An eight-year-old Yemeni child has died after sustaining internal injuries on her wedding night after being married off to a man five times her age.
The girl, named Rawan, was married to a 40-year-old man in the provincial town of Haradh late last week.
She died due to severe internal bleeding after receiving tears to her genital area and sustaining a uterine rupture. Rawan was taken to a hospital but could not be revived.
Understandably, human rights activists have called for the groom to be arrested and charges be laid against Rawan’s family. However, local tribal chiefs are still denying the event occurred.
Child marriages are common in Yemen, located at the bottom tip of the Arabian Peninsula, where more than 25 per cent of the country’s female population is married before they turn 15. Between 2011 and 2020, that figure is expected to include more than 50 million marriages to girls aged 15 years or younger.
Rawan’s death has caused an outcry across the world, but no charges have been laid against either the husband or the child’s family.
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