conclusion can be drawn: Islam is evil, Islam is disease. It is used to manipulate people. Leaders of Saudi or Pakistan intentionally keep their people poor and uneducated/illiterate to use them as they want. Clearly, they are brain washed. In Islam it is ok for a man to use a child to satisfy his sexual desires, even if the child dies from the trauma and injuries it is still ok because he is muslim. THERE IS NO GOD IN ISLAM. This crime must stop!
11 April, 2010 at 3:07 pm
See that’s just wrong. The article states that there were at least two recent laws that were passed which set a minimum age for marriage in Yemen, but that those laws were later repealed. Since Yemen is a purely republican state, this back and forth legal struggle shows that Yemen is deeply split on the issue of child marriage, so to say that Muslims or the Yemeni people in general don’t see anything wrong with child marriage is blatantly wrong. This is a country that suffered a massive civil war just 16 years ago, that is struggling with massive Al Qaeda invasion, and that has been struggling internationally with Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
They have, however, recently appointed a woman, Dr. Wahiba Fara’a, to the position of Minister of the State of Human Rights, they have signed many international treaties in an attempt to improve human rights including The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, The International Convention on the Ban of Genocide, and so on.
Yemen clearly has a long way to go, but I can’t repeat enough that the answer is not to condemn all Muslims (which doesn’t make sense, since a large number of Muslims are for all the marriage and women’s rights that you’re using as a rallying point) but instead to work with and aid those Muslims who are fighting in their countries for universal and basic rights and freedoms.
11 April, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Nice try but you proved my point. Law no one enforces is just paper not reformation. Your “Al Qaeda invasion” is another false hood. They (Yemenis) are facing an end to oil revenue, as their oil reserve is almost gone, a secession movement and a missive influx of refugees from Somalia, al qaida does not have much of an impact on them unless you consider our (US) problem with them. The people hand onto islam and its backwards sharia as it is all they know and they distrust their islamic government more than we distrust ours. A single woman’s voice means little to nothing and yemen still doesn’t have a moderate voice.
I have known muslims for over 25 years, I have worked with them, feed them, trained them, protected them, befriended them and yes hunted them. I did this across continents and cultures what I have never done is meet a single islamic moderate. Once they cast off mohammed as a fool, a liar and a thief, then you might find the makings of a true islamic moderate. Don’t hold your breath.
25 July, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Jeremiah says, “Since Yemen is a purely republican state, this back and forth legal struggle shows that Yemen is deeply split on the issue of child marriage,…”
Wrong. Yemen technically is a shared-power state with an “elected” executive branch, and a Shariah judiciary branch, which can declare any law passed by the executive branch as illegal by being non-Islamic. Therefore, the laws of the land are Shariah structured and supported based heavily upon the culture of islam – hence, a theocracy, as that is where the true power is. Similar to Iran. Reports that the executive branch is the true power can be demonstrated as false by how quickly new laws are squashed by the theocratic side of the State.
Point of interest that cannot be ignored, is that in every country that has been ruled by islamic theocracy for any length of time, the culture of the land tend to become very similar. Hence, child rape via sham marriages is not unique to Yemen, or a couple islamic countries, but can be found all throughout the mideast. This is a time when correlation and causation seem to mesh. Not because child marriage has not happened throughout history and in nearly all other parts of the world, but because the practice is supported by islamic scripture – texts that are maintained with as high a degree of fanaticism as adherence to islam itself.
Now, the West and others DO support the moderates who wish to reform islam away from these barbaric practices – that is what has spurred anti-West sentiment and has created terrorists – terrorist who cling to traditional islam and don’t want to see it changed.
12 April, 2010 at 5:51 am
TO JEREMIAH,
WRONG is the death of a 13 year old innocent girl who was tied up and brutally raped by her “husband”! The younger the better: deprived of education, won’t say much, won’t speak up. Islam violates human rights. What about the case in Saudi (January 2010): a father married off his 12-year-old daughter to an 80-year-old man in exchange for a dowry of $22649. Neither the girl nor the mother consented to the wedding. All legal! And this: Islamic Organization in Indonesia sanctions pedophilia. Sex ok with infants and young children. One of the world’s largest Islamic organizations has issued a religious ruling stating that muslims should feel free to marry prepubescent girls as young as six or seven. Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) further ruled that muslim men may have intimate relationships, including intercourse, with such young children. Fact. The Rights of the Child originate in the West. But the religious clerics who represent the islam are fighting it back. On 21 March (Yemen)they issued a fatwa against a minimum age. And Dr Wahiba Fara’a. She’s a woman, has nothing to say. It’s just another lie. No need for debates: its black and white. Quran, Islam is demonic. Prophet muhammad was a psychopath. And Jeremiah, I’m asking you, do you agree that it’s ok that prophet muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha when she was nine?
25 July, 2011 at 10:51 am
does anyone know what the status of abed al-hakim is now? it’s 2011.