Women's Rights

Over the past week, we have heard about two extremely tragic incidents from Yemen regarding child brides. Last week a 13-year-old bride bled to death after she was married. Her husband forced her to have sex and eventually raped her to death. A few days ago, a second story surfaced of an 11-year-old girl who was hospitalized with genital injuries. In this case her husband said that he would wait until she reached puberty to consummate the marriage, but unsurprisingly he did not. In February of 2009 a law was introduced in Yemen stating that girls could not marry until the age of 17, but the law was repealed because some lawmakers viewed it as “un-Islamic.” This statement reinforces the notion of child brides is in fact supported by Islam. We often hear about these stories from human rights organizations, such as UNICEF and Oxfam, but they claim to treat these situations carefully for fear of an explosive political issue. However, we must ask: if this issue is not worth fighting against what is? Read more about these stories here and here and then make a difference. Send 5 “Did You Know” statements to your family and friends and help raise awareness about the reality of child brides. Use the space below to have a discussion and brainstorm about how we as individuals can help put an end to this horrific reality.

"Expecting Muslim women to be behind the reformation of Islam and Sharia, is like asking slaves to end their own slavery without their masters’ approval or asking prisoners to get out of prison without the guards opening the doors. […] For Muslim women to simply revolt against Islamic gender apartheid will be regarded as anti-man, anti-family, anti-religion, anti-government and worst of all, anti-Allah himself."