1. Remnants of war measles
Mine in a box of water enters the intensive care children in Sana'a..
Mine in a box of water enters the intensive care children in Sana' .Source Forums – special .Enter the
child intensive care recovery room after suffering a gunshot Bmqdhuv remnants of war witnessed by the
measles during the May to July last year. The source described the University Hospital medical science if
the child critically, and sad, due to the effects of the explosion caused by a mine placed inside a plastic
box of water (health).He told "Source Online:" A child who was looking for cans to sell water, quick to
take those discarded the box inside the ministry building, and when he took the box inside the mine
exploded, causing the lower parts of each cutting and Thishmha. He was looking for a child with empty
water cans to sell to wholesalers, juices, who buy the box with three per SAR.
And keeps the rest of the source images online child with respect to the feelings of the visitors.
And frequent incidents of explosion ballistics from the remains of war on an ongoing basis, and have the
majority of victims are children
The region has witnessed clashes in the capital Sanaa measles hot Republican Guard forces led by
Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, and militants tribal leader Sadiq red during the period from May 23 to July 3,
killing and injuring hundreds and displaced thousands of people…
The children and women of Yemen face many challenges in a country that is often isolated, both
geographically and culturally, from the international community. Yemen is an ancient society, yet
children make up nearly half of its population - and they are struggling to survive in the modern world.

2. Within the region, Yemen is at the bottom of most human development indicators. One in 10 children
dies before his or her fifth birthday. Health coverage is low for the largely rural population, and the
rugged terrain makes it difficult to reach the most vulnerable. Although more children are going to
school than ever before, many girls still receive no education and two-thirds of the nation's women are
illiterate. Uneducated and poor, many children must also work. At least 10 per cent of the workforce is
made up of children.
“We need to develop programmes and raise funds to help Yemen achieve all of the Millennium
Development Goals,” says UNICEF Representative AboudouKarimouAdjibadé. “Yemen is accountable
[and] must report back to the international community on what it has done to achieve all of these
goals.” UNICEF is working with the government and its partners to meet the MDG targets and ensure a
better future for Yemen and its children.
© UNICEF/HQ07-1642/Pirozzi
Girls attend a local primary school in the district of Bait Al Faqueeh in Hodeidah Governorate.
Save the Children has been working in Yemen since 1963. The first international aid group in Yemen, we
work nationally and locally to promote and protect children’s rights, with programs in education,
protection and survival.
Yemen is among the most challenging places in the world to raise a family. Mothers and children have
alarmingly poor health and education, even when compared with other impoverished nations.

3. A fragile peace exists in Yemen, where thousands of children have been affected by long-term conflict.
Many children and their families are displaced, having no homes or services to return to after years of
struggle.
Facts about Yemen
In poor families, nearly half of all breadwinners are illiterate [1]
In rural areas, fewer than one in three girls go to school [1]
300,000 people are displaced, refugees in their own country
11 million of Yemen’s 17 million people are under 18-years-old [3]
An estimated 40% of young people are unemployed [4]
Support Save the Children
Charitable contributions from people like you make it possible for us to support programs in Yemen, and
so much more. Please support our mission and work around the world with a gift to our Global Action
Fund. You can count on us to be good stewards of your generous donation, helping vulnerable children
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world.
Al-Qaida recruiting children in Yemen

4. Published: Nov. 22, 2011 at 8:13 AM
SANAA, Yemen, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen is recruiting children for suicide missions
and other operations, the head of a non-governmental child protection agency said.
Ahmed al-Qurashi, director of Yemen's al-Seyaj organization, told the Egyptian news organization
Bikyamasr.com al-Qaida is brainwashing children to do its bidding with complete disregard for the
children's well-being.
"No one can provide a specific number for al-Qaida's recruits among children or adults because of the
great danger involved, but we are certain that the percentage of child soldiers under the age of 18 is not
less than 40 percent of the overall number of recruits," al-Qurashi said Tuesday.
He said his organization has compiled data proving the al-Qaida group operating in Yemen's Abyan
province is extensively recruiting young boys under the age of 18.

5. He said the terrorists are using children in their suicide attacks, using remote-controlled detonators to
explode the devices they carry.
Al-Seyaj was founded in 2008 to protect, document and expose crimes and violence against children in
Yemen.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/11/22/Al-Qaida-recruiting-children-in-
Yemen/UPI-88581321967589/#ixzz1pHk3VfmG
Yemen: Children face food shortages and lack of education
The growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen has alarming consequences for the education and wellbeing
of tens of thousands of children, a new OCHA Situation Report on the emergency highlighted today.
“Throughout Yemen, children’s access is challenged by the occupation of schools by internally displaced
people, the use of school premises by armed groups, a lack of proper facilities and unsafe access
conditions,” the report warned.

