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Here is the story of another of the untold number of child brides in Yemen, most of whom are voiceless and defenseless. If there is one promising aspect in this report, it is the acknowledgment in this New York Times article of Muhammad's own example as a factor in the persistence of child marriage in Yemen: Public awareness of the nature of the problem will better focus efforts to solve it, keeping apologists from passing the buck on the basis of "culture" rather than religious practice.
"Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen," by Robert F. Worth for the New York Times, June 29:
IBLA, Yemen — One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.
That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.
Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.
Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.
The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”
But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “. [...]
Poverty is one reason so many Yemeni families marry their children off early. Another is the fear of girls being carried off and married by force. But most important are cultural tradition and the belief that a young virginal bride can best be shaped into a dutiful wife, according to comprehensive study of early marriage published by Sana University in 2006....
Posted by Marisol at June 30, 2008 12:05 AM
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Married at nine? Consummated at nine. Married at six.
Posted by: emet-veritas![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 30, 2008 1:13 AM
If there is one promising aspect in this report, it is the acknowledgment of Muhammad's own example as a factor in the persistence of child marriage in Yemen: Awareness of the nature of the problem will better focus efforts to solve it, keeping apologists from passing the buck on the basis of "culture" rather than religious practice.Marisol
It's not the would be reformers who are 'acknowledging' it: it's the Shariah advocates who are citing it in support of their opposition to the reforms in question. Surely you can make out the difference between a genuine process of reform that includes identification of problem areas, vs. the citation of the problem areas as support for the status quo?
Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old.Emet
Right on the money - her age was 6, not 9!
Posted by: Infidel Pride at June 30, 2008 4:52 AM
The Islamosphere...pedophile heaven.
That horrible Yemeni proverb, together with the reference to the example of Mohammed, can be kept up our sleeves when we need to explain to our politicians with what slavish devotion many Muslims imitate the example of Mohammed in every tiny particular - even when following that example allows adult men to marry, and to force conjugal relations upon, frightened little girls of eight or nine years old.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at June 30, 2008 9:10 AM
Infidel Pride-- I meant the fact that the article had not sidestepped the issue. Sorry if I didn't make that as clear as I thought; I'll adjust the wording above.
Posted by: MarisolJW at June 30, 2008 9:14 AM
When I read this part in the article yesterday I wanted to vomit. And was depressed for the rest of the day.
"The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well."
A nine-year-old child had to go through this from a Barbarian Pervert Pedophile, who is just like his role model, false prophet Mo.
Posted by: darcy at June 30, 2008 9:16 AM
Also, of course the NYT reporter refers to Mo as "the Prophet Mohammed."
That also makes me want to vomit. And depresses me.
Posted by: darcy at June 30, 2008 9:17 AM
The pedophilia sanctified by Islam's founder, and it's offshoot of "child brides", are two core rots at the heart of Islam. And the bitter seeds which will prove its undoing.
Because each "temptation" demotes adult women to a lower status than not only men, but makes them less than nubile (competitor) female children, who are available for men to replace them with, once women gain any social "power" of their own via their marriages and achievements in their daily lives.
When women are suppressed by Islamic law, and undermined with such Koranically-approved juvenile competition, the core of the faith is unstable.
It will only take a little more education among Muslim women before a tipping point is reached, their outrage boils over, and the system is sent into chaos from within.
And it will mean the end ...or the complete revision... of Islam.
Male predation of the pre-pubescent can only be made to seem "holy" while women are kept ignorant and children terrified.
Ignorance and Terror are foolhardy foundations for a faith.
The cracks and widening within Mohammadism.
Freedom of thought grows with every newly literate little girl.
Posted by: profitsbeard at June 30, 2008 1:13 PM
"It will only take a little more education among Muslim women before a tipping point is reached, their outrage boils over, and the system is sent into chaos from within.
And it will mean the end ...or the complete revision... of Islam."
More than likely this is the very reason traditional Islamic societies tend to keep their women uneducated, and on a very short leash.
at June 30, 2008 9:49 PM
Everyone sing along now:
"I want a girl
Just like one of the four prepubescent girls
That married dear old dad."
Catchy.
I wish you could see the bouncing ball thing.
Posted by: Haid Dasalami at June 30, 2008 10:47 PM
More than likely this is the very reason traditional Islamic societies tend to keep their women uneducated, and on a very short leash.
Posted by: PorkFatRules at June 30, 2008 9:49 PM
You are absolutely correct; islam would have died long ago if women were not kept under lock and key, illiterate, barefoot, pregnant, and terrified. The edifice of islam is built upon the subjugation and total control of women. If muslim women were free, islam would have no foundation, no hierarchy, and no sacrificial lambs to slaughter at the altar of male honor.
It is ironic that the wicked, cursed, reviled female, considered an inferior being created solely for the pleasure of men and to bear their children, is responsible for the family reputation and honor. She doesn't have to do anything wrong; all it takes is a rumor or unfounded accusation and she is murdered by her own family to restore their "honor". Muslim males cannot tarnish the family name no matter what they do but muslim females are expendable at the mere hint of indiscretion.
Sooner or later, muslim women will see through the lies of islam and the fear instilled in them by their families and imams. It might take another century, but it will eventually happen. It may be a hideous and malevolent "religion" but islam's minions have mastered the art of brainwashing. As the world continues to "globalize", more and more muslim women will run as fast and as far as they can get from their slave masters and the vile ideology that empowers them.
Posted by: Susanp at July 1, 2008 1:16 AM
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