YEMEN: Islamic lawmaker decries child marriage ban as part of 'Western agenda'

The recent death of 13-year old Yemeni child bride Elham Assi, who reportedly bled to death last week after being tied down and forced to have sex with her 23-year-old husband, has sparked outrage among rights activists in Yemen.

They are now stepping up their lobbying efforts to push for the implementation of a child marriage ban. 

But that may prove a daunting challenge since fierce opposition against a ban on child brides still runs high among some religious leaders and conservatives.

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party Islaah and the imam of the Al-Rahman mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sana, is one of those who staunchly opposes a legal ban on child marriage.

Although he emphasizes that a woman should not get married before she is physically and mentally ready and that she herself needs to accept the marriage, he believes a law that prohibits child marriage constitutes a rights violation.  

“I am against the child marriage law because it restrains the freedom of others. When a certain age [for marriage] is set, it violates the rights of others. For example, imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. … This is a violation of his rights,” Sheik Hamzi told The Times in an interview at his Sana home last week.

Last week, representatives from various rights groups and independent activists met at the Women’ Media Forum, or WMF, in Sana to discuss ways to convince supporters of child marriage to back a proposal to set the mimum age for marriage at 17. 

Lawmakers in February 2009 set the age limit for marriage at 17, but the law was repealed and returned to the Yemeni parliament's constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers objected to it and billed the law un-Islamic, according to the Associated Press. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the law later this month.

Two years ago, 9-year-old Yemeni child bride Nujoud Ali captured the world's attention and became a symbol of Yemen's child brides when she showed up in a Sana court and demanded a divorce from her 30-something husband. 

Since then, several other cases of Yemeni child brides have been reported, and the issue also has been discussed and debated widely.

But Hazmi dismisses claims by rights groups that there is a problem with child marriages in his country. He said the child-bride cases that have been reported in the media were merely isolated incidents.

“Just ask my mother and sisters how many times they’ve found a little girl getting married at the marriages they’ve attended,"  he said. "Not many.”

The country's Ministry of Social Affairs, on the contrary, says child marriages are common in Yemen. According to a 2009 report by the ministry, a quarter of all females in Yemen marry before the age of 15.

To Hazmi, however,  women's- and children's-rights activists are putting a few isolated cases of  child marriage in the spotlight to rally support for the law.

"There is no problem here with child marriage," he said. "These cases of young girls getting married are exceptions. These organizations that are promoting for this law couldn’t find any examples except for those of Nujoud and Elham." 

Hazmi said the groups that are campaigning for the law were harmful to the country, trying to promote a "Western agenda" in Yemen.

“It’s all a Western agenda they are following," he said. "They get paid from the West to make us to believe in Western culture. This is very bad because our culture is different here."

The best that could happen, in his opinion, is that the government shuts them down.

“No one wants to marry these women's-rights activists anyway," he said. "They’re just depressed that they are not married and jealous.”

Would he allow his own young daughters to be married?

"No," he says and looks at the two as they're scurrying around in the room. "At this age, I don’t want them married."

-- Alexandra Sandels in Sana, Yemen

Photos: Sheik Mohammed Hazmi is one of those who opposes a ban on child brides in Yemen. Credit: Khaled Hilaly / Special to The Times. Lower image: Yemeni child divorcee Nujod Ali outside her home in Sana. Credit: Katia Jarjoura

Comments

[me]

uh... Verballistic... when the hell does this EVER happen in a non-Muslim country? I'll give you a hint: NEVER. Never in a non-Muslim country will you find men of actual legal and supposed moral authority fiercely opposing a ban on marriage to girls as young as 5-10 years old! NEVER!! I mean, you can look at the USA. There, there is a fringe group, a branch of the Mormon church, that live in isolated communities in Utah that sometimes practice child marriage. But there are some important distinctions. In the USA and even in Utah, this is the extreme exception not the rule. In Yemen, it's commonplace. In the USA this is ILLEGAL and has to happen off the radar. In Yemen, it is sanctioned and supported officially by the government and a large percentage of the general population. In the USA, these Mormon splinter groups sometimes marry girls as young as 13 or 14. In Yemen, this sickos get married to girls who are practically INFANTS and then proceed to force sex on them. In the USA, EVERY SINGLE politician in Washington will CONDEMN such a thing if they find out it happens and any bill banning it will pass unanimously. In Yemen, a ban on child marriage fails to pass because it is rules UN-ISLAMIC.

It absolutely IS a problem with and CAUSED by Islam, and to deny it means you are seriously deluded. I live in Saudi Arabia and the same sick crap happens here... and every time it happens people defend it... why? Because "prophet" Muhammad did the same thing. He married a 6 year old and raped her when she was nine. And he's supposed to be the perfect example for all men to follow. Also, Islam completely objectifies women and turns them into nothing but sex objects to be used up by men. Of course this happens all the time in Muslim countries.

Get a clue, dude.

[Verballistic]

Response to "inga":

Sorry amiga, Islam has EVERYTHING to do with it...even the pedophiles who use the Quran to justify their child-abuse can quote hadiths permitting child-brides. Saudi Arabia is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the entire world and has one of the highest rates of pre-pubescent brides, all justified and rationalized by referencing the Quran.

Even moderate Muslims widely acknowledge that the prophet Muhammad wed Aisha when she was only 6, but was "benevolent" enough to not consummate the marriage until she reached the ripe, old age of 9...

