child brides - monstrous practices

An eight-year-old child bride has died in Yemen of internal bleeding sustained during her wedding night after being forced to marry a man five times her age, activists have claimed. 

The girl, identified only as Rawan, died in the tribal area of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. 

Activists are now calling for the groom, who is believed to be around 40 years old, and her family to be arrested so they can face justice in the courts.

The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has attracted the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages.

Yemen's gripping poverty plays a role in hindering efforts to stamp out the practice, as poor families find themselves unable to say no to 'bride-prices' that can be hundreds of dollars for their daughters.

More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15, according to a report in 2010 by the Social Affairs Ministry.

Tribal custom also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.

In September 2010, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labour to give birth, a local human rights organisation said.

Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but parliament annulled that law in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a daughter marries.

Despite numerous  campaigns from many of the world's largest charities and NGOs, the issue of child brides remains a global concern.

There are currently some 57.5 million child brides across the world, 40 per cent of which married in India.

Forty-six per cent of women in India were married before the age of 18, according to the National Family Health Survey-3. 

Meanwhile, in Africa, 42 per cent of girls were married before turning 18 compared to 29 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But the number of child brides is estimated to rise to 140 million by 2020 if current trends continue, 18.5 million of which will be under 15 years old, analysts warn.

Statistics show that girls living in poor households are almost twice as likely to marry before 18 than girls in higher income households.

And girls younger than 15 are also five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.