no words, except that it is happening right now

Child Bride, 12, Dies While Giving Birth

A 12-year-old child bride has died after struggling to give birth to a baby for three days, a human rights organisation in Yemen has said.

Fawziya Abdullah Youssef suffered severe bleeding while giving birth to a stillborn infant in Hodeida province, 140 miles (223km) west of the capital San'a, on Friday.

She was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, according to Ahmed al Quraishi from the Siyaj organisation, which promotes the rights of children in Yemen.

He said he stumbled upon Fawziya in the al Zahra district hospital while investigating cases of youngsters who had fled from fighting in the north of the country.

"This is one of many cases that exist in Yemen," Mr al Quraishi said.

"The reason behind it is the lack of education and awareness, forcing many girls into marriage in this very early age.".......

via

there IS a difference

between FORCED marriage and arranged marriage. quite a big one. (i happen to work in an industry that has a LOT of people from india in it. india born as well as those born here of indian descent. as a culture, everyone, those new to this country and those born here seem to accept ARRANGED marriages. that is fine with me as long as everyone consents. to be FORCED to marry someone, well that's a whole OTHER story. and yes the story below is NOT about people of indian descent. i'm just pointing out the difference between FORCED and arranged). i'm not saying this is a pakistani happening only. warren jeffs ring a bell with anyone?

A British Diplomat's Mission Of Rescue

Forced Marriages in Pakistan Prevented

By Mary Jordan

Washington Post Foreign Service
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Helen Rawlins climbed into her Toyota Land Cruiser at 7:30 in the morning, off to rescue another woman.

The British diplomat settled into the back seat as she whizzed by the baking bustle of the Pakistani countryside: the women in colorful head scarves sitting in three-wheeled rickshaws, donkey carts piled high with mangoes, and elaborately painted buses where women sit apart from men.

Rawlins knew a tense confrontation awaited. Lately, she had been making a trip such as this once a week -- to help British women of Pakistani descent lured to this country and forced, sometimes at gunpoint, into marriage.................

88% of the women are illiterate

57% are forced to marry prior to their 16th birthday. 1 in 9 women dies giving birth. they're offered in trade, just like a cow or a bushel of grain. yeah, we're REALLY making a difference.
Women's lives worse than ever
By Terri Judd
Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.
Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
Six years after the US and Britain "freed" Afghan women from the oppressive Taliban regime, a new report proves that life is just as bad for most, and worse in some cases.
Projects started in the optimistic days of 2002 have begun to wane as the UK and its Nato allies fail to treat women's rights as a priority, workers in the country insist..........

............The banned practice of offering money for a girl is still rampant – along with exchanging her as restitution for crime, debt or dispute. With the going price for a child bride at £800 to £2,000 – as much as three years salary for a labourer – many grooms are forced to take loans or swap their sisters instead, explained Partawmina Hashemee, the director of the Afghan Women Resource Centre..................

repent, do your duty

even though you are only 14 or 15 (or goddess knows how YOUNG), spread your legs for your new (AND OLDER) 'husband'.

jeffs and everyone like him need to be locked up for good. taken off of the streets. it hasn't happened yet. whole towns are run by people with these beliefs. mayors and law enforcement and owners of hardware stores.....................

well after all it's ONLY a grrrl child isn't it?

Polygamy and Forced Sex in the Name of God

By Ellen Goodman, Washington Post Writers Group.

............To hear the alleged victim, known only as Jane Doe, describe her marriage is to be as deeply saddened as the jury was. After resisting Jeffs' order to marry her 19-year-old first cousin, she found herself at the altar, head hanging, forcing out the words, "OK, I do." After refusing sex, she went back to Jeffs for counsel and was told to "repent," to "do your duty," and be "obedient." And so the girl who didn't know what sex was or where children came from says she was forced to submit to her husband.
Did this teenager make her own choice? We forget how the rules governing consent have changed. Conflicting state laws now navigate between a girl's sexual maturity and her vulnerability. In many states, including Utah, a girl can marry with her parents' permission at a younger age than she can have sex.
But this case raises a different question about consent. How much power did the religious leader wield over the 14-year-old? If you refused to marry the chosen husband, Doe testified, you would "lose your chance at salvation." How could she refuse to obey the husband who was "my ticket into heaven"?...............