6. An estimated 80 schools within conflict zones are inaccessible, of which 36 are occupied by armed
groups - denying 120,000 children of their right to education. In Aden, in the south of the country, 76 of
135 schools have been occupied by displaced families from Abiyan, preventing 85,000 children from
going to class.
Children are also particularly hard-hit by a lack of affordable food. A recent survey in Hajjah governorate
found that global acute malnutrition in children under the age of 5 exceeded 31 per cent, and that
severe acute malnutrition was at 9 per cent – well above the emergency threshold.
“For far too long, the international community has failed to give enough attention to the humanitarian
crisis in Yemen,” warned Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, in a recent statement. “If we
don’t act now, the situation could become a catastrophe.”
this time of year. Instead, they face armed men rather than teachers, bullets instead of books,” said
Anthony Lake, Executive Director of Unicef, the children’s agency.
“Of 3.6 million children under five years of age in Yemen, at “The children of Yemen should be busy
going back to school at least 43 per cent are underweight and 58 per cent are stunted.”
UNICEF Regional Director Maria Calivis concluded on Tuesday a two-day visit to Yemen where she saw
first-hand the impact of malnutrition on children’s health.
“This year alone, half a million children in Yemen are likely to die from malnutrition or to suffer lifelong
physical and cognitive consequences resulting from malnutrition if we don’t take action. Malnutrition is
preventable. And, therefore, inaction is unconscionable,” Calivis said. “Conflict, poverty and drought,
compounded by the unrest of the previous year, the high food and fuel prices, and the breakdown of
social services, are putting children’s health at great risks and threatening their very survival.”

7. With 58 per cent of children stunted, Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition among
children in the world after Afghanistan. Acute malnutrition affects as many as 30 per cent of children in
some parts of the country, nearing the levels observed in south Somalia, and twice as high as the
internationally recognized emergency threshold.
Malnutrition, along with poor health services, is also to blame for most of the recent deaths of 74
children from measles among 2,500 children affected by a recent outbreak of the disease, according to
government figures. While most children would recover from measles within two to three weeks,
children with malnutrition can suffer serious complications which can lead to death.
Yemen also has one of the highest rates of death among children under the age of five in the Middle
East and North Africa region, at 77 per 1,000 live births. This means that some 69,000 children die every
year before their fifth birthday.
Calivis, who is visiting Yemen officially for the first time since her appointment as Regional Director for
the Middle East and North Africa
in December 2011, met with high-level Yemeni officials to look at ways to boost aid for children in the
country.
“Now more than ever is the time for a renewed commitment to a better, peaceful future for Yemen’s
children. As the country prepares for the next phase, it is essential that children are given top priority in
the political agenda. Their needs need to be met and their rights upheld.” she said.
UNICEF appealed for nearly US$50 million to be able to meet children’s urgent humanitarian needs in
2012. Fighting malnutrition features high on UNICEF’s priorities for the new year, along with ensuring
children have access to education, primary health care services, safe drinking water, adequate sanitation
and are protected from violence, exploitation and abuse.
Yemeni Children:
Suffering life of Rape, Abuse, Trafficking and MistreatmentBy
Abdu Al-Jaradi
FOR THE YEMEN POST
Last month, female child (A.S.S) was subject to an ugly rape operation, with the rapist giving no
attention to her childhood. The sexual assault resulted in severe injuries in her reproductive system,
according to the medical report issued by the Amran Hospital.

8. Prior to this, female child Sawsan was raped by a man in his early fifties while she was herding her
family’s sheep in one of Amran province’s districts. Sawsan returned home that day with torn clothes
spotted with blood stains. She was deeply hurt by the incident which she will never forget.
During Al-AdhEid vacation, the capital Sana’a was raged by another rape crime that targeted the eleven-
year child Hamdi by a hairdresser who, in addition to raping the small child, killed him and threw him in
a remote area outside the capital.
Trafficking of children
At the outset of this year, Yemeni border guards arrested two children: Khaled 16 years and Nassim 10
years as they were trying to infiltrate into Saudi Arabia. These two children are just samples for
hundreds of Yemeni children who are forced, under the pressing economic situation, to seek infiltration
into neighboring countries to secure a livelihood for their families.
In addition to burdens of infiltration which include travel for several days and nights on foot, children
are also subject to physical and sexual assaults as well as hunger, thirst and sometimes death.
Trafficked children are sometimes arrested by the security of the target country. The experience leaves
behind a passive impact on those children.
Statistics indicate that most trafficked children work on agriculture, herding and begging. Most, if not all,
trafficked children are subject to violence and they are generally underpaid. Further, some of them work
in indecent professions.
Moreover, there are gangs who smuggle special children and exploit them in begging activities and the
profit is divided as follows: 50 percent for the traffickers, 25 percent of the trafficked child and 25
percent as pocket money for the child as well.

9. Family torture
Last January, media outlets mentioned that female child Sownia Abdul Momen was severely tortured by
her father and her new aunt, following the divorce of her mother. Both of them used to hang her from
the ceiling and burn her delicate body with a heated iron.
According to Newsyemen website, Dhamar Public Hospital, the province in which the incident took
place, Sownia was found with surface and deep injuries, bruises, breaks and burns together with
inflammations in her reproductive system.
Sownia told the media that her step mother used to beat and torture her for quite a long time and was it
not for the intervention of a neighbor who had informed the police, she could have still been in her
misery now.
Similarly, female child Jihan, 5 years old, was brutally beaten by her father last November after which
she was rushed to the Science and Technology Hospital.
Civil society organizations interested in children’s issues called the Interior Ministry to work for
protecting children. Siyag Organization for the Protection of Children demanded Interior Ministry to
arrest such parents and have them stand trial and deprive them of custody rights and provide such
children with protection.
Victims of society

