Daily Lessons from Life 11 April 2010 - Rapist husband of dead Yemeni child bride should die: family

"Rapist husband of dead Yemeni child bride should die: family - Sun, Apr 11, 2010 AFP

AL-ASHA, Yemen - The family of a 13-year-old Yemeni girl who died after being sexually violated by her husband a few days into her arranged marriage is demanding his execution.


Ilham al-Ashi died Friday, five days after marrying Abed al-Hekmi, 24, in a case which has again brought into sharp focus the plight of Yemen's so-called 'brides of death.'

The medical report from the main hospital in the Hajja province, north of the capital, said she suffered a deep rupture in the genitals."

This practice is beyond my comprehension as the parliament of Yemen did passed a law recently to raise the marriage age to 18 but were facing conservative MPs' opposition to revise or rescind it!

Some forum writers criticized the parents as 'brainless' to allow the child bride marriage. There is also a local woman lawyer who successfully get another child bride to 'divorce' the adult husband who vowed to get the 'husband' in this case to trial and justice be served in order to get this practice banned!

Lessons for me are:

1. this 'child bride' practice is not my cup of tea and yet if it is a century old tradition, a cultural ritual endorsed by the people, there is nothing doing to just criticize it as 'stupid' people or 'stupid' practices. It is like the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine, etc, no outsiders is going to really resolve it unless it is determined to commit genocide! The locals have to decide what they want - to keep the practice or not!;

2. if the practice is no logical, the people, with better education will eventually realize it is unwise to continue the practice. For child bride, it is clear from a biological, physiological and medical perspective, that it is not a healthy practice. As for why the traditionalists are resisting the practice from being outlawed, I can only ventured to guess that they are: 'losing' control of something! Maybe they are just terrific of losing their power!!;

3. when the locals start to stir, like that local educated woman lawyer activist, there is hope that any practices, no matter how old and how steep in tradition, that simply does not make sense, will fall! It is just a matter of time. Just a matter of 'When' and not 'if it will fall'!

May the dead child be in a better place now. May justice be served, and may the woman lawyer succeed in getting the 'husband' tried and sentence for manslaughter that will allow the 'new law' to stay!! Only the locals can decide!