The Problem of Arranged Marriages Among Young Yemen Women and Girls

As young as eight years old you can marry off your daughters in Yemen (Clymer 2013). This is a sad fact and for Nada AL-Ahdal an eleven year old Yemen girl this is the truth of their society. Clymer a writer and social equality advocate explains that in a video Nada brought awareness from the harsh reality that these young girls would rather kill themselves then be married off to men they don't even know (Clymer 2013). While watching the video provided by subtitles Nada stated that "I have managed to solve my problem, but some innocent children can't solve theirs, and they might die, commit suicide, or do whatever comes to mind." Yemen women and girls are being oppressed within their strict culture and it must come to an equal agreement.

In Yemen woman are seen as unequal because of their strict culture and traditional views they have continued to uphold all these years. According to Olivia Hadreas a writer for The Borgen Project Yemen is considered the worst place on this earth for women to live. The literacy rate among woman in the area is 35 percent (Hadreas 2013). That’s a drastic difference compared to the literacy rate in the United States that is 99 percent (bymap) Hadreas continued and stated that the female to male ratio based on income status was 30:100. Since women in Yemen are under such restricting laws it has ranked 134 globally in education attainment for women. Men in most Islamic communities have the upper hand with most things when it comes to women their health care is very poor making pregnancy complication much more dangerous than anyone else, 1-39 woman die in childbirth in Yemen because the fact their medical help towards women is so low and poor. Yemen need to improve so much for their women in their country.

Arranged marriages are very common in Yemen, Girls as young as 8 years old can be married off. In 2013 a Human Rights minister in Yemen wanted to have marriages younger than 18 to be outlawed after an 8 year old died a few days after being married off to a 40 year old man (Jamjoom 2013). International outrage grew out of control after this came up for the fact that the thought of innocent children as young as 8 being married off but to top it off the young girl died. It was stated that the undeveloped child died a few days later from sexual intercourse that tore through the uterus and caused internal bleeding and infection (Jamjoom 2013).People are trying to justify “Child Brides” by saying the even though it’s okay for them to marry the young children there is no sexual intercourse until the child is fully developed. As anyone can see the rule is widely ignored and over looked. Jamjoom the CNN Reporter interviewed a resident in Yemen, his statement was “No one is talking about this story because it’s an embarrassment, but this is what poverty can do to people." What he means by this is what poverty can do to people, he is talking about the reason these people are selling their daughters into marriage to escape poverty. They sell their daughters to older wealthier men that have nothing else better to do with their money. Children are supposed to have the feeling of happiness and when their older have the feeling of nostalgia not to remember that their family put a price on them and it was good enough to them to make some money. In 2009 they were so close to making the legal age to marry 17 this was even passed my legislation but the bill itself was never signed (Jamjoom 2013).

Yemeni Government has always kept its views on women severely restricted causing women in Yemen to demand better rights awarded to them to be equal among their male counter parts. Just a couple years ago there was a very large rally of women of all ages demanding and protesting the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa (Akl 2012). When this accused the protest caused an uproar of thousands of Arad women most of them taking the lead roles in the protest which is very uncommon. The Yemeni President responded at the time claiming that women that are participating in the rally are showing “Un-Islamic” behavior (Akl 2012). When the women eventually caused the Yemen president to resign the power was handed over to the vice-president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the early months of 2012(Akl 2012). Even though their efforts are still in the work nothing has yet changed about their harsh laws against women. The government in Yemen is trying to use the Qur’an for their justification when it has nothing to say in the Holy Book about women cannot have roles in society. In the article “In Yemen, Women Take One Step Forward, Two Back by Aida Akl” she interviewed a women who did not use her real name and who calls herself “NoonArabia” with a striking statement, “There is nothing in Islam that says a woman cannot work or play a vital role in society beyond the walls of her home,” said NoonArabia. Akl goes on to say that “Fundamentalists always misuse Islam as a means to suppress women (Akl 2012).”

Here in United States, Domestic Violence is looked down upon and there is no justification to it. In Yemen that story is completely different. In a social system men are seen as superior under law and because of tradition. Women will be expected to come to their men and obey and ask permission. This way of being has been drilled in to their young, developing minds since they were children. When someone has so much power like that in a relationship it leads to physical abuse. (Anwer 2012). It is terribly sad to see that this is one of the most common committed against women in Yemen. In a 2012 Interior Ministry report, the number of women killing their husbands has had a notable increase. Around 50 women killed their husband in 2012 between the ages 25 and 50 were arrested and the description of why this took place one of the major reason it took place was because of domestic abuse. It has also been seen that when domestic violence does accrue most of the time it goes unreported, very rarely do you see women file reports against their husbands given that their very uneducated and could not support themselves without their husband (Anwer 2012). According to the National Women’s Committee only 5% of women even reported their domestic dispute. This gets off so easy their because of many factors, the first would be many Yemen women even know their rights even at that are even more unaware what is considered domestic violence given most women are very uneducated. When this occurs it is seen as a culture heritage because they have been restricted from their freedoms for most of their life. Some form of violence within Islamic marriages are seen as a deserving consequences (Anwer 2012). The reasoning behind this is because women are supposed to obey their husbands when this doesn’t happen it’s seen as a way to discipline women to beat them. It’s so sad to see a husband have so much power over their wife and it use it to belittle her. Women are supposed to look to their husbands and find comfort not to look to them for permission for the things they do and if they don’t listen expect a beating.

Yemen girls and women are so oppressed and they can’t do anything themselves, all they can do is sit and wait to be rescued by someone. Their rights have been stripped away from them and they can’t even fight to have them back given the fact there is almost no women in the political party that represents their government. It’s a sad world they live in and it should be up to people like us to help represent them in a way to make sure they never have to worry about another beating or a stoning for showing to much of their ankles! If this was some women here in the United States this would make the news for being forced against her will to not leave the house and receive as many beating as women with a voice in Yemen do. It’s crazy what happens when you put things like this in your perspective.