When will Muslims protest this????
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| Mon, 09-14-2009 - 2:06pm |
((Yemeni girl, 12, dies in painful childbirth
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, died during a painful childbirth that also killed her baby, a children's rights group said Monday.
Fawziya Ammodi struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a hospital on Friday, said the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.
"Although the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening," said Seyaj President Ahmed al-Qureshi.
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, al-Qureshi said.
Child brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs hold sway. Hodeidah is the fourth largest city in Yemen and an important port.
More than half of all young Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18 -- many times to older men, some with more than one wife, a study by Sanaa University found.
While it was not immediately known why Fawziya's parents married her off, the reasons vary. Sometimes, financially-strapped parents offer up their daughters for hefty dowries.
Marriage means the girls are no longer a financial or moral burden to their parents. And often, parents will extract a promise from the husband to wait until the girl is older to consummate the marriage.
The issue of Yemeni child brides came to the forefront in 2008 with 10-year-old Nujood Ali.
She was pulled out of school and married to a man who beat and raped her within weeks of the ceremony.
To escape, Nujood hailed a taxi -- the first time in her life -- to get across town to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge.
After a well-publicized trial, she was granted a divorce.
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))
Muslims around the world will gather to protest a stupid Danish cartoon, but will do nothing to stop atrocities like this. Why do Muslims around the world allow these gross violations of human rights? Why does America and other civilized countries allow this to continue?

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**~I totally disagree. We certainly don't feel that way about AIDS, now do we? We get involved in those cultures to spread awareness and educate them on the disease and how it is spread. We certainly didn't leave it to "their cultures" to change their attitudes towards the disease.~
I'm not sure that educating people about a particular illness is the same sort of situation as eradicating thousands of years old attitudes and laws re: women. Do you see the differences?**
Governments are still able to decide to choose or decline AIDs reflief and in fact, there have been times, they have declined. On another board there is a discussion about genetically modified foods. Some governments have chosen to ban humanitarian aid, if it comes in the form of GM foods. They choose to refuse food, even though people are starving to death, because the food doesen't meet their standards. Therein lies the difference. The governments are free to choose wether or not they accept this kind of "help" from the outside.
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That's a great organization. I also like to buy things from novica.com.
Thanks for the links!
"In most Muslim countries mothers can't give their kids citizenship, only fathers."
I remember the movie, "Not without my daughter" highlighted this, & other,
Hi :) I hope that I'm not bugging you, but I'd really be interested in your answer to my previous question:
"Not to argue, but sincerely interested... you've mentioned Jordan, Afghanistan, and (in the post to which I'm responding) Saudi Arabia. Which other countries do you think the US should cease aiding?"
Tonight I was listening to a repeat of a recent interview with Tom Ridge, your previous Homeland Security Advisor and Secretary.
He pointed out that American humanitarian assistance abroad increases the safety of your citizens, because it undermines the rhetoric of Muslim extremists such as Al-Qaeda, and makes it harder for them to recruit.
It makes sense to me then why you aren't cutting aid in Middle Eastern countries, for example.
What's your take on that?
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