The Child -bride matter

I had been indifferent about this issue of child bride marriage and the dangers incidental thereto till I read the 8 year old Yemeni girl who died on her wedding night from wounds sustained while having sex with her shameless 40 year old husband.
The eight-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, This has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides in Yemeni.
On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death.
The girl, identified only as Rawan, was married to a 40-year-old man late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province in northwestern Yemen.

 I call this man shameless because I do not understand the sexual satisfaction a 40 year old man can possibly derive from an 8 year old girl. A child! That’s gross.

It is now crystal clear why activists and women here in Nigeria screamed out in the child- not- bride campaign on hearing that the Nigerian Senate had voted to Legitimize child marriage. The issue also went viral on the internet as people took to the social media to stamp their disapproval.

As I read the Yemeni girl story, so many things were going through my mind, like what do the parents to these girls ( victims of infant marriage)  think of while giving out their  daughters in marriage to these  sick old men? I know poverty is one of the reasons.
I discovered also that in Yemen, Parents marry off young daughters to save on the costs of bringing up a child and earn extra money from the dowry given to the girl.

A U.N. report released in January revealed the extent of the country's poverty, saying that 10.5 million of Yemen's 24 million people lacked sufficient food supplies, and 13 million had no access to safe water and basic sanitation.

As I read her story, I felt shivers run down my spine. The most annoying part is that some people also tried to hide the truth that such happened. Two Meedi residents contacted by Reuters confirmed the incident and said that local tribal chiefs had tried to cover up the incident when the news first broke.

I don’t want to start imagining the trauma the Nigerian girl- child will go through if this crazy law of child marriage is allowed. I encourage every hand to be on deck as we fight this evil. There shouldn’t be any justification for this.