10. Two weeks ago, sixteen-year child Mohammed Abdul Wali arrived in Sana’a with the traces of shackles
on his feet, after he was unjustly and wrongly imprisoned by a local sheikh, who like hundreds of
sheikhs, exploit the weak state presence to torture and jail locals once they object their policies.
Prompted by maltreatment of her step mother, ten-year old Ali Mohammed Thabet decided to leave his
father houses to escape the constant torture, beating and violence inflicted by his mother.
As he left his father’s houses, he stood on Aden-Taiz highway and a driver heading to Aden took him;
however, he dropped him after some distance as he told him that he had no money.
Feeling scared, he started to cry and shout until locals heard him. One of them offered to take him to his
house. Later, he informed the police. To their surprise, tears rolled down his eyes intensely, refusing to
be returned to his homeland and his father’s houses.
Social Protection Monitoring in Sana’a, Amran, and Hodeida
Yemen Post Staff
Social Protection Monitoring in Sana’a, Amran, and Hodeida; Summary Report on Round Fourteen, 05 -
08 February, 2012
UNICEF Yemen launched a monitoring system for social protection on June 29th, which aims to establish
routine access to disaggregated household (HH) data for monitoring trends over time on how vulnerable
populations are coping with the current crisis in Yemen. The data has been collected every two weeks
from 120 HHs in Sana’a, Amran, and Hodeida, during the period of June- December 2012. Starting from
round 13, data is being collected on a monthly basis, and in fact, round 14 is the last round in the
current pilot phase. (Please refer to annex 1 and 2 for details on the methodology; and HH & HH
members characteristics).

11. As in previous rounds, food security and nutrition indicator are alarmingly low. The mean HH
consumption of grains, bread, rice, meat, chicken, and eggs has slightly decreased compared with the
previous round. To ensure easy comparison with previous rounds, the amounts presented are the mean
consumption per HH, with an average of 9 members, over the period of 2 weeks. The mean
consumption of grains is 35.7 KG/HH/2wks compared with 39.1 KG/HH/2wks in round 13, and in fact is
the lowest compared to all the previous 13 rounds. Protein intake is alarmingly low, for example, , the
mean HH consumption of meat in this round is 0.6 KG/HH/2wks compared with the previous round (0.8
KG/HH/2wks); and the mean HH consumption of eggs is 5.8 compared to 8.5 eggs in the previous week.
This overall decreased consumption of food items have also influenced the percentage of HHs reported
at least one member going to bed hungry, which increased in this round to 45.8% compared to 31.7% in
the previous round, which is mainly due to a significant increase in the number of urban HHs (42.5%)
reporting going to bed hungry compared with the previous round (20%). Protein intake (red meat, fish,
or chicken) and as in previous rounds among children < 5yrs is especially low among children in rural
HHs (0%) compared with urban HH (12.5%); and more HHs in rural areas (58.7%) reported decreased
meals among children <5yrs compared with those in urban areas (29.9%).
Child Protection indicators in this round changed compared with the previous round, as much more
children are afraid from playing outside in this round (38.3%) compared with the previous round
(24.2%). This is mainly due to significant changes in Hodeida, where there was a huge increase in the
percentage of children who are afraid of playing outside the house (55%) compared to the previous
round (10%); in addition, the situation in Amran did not improve (55%) compared with the last round
(57.5%). In both governorates, the changes are related to non-political related incidences of murder
cases, which created fear among children in Hodeida and Amran and their families in the targeted areas
of data collection.
Water and sanitation indicators improved in this round compared with the previous one, mainly due to
the resumption of basic services in urban areas, especially of water and electricity. The estimated water
consumption (litre/ person/ day) increased in this round (26.3) compared to the previous round (25.2).
This is mainly due to increased consumption among urban HHs (29.5) compared to the previous round
(26.9), while the consumption decreased among rural HHs inthe round (19.5) compared to the previous
round (21.6). In urban HHs the improvement is due to the resumption of electric power, while the
decrease in rural areas is due to the lack of fuel. Also, significantly more rural HHs are consuming less
water due to increased prices (12.5 %) compared to urban HHs (1.3 %), andonly 47.5% of rural HHs have
enough water for drinking compared to urban HHs (72.5%).
The prevalence of diarrhea (45.5 %) and cough (69.9%) among children <5yrs decreased compared with
the previous round (55.4% and 74.4%respectively). Disaggregated data by governorate reveal that the

12. decrease cough prevalence is mainly due to the decrease in Sana’a and Amran governorates (63.9% and
58.7%) compared with the previous round (87.5% and 72.5% respectively). Similarly, decreased diarrheal
prevalence is due to a significant decrease among children in Amran governorate (30.4 %) compared
with the previous round (65 %), and Sana’a (36.1%) compared with 50% in round 13. However, the
prevalence in Hodeida increased in this round (70.7%) compared with 51.2% in the previous round. The
main significant issue in this round is the one case of measles suspected in Hodeida related to a child <
5years old, which was referred for further medical investigation .

13. Print Email Share7
UNICEF warns on high rates of malnutrition among children in
Yemen
IDP children carrying food for their families in Mazraq One Camp, Yemen. Photo: IRIN/Adel Yahya
25 January 2012 –
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that half a million children in Yemen could die
or suffer physical and mental damage as a result of malnutrition, unless sufficient resources are made
available to alleviate the effects of conflict, chronic poverty and drought.

