Blog 1: Yemeni minister seeks laws to end child marriage
The
human rights minister of Yemen asked to have a law passed that outs a minimum
age for marriage by parliament. In a small town in Yemen called Meedi; which is
north-western province of Hajjah, an eight year old girl was married off to a
forty year old man. Today that young girl is dead, and no legal action was
taken against the man. As told by Arwa Othaman “on the wedding night and after
intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her
death.” (bbc, September 13 ). There are many obligations to the young girls of
this town to marry older men for money, because their families are poor. This
practice is still commonly used throughout Yemen. Authorities, such as the
security official has denied that this event has even happened. Baroness
Catherine Ashton, European Union’s foreign policy chief states “I call on the
Yemeni government to abide by its
obligations under international law, including the UN Convention on the Rights
of the child, of which Yemen is a member, to immediately reinstate legislation
setting minimum age for marriage, in international norms, to prohibit such
abuse of children.” (bbc, September 13). The Prime Minister of Yemen, Mohammed
Salem Basindwa said the allegations are being handled seriously.
In
reading this article one’s first reaction is complete discuss. People might
raise the questions such as; how can any parent let their child at that age be
married off to a man five times her age? Or how can the government of Yemen
allow for this practice to continue to be going on in today’s world? The
problem in asking these questions is the view point in which these questions
come from. In today’s society there are laws against such things as child
marriage from happening. Some places in today’s world are not as advance as
others and still live by the old way of living. This is a bigger problem than
just in Yemen, many third world countries still have beliefs and practices that go against what many people believe is the right way of life. Many countries do not have laws against child marriages.
Lindsay Gebbia
September 13, 2013
10:11 p.m.
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