Sunday, April 19, 2009

Yemen law banning child marriage?

The Associated Press had an article about Islamists fight Yemen law banning child marriage.

I truly had a hard time wrapping my mind around the thinking of how restricting child marriages is somehow 'westernizing' them. They do nothing to help these girls when in trouble, and when their 'husbands' go against agreements. They allow pedophilla to go on, and there is no concern over the health and well being of children. Being raped and having children at such a young age is show to HARM them, but of course all kinds of excuses are given to justify it instead.

In Yemen, poverty is the main reason families marry off young daughters, to get bride-prices up to several hundred dollars. Local traditions encourage the practice out of a belief a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.


The weak government relies on support from tribal leaders and Islamists so is reluctant to take action on customs they support. Yemen once set 15 as the minimum marriage age, but parliament eliminated it in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a daughter marries.


Legislator Sheik Mohammed al-Hazmi, one of the most ardent opponents of a minimum marriage age, says the new law is a "Western plot aimed at Westernizing our culture."


"The West wants to teach us how to marry, conceive and divorce. This is cultural colonization that we reject," he told AP.



Its amazing the tactics of diversion they take to avoid the real reasons. The West telling them when to marry, conceive and divorce? Hardly. Its about basic human rights that they fail recognize. They can't admit they refuse to control perverts that lust after young girls - NOT WOMEN - GIRLS!

The girl who spoke with the AP is now living at the Alrahma Foundation for Human Development, an orphanage in the capital, San'a.

She first came to the orphanage when her father died, when she was 11. She had not yet moved in with her husband, because the agreement had been that she would do so at puberty.

But she said her brother showed up at the orphanage and persuaded her to go with him, telling her they would seek a court annulment of the marriage. Instead, he took her to her husband's house in the southern town of Thammar for a bribe of about $200, the girl said. About nine months later, the husband forced her into sex, she said.

She got a chance to break away when she developed stomach and vocal cord problems last year and her husband sent her to San'a for treatment. She escaped from the house where she was staying and fled to the orphanage 10 months ago.

Today, at 13, she is learning to read and write and beginning to think about the future.

"I want to become a businesswoman," she said, two tiny dimples lighting up her thin face.



Yep! They refuse to control or do anything about the above type of situations, but would rather blame the WEST for placing their SINS out into the open. Claiming we want to change them. Nope! How about humanize the face of the oppression of these children. Yemen law banning Children Marriage? Lets hope!

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