14. “Malnutrition is preventable… therefore, inaction is unconscionable,” Maria Calivis, UNICEF’s Regional
Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement yesterday after a two-day visit to
Yemen.
“Conflict, poverty and drought, compounded by the unrest of the previous year, the high food and fuel
prices, and the breakdown of social services, are putting children’s health at great risks and threatening
their very survival,” she said.
Malnutrition is preventable… therefore, inaction is unconscionable.
With 58 per cent of children stunted, Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition among
children in the world after Afghanistan. Acute malnutrition affects as many as 30 per cent of children in
some parts of the country, close to the levels observed in south Somalia, and twice as high as the
internationally recognized emergency threshold.
Malnutrition, along with poor health services, is also to blame for most of the recent deaths of 74
children from measles, among 2,500 affected by an outbreak of the disease, according to Government
figures. While most children recover from measles within two to three weeks, children with malnutrition
can suffer serious complications which can lead to death.
UNICEF has appealed for nearly $50 million to fund programmes for children’s urgent humanitarian
needs in Yemen this year.
The country also has one of the highest rates of death among children under the age of five in the
Middle East and North African region, at 77 per 1,000 live births, which means that some 69,000
children die every year before their fifth birthday.
“Now more than ever is the time for a renewed commitment to a better, peaceful future for Yemen’s
children. As the country prepares for the next phase, it is essential that children are given top priority in
the political agenda. Their needs need to be met and their rights upheld,” said Ms. Calivis.

15. Warring factions in Yemen signed an agreement in November on a transitional settlement under which
President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi.
A new Government of National Unity was formed and presidential elections have been scheduled for 21
February.
The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, told reporters at UN Headquarters
that for the country’s transition to succeed, a concerted effort is required to ensure the participation of
youth and other important constituencies, including the southern movements and the so-called Al-
Houthi group in the north, in the political process.
“As an immediate step, all efforts should now be focused on ensuring the holding of peaceful elections,”
Mr. Benomar said after briefing the Security Council on the situation in Yemen, stressing the need to
ensure that the polls are held on time and in an atmosphere of calm.
“Expectations of Yemenis remain high for stability and recovery. I told the Security Council that Yemen
will need the sustained and committed support of donors to see it through the transition and help them
with economic recovery,” he added.
He also stressed that the humanitarian situation in the country remains dire with an estimated 6.8
million people facing food shortages.
Child workers in Yemen given back their childhood

16. Every day, 12-year-old Abed El-Elah and his 10-year-old brother leave school at one in the afternoon and
head to work -- selling balloons in the park.
They work until sunset, earning 1,000 Yemeni Rials (about $4.60) a day between them. The money is
never enough.
Abed El-Elah, who asked CNN not to use his surname, is one of Yemen's many child workers.
His mother died six years ago and his father, who is sick and rarely able to leave the house, has since
remarried. Abel El-Elah says his stepmother encourages him and his brother to go out to work.
January 31, 2011|By Mark Tutton for CNN
"I started work when I was 10 years old," Abed El-Elah said. "I have to work because my
father is sick at home and I need to provide money for my family.
"I got into fights on the streets with older boys who wanted to take my money."
Yemen has a young and rapidly growing population, and there is widespread poverty. Many parents do
not earn enough to support their families, so they send their children to work.
Yemen's Shawthab Foundation for Childhood and Development is one organization helping working
children, among them Abed El-Elah and his brother, by providing them with food, clothes, school bags
and protection, on the condition they stay at school.
But after school Abed El-Elah still goes to work. "Shawthab Foundation provides us with food and
clothes but I still need to work for money," he said.

17. Maryam Al Shawafi, manager of Shawthab, says the organization doesn't want children to work, but it
can't force them to stop.
It's the problem at the heart of child labor in Yemen -- simple economics.
Roberta Contin is project director for Access-Plus, part of development organization CHF International,
which combats exploitative child labor in Yemen.
Contin says child labor is a growing problem in Yemen, and the economic crisis has made it worse.
Most children have to work to support their families, while the poorest families simply cannot afford
school fees or uniforms, so they send their children to work instead, according to Contin.
In Yemen's cities, children often work in restaurants, peddling goods on the streets, or collecting
garbage for recycling. It's not uncommon to see boys working as car mechanics or in metal workshops,
surrounded by dangerous equipment, said Contin.
In rural areas children usually work in agriculture. Many are involved in the cultivation of qat -- a natural
narcotic that's legal in Yemen -- often working alone at night to guard qat plants from thieves, she
added.

18. By Jenny Cuffe
BBC World Service, Assignment
Child marriage and divorce in Yemen
By Jenny Cuffe
BBC World Service, Assignment
A narrow path leads up from the mountain town of Jibla, through century-old houses, and turns into a
mud track before reaching the door of Arwa's home.
Arwa, 9
Arwa is making history by requesting a divorce aged just nine
The nine year old child lives with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a humble, two-roomed
house overlooking the mosque built by her namesake, Queen Arwa, who ruled Yemen 900 years ago.
She knows nothing of wealth and power but, in her own way, she has helped make history.

