Vote on child marriage law in Yemen delayed

Yemen's parliament has delayed a vote on a child-marriage law that would have raised the minimum legal age for marriage to 17.

The parliament was to have voted on numerous laws on Saturday, including a revised election law. But a dispute over the election law between the country's ruling party and opposition parties resulted in opposition members boycotting that vote and leaving parliament -- meaning no other issues were taken up that day.

It was unclear when the child-marriage issue would be taken up.

Fuad Dahaba, a member of the Islah Party -- the biggest opposition party in Yemen's parliament -- told CNN, "we hope we will be able to vote on the child marriage law this week."

In 2009, Yemen's parliament passed legislation raising the minimum age of marriage to 17. But conservative parliamentarians argued the bill violated Sharia, or Islamic law, which does not stipulate a minimum age of marriage. Due to a parliamentary maneuver, the bill was never signed into law.

More than 100 leading religious clerics have called the attempt to restrict the age of marriage "un-Islamic."

The issue gets personal for children such as Reem al Numeri. The 14-year-old girl recently divorced here. She was 11 when she says her father forced her to marry a cousin more than twice her age.

Al Numeri says she has been stigmatized by her divorce and now lives the life of an outcast. Without a husband or father to support her, she cannot attend school.

Her story echoes that of Nujood Ali -- the Yemeni girl whose story sparked an international outrage that many thought would force change in the country.

Al Numeri's pleas to stay a child fell on deaf ears as her father forced her to marry a 32-year-old cousin.

"He said, 'You need to go into the room where the judge is and tell him you agree to the marriage,'" al Numeri said. "I said 'I won't go in there.' He took out his dagger and said he'd cut me in half if I didn't go in there and agree."

For al Numeri, the terror and the trauma were just beginning. She said she was told to sleep with her husband, but refused. She locked herself in a bedroom every night to ensure her safety but, according to al Numeri, he managed to enter and raped her.

Al Numeri said members of her family first ordered her to submit, then expected her to celebrate. "They chose not to buy me any bridal dresses until they were sure I'd had sex with him because they didn't want their money to go to waste," she said. "Once they were sure, they bought me the bridal clothes and threw me a party. After that, I burned the white bridal dress I was given and then I used a razor to try to kill myself."

Neither al Numeri's father nor her ex-husband returned CNN's calls.

In Yemen, a deeply tribal society, the issue of child marriages is a complicated one.

Two years ago, 10-year-old Nujood Ali shocked many when she took herself to court in Yemen's capital city of Sanaa and asked a judge for a divorce.

After a well-publicized trial, she was granted one -- and became a heroine to those trying to shine a spotlight on the issue of child brides in Yemen, where more than half of all girls are married before age 18 -- mostly to older men.

Mohammed Aboulahoum, who advises Yemen's president, said the law should be passed. But he added that the fight against child-marriage restrictions was a distraction -- a way for the parliament to avoid bigger, more sensitive political issues.

"I think there should be an age limit," Aboulahoum said. "And if you sit even with the religious people and you ask them, 'Would you let your daughter marry at the age of 12 or 13?' they would tell you 'No.' So it is something, we use it more for politics."

Al Numeri's attorney, Shada Nasser, is one of Yemen's best-known advocates for children's rights. Nasser has represented several child brides seeking divorce, including Ali. She doesn't even think the practice should be called marriage.

"I think it is rape," she said.

But Nasser said she also hopes that al Numeri's generation will help build a new Yemen, free of child marriages.

"Who can build this Yemen?" asked Nasser. "Me? No -- all these small girls -- they must build Yemen. But all these girls need a good law -- a family law."

Nasser said she begs the clerics standing in the way: "I ask them to give these girls mercy."

A prominent Yemeni human-rights activist, Amal Albasha, expressed outrage that the practice continues. Her organization, Sisters Arab Forum, tries to intervene to stop such marriages.

Albasha added that nothing will change until people in Yemen try to fully understand the horror a child bride goes through.

"You know, just two days ago, a 9-year-old girl got married in Taiz," she said. "Just think about the pain, the fear -- just think about a 9-year-old with a 50-year-old in a closed room ... The experience remains until the day of death."

(Published by CNN - October 4, 2010)