Thousands Of Women Demonstrate Against Child Marriage Ban In Yemen Because Allah Allows It

It's hard to fathom, in this day and age, how a mother could actually want her underage child to marry a man sometimes as old as the girl's grandfather. Doesn't one's maternal instinct somehow kick in to want to protect one's child? Little girls should be playing dolls, not in an old man's bed. But obviously not in Yemen. The government has finally stepped in to stop what is a major detriment to young girls lives and is proposing to ban marriages for girls younger than 17, but there are those who actually oppose the ban and you'd be surprised who.

child marriage rCpZp 16105

THOUSANDS of Yemeni women, their faces covered in religious veils, demonstrated outside the parliament on Sunday to oppose proposed legislation banning the marriage of girls under 17.

The protesters held up banners proclaiming 'don't ban what Allah made permissible,' or 'stop violating Islamic sharia law in the name of rights and freedoms,' an AFP correspondent said. Answering calls by Muslim clerics who oppose the proposal on grounds it goes against Islamic sharia law, the protesters arrived in organised buses.

Proposed amendments to the civil status law stalled in parliament last August after severe opposition to a government proposal that would ban girls females 17 and males under 18 from marrying.

There are several reasons why certain Yemenis continue to advocate underage marriage. First of all the religious clerics keep insisting that it's a-okay with Allah for 8 year olds to marry. Basically, what they're saying is that Allah promotes pedophilia,(probably because the older clerics lust after the young ones themselves) but that doesn't seem to bother the parents of these young girls. No, it doesn't bother them because these religious people think it's condoned by their God, so it must be okay, which it's not!

Another major factor is the tremendous poverty in Yemen. These people are so poor, they are willing to sacrifice their daughters by, in essence, selling them to the highest bidder. I guess whoever offers the most in a dowry gets the child, which is no better than prostitution. They're pimping out their daughters in marriage for money.

And they don't seem to care that young girls are not physically equipped for making babies; one young 12-year-old died along with her baby in childbirth last year in Yemen. No, the mothers obviously don't care. In fact, one of the protesters was more concerned about making denigrating remarks about the women's rights activists than the fact that it's cruel and inhumane for a 12-year-old to have sex with a 60-year-old.

'Where will this... new law take us?' asked Umm Abdulaziz, a protester clad in black from head-to-toe. 'Most rights groups have women who are over 40 and still not married,' she added in an apparent taunt at unmarried activists in Yemen, whose largely traditional tribal society looks down on single women past a certain age. 'There is a significant spinstership among female students in Yemen universities,' she added.

A handful of women's rights activists outside the parliament were seen leaving after being outnumbered by the demonstrators. 'It is unreasonable to marry our daughters at the age of eight or nine. This is a serious problem,' said Houriya Mashhour, deputy director of Yemen's Women National Committee.

Unfortunately, that's how it is, a few enlightened women battling against thousands of unenlightened women who would rather get money for their girls than to protect them. I would rather remain a spinster than have the karma of having sold my daughter to some dirty old man.