Child marriage: Yemen's human rights minister wants it outlawed
After an 8-year-old girl reportedly died of internal injuries on her wedding night in Yemen, the country's human rights minister, Hooria Mashhour, said child marriage should be outlawed.
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The video shows Hooria Mashhour, Yemen's Minister of Human Rights, at the 2013 Humanitarian Response Plan in Dubai on 22 January 2013.
The reported death
Reports emerged last week that the girl, from a town in northern Yemen, died a few days after being married off to a 40-year-old man.
International outrage grew quickly. The alleged case once again drew attention to the deeply controversial issue of child marriage in Yemen, where it is still legal.
Amid many claims and counterclaims, Mashhour declared that enough is enough. She told CNN that the growing anger over the girl's case had given Yemen an opportunity to "end this practice".
"I personally have talked to the human rights coordinator for the ministry on the ground," Mashhour said, "and he informed me that nearly everyone he spoke to is denying the story, but he feels strongly suspicious. We feel people may be hiding information due to fear."
CNN spoke with several local people who asked not to be named, as they feared reprisals. "No one is talking about this story because it's an embarrassment, but this is what poverty can do to people," one resident said.
Child marriage in Yemen
Yemen is a deeply tribal and conservative country. According to Human Rights Watch, more than half of all young girls there are married before the age of 18, and about 14% before the age of 15.
In 2009, Yemen's parliament passed a law raising the minimum age of marriage to 17. Conservative members of parliament argued that it violated Islamic law, which does not set a minimum age of marriage, and the law was never signed.
In the last few years, several cases of Yemeni child brides have shocked the world. In 2008, 10-year-old Nujood Ali became an international sensation when she went to a court in Sana'a and asked for a divorce. After a highly publicised trial, her demand was granted.
In 2010, according to UNICEF, a 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding three days after she was married off to an older man.