[inga]

Although this man makes me sick and I hate everything he stands for, I am sick and tired of people blaming it on Islam. As if they wait for the opportunity for something like this to happen so they can trash the religion. When something like this happens in a non islamic country, there is no mention of a religion or a culture even if it is done as part of the culture like in Africa and other less developed nations. But when it happens in an Islamic country, people start insulting the prophet and the religion.
BigAl, what you said was so wrong, you got all the facts wrong which made your arguments lose all credibility. First of all Ayesha WAS NOT the prophit's own daughter that is disgusting! she was his wife and yes there are rumors that he married her when she was 9 but these are false accusations and scholars that studied that era can prove that she was way older probably 15 or 16 and at that time everyone used to get married young even the west.
You must know that the prophet had a daughter named Fatima and he would not marry her young when men proposed to her and he clearly said "no she is still too young"
so do not make up stories and facts, Islam has nothing to do with it.
Comments like this make these stupid, radical and extrmists think they have the right to protect their believes so please do not encourage them by insulting Islam, just insult them that would actually fix the problem, insulting a whole religion would only make it WORSE!

[peace]

The majority is reached by 18 years, normally; body misuse till then may be bad for one´s health.
Can women self decide at this age about its future?

[M]

My heart goes out to these girls and women suffering and dying under the auspices of a cruelly misogynistic "religion." I can't understand how any country of men, supposedly guided by a good and decent God, can treat females like recalcitrant chattel.

I am unable to feel any sympathy for this chronic whining about American, Israeli, and Western culture, by Muslims males who have no respect or allowance for the most basic human rights of their own wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Fix the despicable aspects of your own culture and maybe more people will respect your complaints about the encroaching cultures and abuses of others.

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, stand up like a man and admit that you don't give a fig about hurting females; you have the horns on for little girls; and your personal religion still operates on the primitive mistreatment of women, while males are free to indulge in a lustful and brutal feast of dehumanized "wives." I can't wait until your faith is dragged forcibly into the 21st Century.

[Cris Ranston]

Child molester.

[Patrick]

"imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. …"

Imagine the young lady of 13 or 14 that does NOT want to have sex...and their rights

Patrick

[observer]

GOD DOES NOT WANT CHILDREN GETTING RAPED AND THEN USING HIS NAME AS THE SCAPEGOAT!
THIS IS A VILE THING THAT HAS TO STOP NOW IN THIS YEAR 2010!!!

[Verballistic]

Response to "sheldon":

Your twisted logic boggles the mind...fundamentalist Muslims have oppressed, abused and mistreated girls and women for CENTURIES and somehow YOU see it as an opportunity for a little Jesus-bashing!! No other major religion perpetrates "honor killings" committed by MALE family members against females in their family who they deem as having done something "un-Islamic" like listening to Western music or wearing Westernized clothing.

[Obtuse]

“I am against the child marriage law because it restrains the freedom of others. When a certain age [for marriage] is set, it violates the rights of others. For example, imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. … This is a violation of his rights,” Sheik Hamzi told The Times in an interview at his Sana home last week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are lots of 13 and 14 year old boys all over the world who want to have sex. They need to wait until they get married, and not to a 7-year old girl.

[sheldon]

" If there is a "God", where is he/she/it in this horror?" Hypatia asks. The answer is that he/she does not exist, so forget about "Jesus loves children" and all the other religious rubbish.

[Joe McBlough]

Yo Mr. Yemeni - it's 2010, Dude! Come on out of the Bronze Age. And, that dagger ... not smart. You could stab your ...

whywontgodhealamputees.com

whywontgodhealamputees.com

[Brian V Hunt]

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi does not seem to understand that Human Rights includes the right of young girls to be protected from pedophiles.

[antarez]

This is what their religion calls for,Mohammed had slaves and child brides,look it up on wikipedia or google it.

[Katherine Spiers]

Why say "forced to have sex" when what you mean is she was raped?

[Mark Blacknell]

Some sad irony in the subjects of this story being old enough to marry, but not old enough to comment on this website about the story . . .

[Jon K.]

God, the Middle East is screwed up.

[alebiglio]

how could fat pigs like this sheik get a woman otherwise? Of course they are against a ban, the only way they can have a woman is coercing her....

[BigAl]

It's too easy to dismiss this child rape practice as a 'cultural' excuse. The PROFIT Mohammed himself married and sexed his own 6 year old daughter, Ayesha Bibi. Ayesha was born out of Mo's marriage to Khadija Bibi, a wealthy woman 25 years Mo's senior.
This kind of sanctioned child rape is integral within the practice of Islam. One only needs to cursory search the Suras and study the Hadith and Sharia law. The truth is completely exposed.
I would suggest two starters: a book "Why I Am Not a Muslim" by Ibn al-Rawandi; and then a web search for; "Mohammed's High Regard For Women" (this title is obvious sarcasm).
Even several months ago Al Jazeera news published a photo from Gaza where hundreds of grown men were standing in a seamless endless line holding the hands of their soon to be "brides", many as young as Ayesha, 6-7-10 year olds.
Talk about false PROPHETS and false religion. Disgusting!
There is no excuse for this practice, ever, anywhere!

[Hypatia]

One of the more disgusting "humans" I have ever encountered. Yet he is only representative of the rest of his disgusting, misogynist fellow Islamist radicals, who think of women as baby factories rather than human beings. To read of a child who bled to death after rape by her husband is to strain the bounds of credulity. Except it's all too credible. What force can remove these dreadful people from positions where they can **** all over young girl children??!! If there is a "God", where is he/she/it in this horror?