An eight-year-old from Yemen suffered during their “wedding night” apparently so serious injuries that she died shortly thereafter. On the Arabian Peninsula sharp criticism of the offender, but also the stepfather, who had sold the girl rose.

Together with its over 40-year-old husband spent just eight years Rawan last Saturday their “wedding night” in a hotel in the Yemeni city Hardh in the northwest of the country. She suffered severe internal and external injuries. According to media reports, the girl’s uterus should be ripped through sexual intercourse.

So far it is unclear whether a native of Saudi Arabia man has been arrested or not. According to human rights activists Rawans had received stepfather of the girl of the 10,000 Saudi Riyal (EUR 2024). The biological father of the child, according to the Yemeni Center for Human Rights dead.

An employee of the center told the news agency dpa: “We repeat of this terrible case, our call for a law requiring a minimum age of 18 for spouses.” In Yemen, more than half of brides is a minor, a quarter of them under the age at marriage as 15.

The grisly death of the child bride shocked many people in the Arabian Peninsula. Blogger described the man as a “beast” and “animal”. Also the stepfather was heavily criticized in the networks for his inhuman behavior.

Islamist politicians had brought in Yemen several times the respective legislation to case. Thus, the minimum age for brides should be increased to 17 in February 2009. The bill was rejected after some influential conservative lawmakers had classified him as un-Islamic.

The marriage of underage girls is widespread in Yemen, especially in rural areas. 2008, the case of the ten-year Nudshud Ali caused a stir, which successfully fought their divorce in a court in Sanaa.

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