'I'd rather kill myself': Nada Al-Ahdal, 11, runs away from a forced marriage
A video has been posted online of an 11-year-old Yemeni girl, Nada Al-Ahdal, who says she ran away to escape an arranged marriage. She says she was saved from the forced engagement only because her uncle stepped in.
Play video: 'I'd rather kill myself': Nada Al-Ahdal, 11, runs away from a forced marriageThe video loads from YouTube when you play it.
According to the NewsBall channel, which shared it, the video had over 2 million views in a single day.
In her own words
"Go ahead and marry me off – I'll kill myself," she warns in the video, dated 8 July and posted on YouTube. "Don't they have any compassion? I'm better off dead. I'd rather die."
She continues: "It's not the children's fault. I'm not the only one. It can happen to any child."
"Some children decided to throw themselves into the sea; they're dead now. They have killed our dreams, they have killed everything inside us. There's nothing left. There is no upbringing. This is criminal, this is simply criminal."
In the video, filmed in a car, she explains why she does not want to go back to her family home: "I would have had no life, no education." It ends with her words: "I'm done with you, you ruined my dreams."
The engagement
The schoolgirl, one of eight children, was taken in by her uncle, Abdel Salam Al-Ahdal, when she was three. But when a Yemeni expatriate living in Saudi Arabia asked her parents if he could marry her, they readily agreed.
In an interview with National Yemen, Nada accuses her mother of arranging the marriage for profit. "But I'm not an item for sale," she says. "I'm a human being, and I would rather die than get married at this age."
Nada has an 18-year-old sister who has already been engaged many times. Her parents accepted each new proposal and took part of the bride price in advance. They then postponed the wedding until the groom had saved enough money, before ending the engagement and keeping the payment.
Her uncle steps in
Her uncle was horrified that his young niece, who lived with him, his son and his elderly mother, was being married off.
He told NOW: "When I heard about the groom, I panicked." Nada was still a young child. He said he could not allow her to be married off and her future destroyed, especially as her aunt had been forced to marry at 13 and had taken her own life.
"I did all I could to prevent that marriage," he said. He called the groom and told him Nada was no good for him and did not wear the veil. When the groom asked whether that would stay the same, he answered: "Yes, and I agree, because she chose it." He also told him that she liked singing, and asked whether he still wanted the engagement.
Her parents were unhappy that the engagement was called off, and demanded that Nada come home to them. After she went back, they tried to marry her off again against her will, and Nada disappeared.
When her uncle found her, he informed the authorities. Nada was eventually allowed to live with her uncle, her father's brother, again. She then posted the video online.
Child marriage in Yemen
Marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen. The practice has drawn the attention of international rights groups, which seek to press the government to outlaw child marriage.
Yemen's deep poverty makes it harder to end the practice. Poor families find themselves unable to refuse bride prices in the hundreds of dollars for their daughters.
More than a quarter of Yemen's girls and women marry before the age of 15, according to a 2010 report by the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Tribal custom also plays a role. This includes the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, will bear more children and can be kept away from temptation.