More evil religion

[William T Goodall]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&oref=slogin

"Tiny Voices Defy Fate of Yemen’s Girls
By ROBERT F. WORTH
JIBLA, Yemen — One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked  
out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she  
complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight  
months.

That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab  
society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made  
it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.

Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a  
celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been  
exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in  
less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone  
by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark  
legal case.

Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an  
end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of  
the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled  
out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are  
ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious  
health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.

The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a  
recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the  
southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest  
maternal mortality rates in the world.

“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer  
who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse  
to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case.  
“All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks,  
and the girl never had any choice.”

But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice  
is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has  
grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the  
Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply  
rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal  
expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for  
a good marriage."



-- 
William T Goodall
Mail : wtg at wtgab.demon.co.uk
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit  
atrocities." ~Voltaire.