Stories do not get more gruesome or any more heartbreaking than ones like this, where it is being reported that an eight-year-old child bride in Yemen died yesterday after her 40-year-old husband literally tore her apart from the inside while having sex with her on their wedding day.
Who really wants to live on a planet where things like this can legally happen to an innocent girl, or any child for that matter, and politicians fight to keep it that way?
The girl, identified only by the name Rawan, died in Hardh in the governorate of Hajjah in northwestern Yemen, according to a report issued by?UPI?on Sunday, Sept. 8.
Activists in the region want to put an end to the practice of marrying young girls, and have?called?for police to arrest the girl’s husband and family. Nevertheless, the forced marriage of child brides in Yemen?remains?a socially accepted custom in many rural areas.
Indeed, the practice has deep cultural and religious roots, and is widespread in Yemen. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed after some conservative lawmakers called it un-Islamic.
In particular, a prominent Islamic cleric, Abdulmajeed al-Zindani, issued a?fatwa?in support of the practice, declaring supporters of a ban on child brides to be?apostates, and ultimately leading a successful campaign against legislation that would prevent adult men from marrying children.
There’s something rotten in Yemen.