19. Arwa is the youngest of three Yemeni girls who recently went to court complaining they were married
against their will and asking for divorce - an astonishing display of defiance that has prompted the
government to review its law on early marriage.
The child's dark eyes shine from a pale face framed by her black headscarf. Her expression is eloquent
yet she struggles to find words for what she's suffered.
Earlier this year, her father announced she was to be married, ignoring her tears of protest. She claims
to have forgotten her husband's name and all she will say about him is that he seemed tall and old.
Sold off
Coming in from the street where he's been digging drains, Abdul Mohammed Ali takes up the story. He
describes how a stranger, a man in his mid forties, approached him in the market asking if he knew of
any marriageable girls.
Jibla in Yemen
Jibla village has been in the news since Arwa's request

20. After visiting their home and seeing Arwa and her 15-year-old sister, he opted for the younger child.
Abdul Ali says the man promised he would wait for the girl to reach puberty before calling her to his
house but then changed his mind and came to live with them.
So why did he sell his daughter to a stranger?
"He gave me 30,000 rial ($150, £90) and promised another 400,000 ($2,000). I was really in need of
money and thought it was a solution for the family," he explains.
For seven months, Arwa's husband shared the small room where the family eat, play and sleep.
When Arwa fought off his advances, she was beaten. The torment only came to an end when her
husband and father quarrelled and Abdul Ali gave her permission to seek outside help.
At this point in the narrative, she finds her voice again, describing how she went looking for a neighbour
who could lend her money for the journey to court where the judge took pity on her and granted her
freedom.
A medical examination showed that she had been sexually molested but was still technically a virgin
Arwa's audacity in seeking a divorce was inspired by the example of Nujood, another young girl from the
capital, Sanaa, who has become a national celebrity.

21. Prophet's example
A third girl, Reem is still waiting for the court's decision and says her two ambitions are to get a divorce
and go to college.
Married at 12, she describes the moment when her 30-year-old husband insisted on sex. When she
resisted, he choked and bit her and dragged her by the hair, overwhelming her with force.
Reem, aged12
Reem wants a divorce and then a college education

22. She was imprisoned for 11 days in his house and tried to kill herself with a kitchen knife before being
rescued by her mother.
Although Yemen has a law stating that 15 is the marriageable age, it is frequently flouted, particularly in
poor rural areas where society is run along tribal lines.
Members of Parliament have recently been debating an amendment raising the age limit to 18, but
progress has ground to a halt in the face of strong opposition from conservatives.
Sheikh HamoudHashim al-Tharihi is general secretary of the increasingly influential Vice and Virtue
Committee and a member of the Islah Party. He cites the example of the Prophet Muhammad who
married six-year-old Aisha but waited for consummation till she was a little older.
"Because this happened to the Prophet, we cannot tell people that it is prohibited to marry at an early
age," he argues. Moreover, he claims it would harm society by spreading vice.
Bitter fight ahead

23. Yemen's Minister for Social Affairs, Professor Amat al-Razzak Hammed, recognises that the government
needs to compromise and would personally opt for a legal age of 16.
Arwa and her father Abdul Ali
Arwa hopes that money will not tempt her father to marry her off again
She emphasises the importance of a legal framework enabling courts to punish fathers who marry their
children off early and officials who sign the marriage contracts, and says the government has consulted
Islamic scholars to ensure that it can be done in accordance with Sharia.
With parliamentary elections next year, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government may be reluctant to
alienate the growing forces of Islamic fundamentalism, so women's rights campaigners are preparing for
a bitter fight. They are concerned that, with the global economic down-turn, more families will be under
pressure to sacrifice their young daughters.
At her home in Jibla, Arwa is putting the past behind her and returning to childish games of hide and
seek in the narrow passageways near her home.
But, without a firm lead from government, her father Abdul Ali may be tempted a second time to take
money for his daughter's hand in marriage, curtailing her childhood once and for all.
Child bride, 13, dies of internal injuries four days after arranged marriage in Yemen

24. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
1264729/Child-bride-13-dies-internal-injuries-days-arranged-
marriage-Yemen.html#ixzz1pHqtB9HG
A 13-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal injuries four days after a family-arranged marriage to a man
almost twice her age, a human rights group said.
Ilham Mahdi al Assi died last Friday in a hospital in Yemen's Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab Forum for
Human Rights said, quoting a medical report.
She was married the previous Monday in a traditional arrangement known as a 'swap marriage', in
which the brother of the bride also married the sister of the groom, it said.
Sigrid Kaag, regional director for UNICEF, said in a statement that the United Nations child agency was
'dismayed by the death of yet another child bride in Yemen'.

25. 'Elham is a martyr of abuse of children's lives in Yemen and a clear example of what is justified by the
lack of limits on the age of marriage,' SAF said in a statement.
A medical report from al-Thawra hospital said she suffered a tear to her genitals and severe bleeding.
The Yemeni rights group said the girl was married off in an agreement between two men to marry each
other's sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices.
The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and drew the attention of international
rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages.
Legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry is in serious peril after
strong opposition from some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders.
The group said that was a common arrangement in the deeply impoverished country.
Yemen's gripping poverty plays a role in hindering efforts to stamp out the practice, as poor families find
themselves unable to say no to bride-prices in the hundreds of dollars for their daughters.
More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15, according to a report last year by the
Social Affairs Ministry.
Tribal custom also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient
wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.
Last month, a group of the country's highest Islamic authorities declared those supporting a ban on child
marriages to be apostates.

26. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to
parliament's constitutional committee for review after some politicians called it un-Islamic. The
committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation this month.
Some of the clerics who signed the decree against a ban sit on the committee.
Further imperilling the effort is the weak government's reluctance to confront the clerics and other
conservative tribal officials, whose support is essential to their fragile hold on power.
The issue of Yemen's child brides got widespread attention three years ago when an eight-year-old girl
boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s.
She eventually won a divorce, and legislators began looking at ways to curb the practice.
In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labour to give
birth, a local human rights organisation said.
Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but parliament annulled that law in the 1990s,
saying parents should decide when a daughter marries.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1264729/Child-bride-13-dies-internal-injuries-
days-arranged-marriage-Yemen.html#ixzz1pHrAxHgGA Yemeni woman clothed in full Muslim dress (file
photo). International rights groups are fighting to end the practice of child marriages in the country
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1264729/Child-bride-13-dies-internal-injuries-
days-arranged-marriage-Yemen.html#ixzz1pHrPVYiy.

27. YEMEN: Children killed, traumatized by upsurge in violence
TAIZ, 5 April 2011 (IRIN) - Mohammed Munif's three daughters were stunned by the sight of their
teacher bleeding from the head after being hit by a stone during a protest, and further traumatized
when their 12-year-old brother Ahmad was hit by a stray bullet in Yemen's highland city of Taiz on 3
April.
“I was on my way back from school when the police were firing at protesters in the neighbourhood,"
said Ahmad, who was receiving treatment at a local clinic. "A stray bullet hit me on my back below my
neck.”
Still wearing his blood-stained uniform, Ahmad said the bullet was fired as security forces used live
ammunition to disperse an anti-government protest heading towards the presidential palace.
For the three girls, aged 7-11, the incident has worsened their fears. “My eldest daughter Sarah saw her
female teacher bleeding from her head after `thugs’ hurled stones at a female teachers’ protest last
week,” 40-year-old Mohammed told IRIN. “Now, she is scared. She refuses to go to school without me
escorting her."

28. Many other Yemeni children have been affected by the violence that has accompanied nationwide
protests which began in February against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
School heads are concerned the escalating violence is adversely affecting not only students’ attendance,
but behaviour and performance as well. “Children are becoming more aggressive and have a higher
tendency to fight," Jamila al-Mujahid, principal of the Sana’a-based MuadhIbnJabal School, told the UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
"I found political slogans painted on some children’s arms," she added. "Kids are not used to seeing and
experiencing such violence. What is going on now is a crime against childhood.”
Zaeem al-Maqtari, deputy principal of Omar al-Mukhtar School in Taiz city, told IRIN: "The road to our
school has become risky due to frequent violent confrontations between government troops and
protesters - and there has been poor student attendance in our school as a result.”
Some 20 children killed
According to local NGO Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP), at least 22 children were
killed and more than 200 injured during the protests in March 2011.
UNICEF puts the total number of children killed since the protests began at 19. "This is an estimated 20
percent of the total number of casualties and is absolutely alarming," said George Abu-Zulof, a UNICEF
child protection specialist.
Photo: Adel Yahya/IRIN
This child was killed in a protest on 25 February in Sanaa. A caption under his picture says he is a martyr
Of the 52 people shot dead during a massive crackdown on protesters in front of Sana’a University on
18 March, at least two were children - killed about 250 metres from their home. On 28 March, 15-year-
old Mohib Abdullah Hussein was killed by security forces in front of his father in Taiz Street in Sana’a.

29. SOCP accused the police of taking “advantage of the state of emergency currently enforced in the
country” to commit abuses against children. Contacted for comment, officers at Sabaeen police station
which is responsible for security in the neighbourhood where Mohib was killed, told IRIN the incident
was under investigation. The perpetrators, they added, had not yet been identified.
Exploited
Samir al-Mathaji, general secretary of the NGO My Childhood Organization, speaking to the Yemen
Observer newspaper, accused various political organizations, including the six-party opposition coalition
known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) and the ruling General People’s Congress party (GPC), of using
children in demonstrations.
“This is considered a breach of all international conventions on child rights, since children are not aware
of the purposes of these demonstrations,” he said, urging the leaderships of the “Youth Revolution”,
JMP, and government-aligned forces not to allow children to join protesters.
SOCP Chairman Ahmad al-Qurashi said some parents had also sent their children to participate in
demonstrations. “They are unaware that they are exposing them to risk and increasing their
vulnerability to fatal dangers,” he said.
Last month, Education Minister Abdul-Salam al-Jawfi warned that the government would punish any
person involving children in protests, calling upon all to respect schools. “We will not be lenient with
those irresponsible individuals attempting to undermine the educational process,” he said, following
reports that some protesters in Aden had threatened to burn down schools if teachers and pupils
refused to join the protests.
On 2 April, some local human rights groups also announced they would take legal action against
protesters for using children in political marches. They urged the Human Rights Council in Geneva to
look into the case.
ay/eo/cb

30. Theme (s): Children, Conflict, Education, Human Rights, Urban Risk,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Child Bride in Yemen Bleeds to Death
A 13-year-old in an arranged marriage bleeds to death four days after her wedding.

