Yemen: A 12 year old girl dies giving birth to her baby

Noujoud, 10, divorced

SANAA - A Yemeni girl of 12, forcibly married, died when she gave birth to her baby, said Sunday an organization of Human Rights in Sana'a.

•     According to the Yemeni Organization for the Protection of Children (Siyaj), the small Fawzia Abdullah Youssef died Friday of a hemorrhage in the Saudi hospital of Hajja (north of Sana'a).
  
      The NGO said in a statement that the girl became pregnant at the age of 12, and the child was stillborn.
  
      The girl "had been withdrawn from school and forcibly married at 11 by her family who live in need," the organization said, adding that her father was suffering from kidney failure.
  
      Yemen, a country of the Arabian Peninsula, considered among the poorest in the world, has a tribal population structure and forced marriage is widely practiced.
  
      Last year, the case of a Yemeni girl of 8, Nojoud Mohammad Ali, who had obtained a divorce, had highlighted the situation of thousands of women and children forced into marriage.
  
      Nojoud had obtained a divorce after having filed a complaint with a court against her father who forced her to marry a man 20 years her senior.
  
      Organizations of civil society, including women's movements, urged the parliament to enact a law fixing the marriage age to 18.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.