By Nasser Arrabyee/07/04/2010
A Yemeni 12-year old girl died three days after she was wed to husband in his 20s in Hajja north of Yemen, medical and human rights sources said Wednesday.
The bride Elham Mahdi Shuee, died in the hospital of Hajja where she was admitted after acute bleeding happened to her because of sexual intercourse, said Majed Al Mathhaji, spokesman for Sisters Forum for Human Rights, NGO, concerned with child bride.
Al Mathhaji confirmed that the medical report showed that Elham had suffered rupture of the womb.
Elham was married off in what's known in Yemen as swap marriage. Her husband family, did not pay dowry, but instead, they married off a girl in the same age to the brother of Elham, according to Al Mathahji.
After Elham died, the family of the husband went to take their daughter from her husband, said Al Mathhaji.
Child bride is very common in Yemen because of illiteracy and poverty.
Islamic extremists and tribal leaders have been campaigning against a draft law putting 18 years as the age of marriage for about two years now. The religious extremists say the draft law, under debates in the Parliament, does not go with what the prophet Mohammed did. They argue that the prophet got married to one of his wives when she was eight.
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