Photo: David Swanson/IRIN
Early marriage hampering country's development, says report by Save the Children Sweden in cooperation with Gender-Development Research and Studies Center at Sanaa University, The report entitled Gender Based Sexual Violence Against Teenage Girls in the Middle East, illustrates how Yemeni girls are deprived of their child rights when they are prepared for motherhood at an early age.
“It should not be allowed because it deprives a girl of enjoying her childhood.”, stated one Yemeni girl in the report.
“Such a role creates an apprehension among girls and their families that marrying is the primary goal for girls,” said the report's research leader, Pernilla Ouis. In Yemen, conservative social values and poverty force girls to marry and become young mothers before the age of 18, said Ouis.