12 Year Old Yemeni Girl Dies In Child Birth

12 Year Old Yemeni Girl Dies In Child Birth, that was forced into marriage. She died during a painful childbirth, as did her baby.

Fawziya Ammodi struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a hospital on Friday, September 11th, 2009.

“Although the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening,” stated the Seyaj President, for the protection of children, Ahmed al-Qureshi.

Because of poverty, being born into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Jordan, Fawziya Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and was married off to a 24 year old man last year.

Child brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs still hold true. Hodeidah is the fourth largest city in Yemen and is an important port. One would think that a metropolis like Hodeidah  would ban such actions, but the do not.

According to a study by Sanaa University, more than half of all young Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18. Many times to men much older than they are. Many with more than one wife

12 Year Old Yemeni Girl Dies In Child Birth and while it is not known why Fawziya’s parents married her off to an older man…reasons vary why parents marry their young daughters off. Financially strapped parents offer up their daughters for hefty dowries to keep their families together. Sacrificing one to save many…

Marriage can also mean that the girls are no longer a financial or moral burden to their parents. Some parents will extract a promise from the husband to wait until the girl is older to consummate the marriage. Especially if they have more than one wife.

The issue of Yemeni child brides came to the forefront in 2008 with 10-year-old Nujood Ali. Nujood Ali was pulled out of school and forced to married an older man who beat and raped her within weeks of the ceremony.

To escape, Nujood hailed a taxi for the first time in her life, to get across town to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge. The case got world attention after a  very publicized trial. She was finally granted a divorce after her second request.

The Yemeni parliament tried in February of  2009, to pass a law, setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But the law has not reached the president because many parliamentarians are arguing that it violates sharia, or Islamic law.  Sharia or Islamic law does not stipulate a minimum age.

Those of you who think that this only happens in third world countries. Think again. Let me remind you of Phillip Garrido who kidnapped an 11 year old and made him her sex slave and fathered two children with her…right here in America.

Women have been a negotiable commodity for centuries. It is up to us to stop this. The US should not trade or send money to countries that continue with this practice.

This action is no better than slavery or prostitution. What say you Baby Boomers.

For the full story of “12 Year Old Yemeni Girl Dies In Child Birth,” go to CNN News.