Submitted by crinadmin on
Yemen's minimum age for marriage could, it is feared, be overturned because some MPs say the new age cap violates Sharia law. Earlier this month, most of Yemen’s MPs agreed to alter some of the country’s laws to protect women and children’s rights. But a minority of extremist MPs are still putting up a resistance to the changes."They want to bring the amendments into discussion again,” Horiah Mashour, deputy head of the National Women's Committee (NWC), has told United Nations news service, IRIN. “They say there is no marriage age set by Sharia," she said. Under the new amendments, children younger than 17 are not allowed to marry unless a judge deems it to be in their best interests. But some MPs who originally agreed on it may now want to change their minds."Withdrawing the agreed decision on setting the marriage age at 17 is possible,” the MP, Abdulbari Dughaish, said. The new amendments were aimed at raising the status of children and the family. Early marriage deprives a child from enjoying life, entertainment and education, he said. Yemen and Saudi Arabia were the only Arab countries that had not legally set the marriage age, he added. Under the altered law, the husband or the girl's guardian has to document the marriage contract, listing their ages, to the authorities within a month of marriage. They would be fined for failing to do this. Before the reunification of Yemen in 1994, the law set the marriage age at 15 in southern and northern parts of the country. But five years later the law was amended and a girl's custodian had the authority to decide if a girl should marry. People, especially in rural areas, might also outwit the new legislation by not revealing the true age of child brides, said Ms Mashour. "Although a birth registration certificate is issued - by the government - for free, there are still people who won't get it at all. In this case, they can decide any age for the girl." Fifty-two per cent of 6,000 women in the Hadramaout and al-Hudeidah, regions were married underage, found a study by the country’s Sanaa University. A 2007 report by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) ranked Yemen 13 out of 20 worst countries in terms of the prevalence of child marriage. The report said 48.4 percent of women were married before 18. Further information
pdf: http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/yemen-child-marriage...