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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Death of Child Bride in Yemen an All too Familiar Story


The recent story on the child bride in Yemen who was killed has me fired up again, as over the years I have written many times on child marriage across the globe.
"Al Nahar, Lebanon, has reported that an eight year old child bride died in Yemen on her wedding night after suffering internal injuries due to sexual trauma. Human rights organizations are calling for the arrest of her husband who was five times her age" (albabwa).
 Not only have I written countless times on the global plague of child marriage, but even more I have reported on Yemen numerous times since at least 2008, when I published  "Girls in Yemen Forced to Marry too Young".

In 2010 I even reported on a story that almost mirrors the one that is causing global outcries as we speak,  when a 12 year-old child bride died; "Child Marriage in Yemen Turns Deadly" and "Yemen Fights to Ban Child Marriage" just to name a few.

I am truly fired up over this one -not simply because of the shocking and unspeakable nature of the child's death, but as we have sought to speak out for so many years to only have the cries of child brieds in Yemen and across the globe continue to be silenced.  We cannot stand by one more day and ignore these innocent children, most of whom do not have their stories told and not only cry in silence, but who's deaths gain no tears.

 Stay tuned I have a lot more to come and will be writing a new post with a fresh perspective shortly.

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