Victims of child marriages in Yemen

Child marriage is one of Yemen’s most controversial issues.

“Many girls get married at the age of nine, 10 and 11, when they are very young and can’t bear the responsibility of marriage,”according to Horia Mashhour, Yemen’s human rights minister. “When they are 14 or 15 they can get pregnant and sometimes they die during childbirth.”

Activists said there had been many reports of young girls dying on their wedding night from internal bleeding after intercourse with their husbands. In September, an eight year old allegedly died on the night she wed a man five times her age.

These girls normally come from very poor families. Marrying them off at a young age helps the family financially.

The human cost of tradition, poverty, poor health services, lack of education and tribal ways is great. Oh that God would have mercy on these many young lives being changed tragically through these practices.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25347428