Until this day, some families decide to marry off their young daughters to relatives, such as a cousin. This can be decided already when the girl is a baby. Thus, the girl is doomed from the first day of her life and will see her childhood lost. Instead, she will throughout her early years be prepared to be married off before she is even a teenager. This blatant violation of children´s rights is still ongoing in Yemen and Iraq. In fact, the phenomenon of child marriage appears to be increasing these days, especially in rural areas.
Yemen has unfortunately a long history of child marriage. For long, child marriage was seen as a form of protection of the girl´s honor as well as her family.
Being forced to marry as a child threatens the physical and mental health of girls on many levels. The girl will be deprived of her right to play which is needed for a young child to develop. Furthermore, it is absurd to think that a young child would be able to take care of children that she is forced to bring into this world. The girl will also lose her right to education and will risk growing up illiterate. As a result, she will not be able to take on any kind of advanced job. If her husband dies or divorces her, she will have a hard time finding a decent job to support herself.
Suicide in Yemen and Iraq is also linked to child marriage. Some of these girls tragically find suicide as a last resort to escape marriages they have been forced into by their families.
Hence, child marriage comes with terrible consequences. It also has very negative consequences on society as a whole. Yemen suffers from high illiteracy rates, especially among women in rural areas. Meanwhile, birth rates remain high.
In general, a married child is considered a burden to society in Yemen. It is because the married child oftentimes turns into a vulnerable divorced child in dire need of help.
Before the conflict in Yemen erupted in 2014, there were serious efforts to set a legal minimum age for marriage. That work came to a halt when the war broke out. Throughout the conflict, there have been awareness campaigns by civil society organizations and their efforts to stop child marriage continue.