31. Warning: this is a terribly sad story.
In Yemen, arranging child marriages is a popular practice, with more than a quarter of Yemen's females
being married under the age of 15. This is partly because of the tribal belief that, the younger the bride,
the better the chance that she will be obedient to her husband. These marriages are also very tempting
to poor families, as the husband must pay the family for his underage bride.
So, children as young as 12 and 13 are being married to men in their 20s and older. Girls like one 13-
year-old from Hajja province, who was married to a 23-year-old man, and then died just four days after
their wedding. She bled to death – from a tear in her genitals.
Read Preteen in Debt Due to FarmVille Obsession
Her husband was her brother's good friend, and the two had arranged to "exchange" their sisters
because it would be cheaper than usual bride-prices. The husband has since been detained by
authorities after his wife's death on April 2.
In September, another child bride (this time, a 12-year-old), died after struggling to give birth for three
full days.
Unfortunately, Yemen authorities can't agree on what the appropriate age limit should be on child
marriages. The minimum age used to be 15, but that was annulled in the 1990s. Last year, a law set the
minimum at 17, but that was repealed and sent back to parliament for review. A final decision on the
law is expected to be announced this month. (Newser)
Childhood lymphomas in Yemen.Clinicopathological study.

32. Al-Samawi AS, Aulaqi SM, Al-Thobhani AK.
Source
Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sana'a University, PO Box 13078,
Sana'a, Yemen. abdullahalsamawi@yahoo.com
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To find out the frequency of childhood lymphomas in all ages, and to describe patterns of lymphomas in
relation to gender and site in Yemen.
METHODS:
This is a descriptive record-based study of 1167 cases of lymphomas diagnosed by 3 pathologists in the
Department of Pathology, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen from 1st January 2004 to 30th December
2007. The diagnoses were made on hematoxylin and eosin stained, and categorized non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma (NHL) according to the National Cancer Institute Working Formulation classification, and
Hodgkin's disease (HD) according to Rye classification.
RESULTS:
Out of 1167 lymphomas, 801 (68.6%) were NHL, and 366 (31.4%) were HD, amongst these 347 (29.7%)
were patients aged < or = 18 years, and 221 (63.7%) had NHL, and 126 (36.3%) had HD. The NHL found
was Burkitt (64.8%), diffuse large cell lymphoma (23%), lymphoblastic lymphoma (6.3%), and other
miscellaneous types account for 5.9%. The histological types of HD were mixed cellularity (72.3%),
lymphocyte predominance (16.6%), nodular sclerosis (7.9%), lymphocyte depletion (0.8%), and
nonclassified cases (2.4%). The female to male ratio was 1:1.7. The nodal site accounts for 205 (59%)
cases, and 142 (41%) were extranodal. The HD was totally nodal, whereas NHL showed 37.4% nodal, and
62.6% extranodal.
CONCLUSION:

33. Childhood lymphomas in this study is of high grade NHL, and of less favorable prognostic type in HD.
This indicates that childhood lymphomas in Yemen have similar patterns as that found in other
international studies.
Child Brides
Too Young to Wed
The secret world of child brides
By Cynthia Gorney
Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair
Because the wedding was illegal and a secret, except to the invited guests, and because marriage rites in
Rajasthan are often conducted late at night, it was well into the afternoon before the three girl brides in
this dry farm settlement in the north of India began to prepare themselves for their sacred vows. They

34. squatted side by side on the dirt, a crowd of village women holding sari cloth around them as a
makeshift curtain, and poured soapy water from a metal pan over their heads. Two of the brides, the
sisters Radha and Gora, were 15 and 13, old enough to understand what was happening. The third, their
niece Rajani, was 5. She wore a pink T-shirt with a butterfly design on the shoulder. A grown-up helped
her pull it off to bathe.
The grooms were en route from their own village, many miles away. No one could afford an elephant or
the lavishly saddled horses that would have been ceremonially correct for the grooms' entrance to the
wedding, so they were coming by car and were expected to arrive high-spirited and drunk. The only
local person to have met the grooms was the father of the two oldest girls, a slender gray-haired farmer
with a straight back and a drooping mustache. This farmer, whom I will call Mr. M, was both proud and
wary as he surveyed guests funneling up the rocky path toward the bright silks draped over poles for
shade; he knew that if a nonbribable police officer found out what was under way, the wedding might
be interrupted mid-ceremony, bringing criminal arrests and lingering shame to his family.
Rajani was Mr. M's granddaughter, the child of his oldest married daughter. She had round brown eyes,
a broad little nose, and skin the color of milk chocolate. She lived with her grandparents. Her mother
had moved to her husband's village, as rural married Indian women are expected to do, and this
husband, Rajani's father, was rumored to be a drinker and a bad farmer. The villagers said it was the
grandfather, Mr. M, who loved Rajani most; you could see this in the way he had arranged a groom for
her from the respectable family into which her aunt Radha was also being married. This way she would
not be lonely after her gauna, the Indian ceremony that marks the physical transfer of a bride from her
childhood family to her husband's. When Indian girls are married as children, the gauna is supposed to
take place after puberty, so Rajani would live for a few more years with her grandparents—and Mr. M
had done well to protect this child in the meantime, the villagers said, by marking her publicly as
married.
These were things we learned in a Rajasthan village during AkhaTeej, a festival that takes place during
the hottest months of spring, just before the monsoon rains, and that is considered an auspicious time
for weddings. We stared miserably at the 5-year-old Rajani as it became clear that the small girl in the T-
shirt, padding around barefoot and holding the pink plastic sunglasses someone had given her, was also
to be one of the midnight ceremony's brides. The man who had led us to the village, a cousin to Mr. M,
had advised us only that a wedding was planned for two teenage sisters. That in itself was risky to
disclose, as in India girls may not legally marry before age 18. But the techniques used to encourage the
overlooking of illegal weddings—neighborly conspiracy, appeals to family honor—are more easily
managed when the betrothed girls have at least reached puberty. The littlest daughters tend to be
added on discreetly, their names kept off the invitations, the unannounced second or third bride at their
own weddings.

