FROM YEMEN, ANOTHER TALE OF WOE: 12-YEAR-OLD CHILD

UNCLAS SANAA 001678 SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR NEA/ARP AMACDONALD, DRL JBARGHOUT AND MEPI KBARTELS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM SOCI YM SUBJECT: FROM YEMEN, ANOTHER TALE OF WOE: 12-YEAR-OLD CHILD BRIDE DIES IN LABOR REF: SANAA 314 ¶1. (SBU) A 12-year-old girl died on September 11 after three days of painful labor in Hudeidah governorate. The girl, Fawzia Abdullah Yousef, was married to a 24-year-old laborer at the age of 11. Her case became public when a local human rights worker from the Seyaj organization for child rights came across her by chance at the local hospital in al-Zahra district. Early marriage is prevalent across Yemen, where, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, more than one-quarter of girls are married before age 15; many, like famous child bride Nujood Ali, are married as young as age eight. Despite the well-known detrimental health and social effects of early marriage, it continues to be a widespread and legal practice across Yemen, but especially in the impoverished and fiercely traditional northern governorates. ¶2. (SBU) Seyaj employees told PolOff on September 15 that the organization is planning to publicize the story widely after the Eid holiday in late September and will increase pressure on Parliament to pass a law regulating a minimum age for marriage of at least 17 (reftel). (Note: Parliament passed an early-marriage law in February, but before it could go to President Saleh for signature, religiously conservative MPs forced it back into the constitutional committee for review. There has been no progress on the law since that time. End Note.) Abdulkarim Ahmed al-Wazzan, General Director of International Organizations and Reports at the Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR),told PolOff on September 15 that the ministry was not aware of the case, but he would personally follow up with the Minister of Human Rights to make sure that the MOHR responded appropriately. COMMENT -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Fawzia's story is but the latest in a string of painful stories of child brides in Yemen forced into marriage and motherhood prematurely. On the whole, Yemeni society continues to cling to the tradition of child marriage, which conservatives defend with religious justification. Post believes that to combat the problem of child marriage, the ROYG and civil society must (1) pressure Parliament to finally pass the child marriage law and set a legal basis for ending the practice and (2) conduct widespread public education campaigns, focusing on imams and community leaders, about the detrimental effects of early marriage and the religious justification for postponing childbirth until girls have reached maturity. END COMMENT. SECHE