This article is from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100424/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_child_brides
On Saturday, Yemen's most influential Islamic cleric vowed to gather millions of signatures to protest a draft law banning child brides. This is due to "an increasingly vocal showdown against the country's weak government which needs the support of powerful religious leaders to hold onto power." This issue has brought international attention because recently an 13-year old girl was bled to death because her 23-year old husband tied her down and forced her to have sex with him.
"The cleric, Sheik Adbul-Majid al-Zindani, said a ban on child brides 'threatens our culture and society and spreads immorality.' Al-Zindani is Yemen's most powerful Islamic scholar and believed by the U.S. to be a spiritual mentor of Osama Bin Laden."
Al-Zindani calls against the ban of child brides wants to raise the marriage age to 17. "The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen, where a quarter of all females marry before they turn 15, according to a 2009 report by the country's Ministry of Social Affairs."
It is expected that the government will raise the marriage age to deflect the international pressure, but that the government will not enforce legislation. How do you guys feel about this change and do you think that child brides will still continue after changes in law?
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7 comments:
The cleric who said that a ban on child brides spreads immorality has got to be a loon. Raising the marriage age to at least 17 I guess will be a giant step in the right direction, but hopefully the government will find a way to actually enforce it.
Goldie, I think you make a really good point that this ban is just to ward off Western pressure that Yemen must be getting. Though I do not know much about the culture of Yemen, and how big child marriages actually are in it, I don't completely trust the cleric. He seems to be a extremely bias source, and it seems he is more for child marriages just to be against the United States and Western civilization. I think that the Yemen government is going to have a very hard time trying to regulate the age limit, if they even try to, because even one of Yemen's most powerful Islams are against the ban. Al-Zindani probably has a great following that probably commonly despise the United States too.
Women and families probably won't comply either with this ban, considering Yemen is a poor country and its citizen will do what they need for money. This only means there are even more people against the ban. I think the ban will mostly need time to become effective, but immediate reform probably won't happen.
WOW!!!! This is crazy but in many countries it common to marry young because of life expectancy ages. But i feel that 13 is just to young and that these girls are not ready for there childhood and teen years to be taken away from them. Also i supose that 17 is an a age close to oures where you are viewed as an adult and can make choices for yourself. I think that the leglislation should be fallowed to a T so that yung girls afe peotected
like sandy, i too have very little knowledge about yemen culture, but i completely agree that the marriage age should be raised. though in most part, i try to be understanding and be tolerant of other cultures, 13 is just too young to be forced into marriage, and therefore into sex with much older men. many females just do not have the physical maturity for sex or the bearing of children that usually happens later. bodily injuries and death, like with the poor girl mentioned, can happen, and that's just not beneficial for anyone.
and regardless of their motives for raising the marriage age, i am glad that the cleric is doing it.
seems like they treat women just like object there. this doesnt really appeal to me. However, even though raising the age to 17 is not much, it sure is better than nothing. At the age of 13, the girl is still a child and should be able to live her beginning of her life as a child.
After reading everyone's comments, I feel that we all share the same sentiment: Child brides should not be legalized.
Thinking about it, I started wondering how the mothers of these young girls must feel when they see their little girl married off to a man old enough to be the girl's father or uncle. Don't they want something else for them? But I suppose that when that's all you've ever known, especially growing up in that type of environment, change would be difficult.
I believe that the age, like others said, should definitely be raised. 13 years old is ridiculously young, I cannot believe that an age like that is even considered to be "marriageable."
But I also believe though that just by raising the age limit, it will give the government an oppurtunity to feel like they did something and that was that. But in reality if they just raise the age limit and do nothing else, I feel that nothing at all would be solved. Unfortunately though most of the ideas thought by our comments are considered to be western ideals, and the Islamic people would be probably expect westerners to not understand their culture. But there is a difference between a practicing tradition and abuse, these women cannot stay quite for centuries. Eventually more and more of them will have to speak out.
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