35. Rajani fell asleep before the ceremonials began. An uncle lifted her gently from her cot, hoisted her over
one of his shoulders, and carried her in the moonlight toward the Hindu priest and the smoke of the
sacred fire and the guests on plastic chairs and her future husband, a ten-year-old boy with a golden
turban on his head.
The outsider's impulse toward child bride rescue scenarios can be overwhelming: Snatch up the girl,
punch out the nearby adults, and run. Just make it stop. Above my desk, I have taped to the wall a
photograph of Rajani on her wedding night. In the picture it's dusk, six hours before the marriage
ceremony, and her face is turned toward the camera, her eyes wide and untroubled, with the
beginnings of a smile. I remember my own rescue fantasies roiling that night—not solely for Rajani,
whom I could have slung over my own shoulder and carried away alone, but also for the 13- and the 15-
year-old sisters who were being transferred like requisitioned goods, one family to another, because a
group of adult males had arranged their futures for them.
The people who work full-time trying to prevent child marriage, and to improve women's lives in
societies of rigid tradition, are the first to smack down the impertinent notion that anything about this
endeavor is simple. Forced early marriage thrives to this day in many regions of the world—arranged by
parents for their own children, often in defiance of national laws, and understood by whole
communities as an appropriate way for a young woman to grow up when the alternatives, especially if
they carry a risk of her losing her virginity to someone besides her husband, are unacceptable.
Child marriage spans continents, language, religion, caste. In India the girls will typically be attached to
boys four or five years older; in Yemen, Afghanistan, and other countries with high early marriage rates,
the husbands may be young men or middle-aged widowers or abductors who rape first and claim their
victims as wives afterward, as is the practice in certain regions of Ethiopia. Some of these marriages are
business transactions, barely adorned with additional rationale: a debt cleared in exchange for an 8-
year-old bride; a family feud resolved by the delivery of a virginal 12-year-old cousin. Those, when they
happen to surface publicly, make for clear and outrage-inducing news fodder from great distances away.
The 2008 drama of Nujood Ali, the 10-year-old Yemeni girl who found her way alone to an urban
courthouse to request a divorce from the man in his 30s her father had forced her to marry, generated
worldwide headlines and more recently a book, translated into 30 languages: I am Nujood, Age 10 and
Divorced.
But inside a few of the communities in which parent-arranged early marriage is common practice—amid
the women of Rajani's settlement, for example, listening to the mournful sound of their songs to the

36. bathing brides—it feels infinitely more difficult to isolate the nature of the wrongs being perpetrated
against these girls. Their educations will be truncated not only by marriage but also by rural school
systems, which may offer a nearby school only through fifth grade; beyond that, there's the daily bus
ride to town, amid crowded-in, predatory men. The middle school at the end of the bus ride may have
no private indoor bathroom in which an adolescent girl can attend to her sanitary needs. And schooling
costs money, which a practical family is surely guarding most carefully for sons, with their more readily
measurable worth. In India, where by long-standing practice most new wives leave home to move in
with their husbands' families, the Hindi term parayadhan refers to daughters still living with their own
parents. Its literal meaning is "someone else's wealth."
Remember this too: The very idea that young women have a right to select their own partners—that
choosing whom to marry and where to live ought to be personal decisions, based on love and individual
will—is still regarded in some parts of the world as misguided foolishness. Throughout much of India, for
example, a majority of marriages are still arranged by parents. Strong marriage is regarded as the union
of two families, not two individuals. This calls for careful negotiation by multiple elders, it is believed,
not by young people following transient impulses of the heart.
So in communities of pressing poverty, where nonvirgins are considered ruined for marriage and
generations of ancestors have proceeded in exactly this fashion—where grandmothers and great-aunts
are urging the marriages forward, in fact, insisting, I did it this way and so shall she—it's possible to see
how the most dedicated anti-child-marriage campaigner might hesitate, trying to fathom where to
begin. "One of our workers had a father turn to him, in frustration," says Sreela Das Gupta, a New Delhi
health specialist who previously worked for the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW),
one of several global nonprofits working actively against early marriage. "This father said, 'If I am willing
to get my daughter married late, will you take responsibility for her protection?' The worker came back
to us and said, 'What am I supposed to tell him if she gets raped at 14?' These are questions we don't
have answers to."
Child bride, 12, dies in Yemen after struggling to give birth for
THREE days
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213168/Fawziya-Abdullah-Youssef-dies-labour-
Child-bride-12-dies-Yemen-struggling-birth-THREE-days.html#ixzz1pHuOu5ja

37. The issue of child brides came to prominence in the country two
years ago when ten-year-old Nujood Ali (pictured) went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a
judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213168/Fawziya-Abdullah-Youssef-dies-labour-
Child-bride-12-dies-Yemen-struggling-birth-THREE-days.html#ixzz1pHudWgqO