Two shocking divorces in Yemen have drawn attention to the plight of child brides. The first case involved a 10-year old wife, Nujood Ali, shown, who walked into a courthouse in April and demanded a divorce. In May another girl, 9, ran to a hospital in Jibla, and told the staff her husband had been beating and abusing her.
The 10-year-old girl, Nujood, The New York Times reported over the weekend, is barely 4 feet tall. Her father, a beggar, married her off to a 30 year old man, he said, for her own good. He wanted to protect her, one of his 16 children, from abduction and forced marriage to someone else, as had happened with her two older sisters.
Her father’s argument was that it’s better if I force her to get married than if someone else forces her to get married.
During Nujood’s time with her husband, she said, he beat her and forced himself on her. She took a taxi to the courthouse in Sana, the capital, her first trip ever alone, and once there found both a lawyer and a kindly judge. When she appeared before him in court, he asked her if she wanted a separation from her husband or a permanent divorce. To see what she answered, in front of her father and her husband, go here.
International Planned Parenthood reports that pregnancies are the leading cause of death for girls between 15 and 19 worldwide. Those below the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women over 20. The problem exists in Yemen, where the typical age of marriage for girls is 12 to 14. According to a 2005 Unicef report, 60 percent of girls 15 to 19 in Niger are married. In Mali, 39 percent of girls are married by age 15. In Ethiopia 50 percent of girls are married by age 15.
Last year Betty McCollum, a 53-year-old Congresswoman from Minnesota, introduced H.R. 3175: International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007 to the House of Representatives. It calls for $125 million to educate and protect girls in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
“If nothing changes, another 100 million girls will become child brides over the next 10 years” said McCollum, the divorced mother of two. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where hundreds of bills are “in committee” and most die.
To express your feelings about this issue, you can do something for children who are more slaves than wives. FWW women who have been trapped in bad marriages, women with daughters of their own, are uniquely equipped to empathize with these child brides.
On this weekend, when we celebrate liberty and independence, let’s do something for these innocent girls. You can start by:
● Watching the one-hour video “Child Brides: Stolen Lives”
● Looking at the six-minute video “The Bride Price” on YouTube with your children
● Reading Khaled Husseini’s novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” about the lives of two child brides in Afghanistan.
● Joining the Glamour magazine campaign started in June to alert your Congressman or Congresswoman about your interest in H.R. 3175