Yemeni Girl Who Evaded Child Marriage, Says She'd 'Rather Die' Than Get Married Off (VIDEO)

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<object id="flashObj" classid="clsid<img src=" images="" smilies="" bigsmile.gif"="" border="0" alt="" title="<img src=" smilieid="553">Nada Al-Ahdal, Yemeni Girl Who Evaded Child Marriage, Says She'd 'Rather Die' Than Get Married Off (VIDEO)

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In a bone-chilling three minutes, a young girl who evaded child marriage tells the world that she would &#8220;rather die,&#8221; than be forced to undergo an arranged marriage.

After learning that her parents had plans to marry her off to a wealthy suitor, brave Nada al-Ahdal of Yemen risked her life and fled to the refuge of her uncle. The precocious little girl, who saw how her teenage aunt took her own life after being abused in an arranged marriage, shared in a harrowing translated video the cruelty of the child bride practice.

&#8220;I would have had no life, no education. Don&#8217;t they have any compassion?,&#8221; Nada asks. &#8220;I&#8217;m better off dead. I&#8217;d rather die [than be forced into a marriage].&#8221;

According to NOW News, Nada&#8217;s uncle, Abdel Salam al-Ahdal, a montage and graphics technician at a TV station, has protected his niece from being married off twice. Nada&#8217;s parents first accepted an offer from a wealthy expatriate, but al-Ahdel intervened and told the prospective groom that Nada was not nearly modest enough for him, in order to &#8220;scare him off.&#8221;

&#8220;When I heard about the groom, I panicked," he told NOW. &#8220;Nada was not even 11 years old; she was exactly 10 years and 3 months. I could not allow her to be married off and have her future destroyed.&#8221;

When Nada&#8217;s mother tried once again to marry off her daughter against her will, Nada -- despite threats that she could be killed -- fled to her uncle&#8217;s once more, and filed a complaint with the police. She&#8217;ll now be living with al-Ahdal permanently.

But such forced marriages, like Nada's, are on the rise across the globe.

According to a World Vision study released in March, more child brides are being led into arranged marriages due to an increase in global poverty and crises.

Parents who live in fear of natural disasters, political instability and financial ruin look to arranged marriages as a way to save their struggling families.

Every day, 39,000 girls, younger than 18, will marry according to the World Health Organization.

"Women have no rights to give an opinion in the family," Humaiya, a 16-year-old from Bangladesh who managed to escape marriage, told The Huffington Post in March. "My father didn't listen."

Nada, whose video on YouTube has already garnered more than 2 million hits, hopes that the world will hear her message loud and clear.
&#8220;They have killed our dreams. They have killed everything inside us," Nada said in the video. &#8220;This is no upbringing. This is criminal, simply criminal.&#8221;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/nada-al-ahdal-child-bride_n_3634468.html

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Now, this is from me: I wish you the best Nada, you're a very intelligent little girl. I know you will achieve your full potential. May you forever be healthy and happy. *hugs* (Yeah i know she won't read this message, it is more of a wish).
 
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That's really sick. No child should get married until yes at least the age 18, not even if you're being forced to.
 
That's so horrible! such people shouldn't have kids. What a brave little girl Nada is. From the way she was speaking I can tell she is going to be a very educated and successful woman.

That's really sick. No child should get married until yes at least the age 18, not even if you're being forced to.

I agree with most of what you said, but you have to understand that we live in a day and age where it nowadays is a norm and is very much possible for a 14 or 15 year old to get pregnant/have abortions or for a boy of the same age to father a child (The statistics regarding teenage abortions and pregnancies are getting worse with time).

I think marriage is a realistic solution here because of the legal rights and obligations it offers to protect individuals and the rights of the resulting offsprings. No one should be forced; However, if they want to, I don't see anything wrong with it.

I think people under 18 should be allowed to marry so they maybe able take some shared legal responsibility (unlike in cases where the girl left to take care of the child by herself which usually is the case). That is why I guess States in the US like New Hampshire, New York and South Carolina allow the ages 13, 14 and 15 respectively.

Regardless, nobody should be forced to do anything (not just marriage).
 
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I agree with most of what you said, but you have to understand that we live in a day and age where it nowadays is a norm and is very much possible for a 14 or 15 year old to get pregnant/have abortions or for a boy of the same age to father a child (The statistics regarding teenage abortions and pregnancies are getting worse with time). I think marriage is a realistic solution here because of the legal rights and obligations it offers to protect individual rights and rights of the offsprings. No one should be forced; However, if they want to, I don't see anything wrong with that. I think they should be allowed to marry so they maybe able take some shared legal responsibility (instead of the girl left to take care of the child alone with her parents which usually is the case). That is why I guess States in the US like New Hampshire, New York and South Carolina allow the ages 13, 14 and 15 respectively.

Regardless, nobody should be forced to do anything (not just marriage).

Exactly. But what I'm saying a child should not be forced to get married, it's not right. Still that kid did the right thing getting away from it all.
 
The story is all over the news – days ago, Rawan, an 8-year-old Yemeni girl was sold by her parents, forced to marry a man five times her age and on her “wedding night”, her fragile young body sustained fatal injuries.

Right now, the collective horror of the world is focused on the devastating death of an 8-year-old girl. We’ve seen thousands of emails, Facebook posts and tweets from our community calling for action. We know that ending Forced Child Marriage everywhere poses big obstacles and yet, this may be one of few fleeting moments when millions of at-risk girls are counting on the support of a global movement of activists. We’re not going to let them down.

Forced Child Marriage is a form of modern slavery, and in Yemen there is no law that makes it illegal. It’s common for girls as young as 8 to be forced to marry to settle debts. In fact, 50% of girls in Yemen are married before they reach the age of 18.

The Yemeni Government has the power to bring an end to Forced Child Marriage forever; the first step is to ban the marriage of anyone under the age of 18, protecting children from a life of domestic and sexual slavery. The Yemeni government needs to know that the eyes of the world are watching and expect their swift response. Will you help?


Take action
http://e-activist.com/ea-action/act...RmRu0qV6W0u5rR6M54Gl&ea_broadcast_target_id=0
 
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