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12-Year-Old Girl Fawziya Ammodi Dies During Childbirth In Yemen

by Yuliya Talmazan | September 14, 2009 at 12:39 pm

749 views | 12 Recommendations | 4 comments

The 12-year-old girl Fawziya Ammodi from Yemen was given up for marriage by her family at 11 and forced to give childbirth at the age of 12. Ammodi died of severe bleeding during a three-day long, complicated childbirth, causing discontent among children's rights groups. Ammodi's death has once again raised the question of the morality of early marriages in Middle East.

Born into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and married off to a 24-year-old man last year.

The Yemeni parliament tried in February to pass a law, setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But the measure has not reached the president because many parliamentarians argued it violates sharia, or Islamic law, which does not stipulate a minimum age.

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Tamiya

at 13:00 on September 14th, 2009

That's sad.

A child that age should be in School, not in marriage or childbirth.

Mikka M. (not verified)

at 13:22 on September 15th, 2009

This enrages me; these sick men are abusing their religion to cater to their sick pedophilia behavior. There needs to be harsher laws to prevent this from happening. These young girls do not deserve this and we as a global world, need to step in and protect these girls.

Maggie Pristine (not verified)

at 08:21 on September 19th, 2009

That is just sick! I can't believe people think its right to make beautiful young ladies drop out of SCHOOL and marry older men. Her parents should be in Jail and so should that man.....That should be considered as rape...I sure no I won't let that happen to my kids or any child I know!