Following are excerpts from a report on child marriage in Yemen, which aired on Sky News Arabia on September 18, 2013.
Reporter: Saada and Amina are two victims of child marriage. Saada got married and gave birth to two children. Together, they face an uncertain future, after her husband abandoned them.
Saada: I don't want a man or anything. I just want to study. It is not good to marry off girls when they are little children. It is better for them to complete their studies, to grow up, and only then to get married, so their fate won't be like mine, suffering humiliation.
Reporter: Her sister Amina was married at the age of 13. The marriage lasted only a few months, after which she fled to her family, where she suffers the same fate as her sister.
In the absence of laws prohibiting this phenomenon and setting a minimum age for marriage, the tragedy of minor girls being married off continues.
Child marriage is an old-new issue. Some attribute it to poverty, illiteracy, and the lack of awareness of the health and social hazards that accompany this phenomenon.
But every time another victim joins the ranks of the so-called "death brides," the debate flares up again.
Yemen man: Child marriage in Yemen is not a phenomenon, as some claim. This is an attempt by some organizations to benefit by creating a problem where it does not exist.
Protestor: Nobody should trivialize this. It is, indeed, a prevalent phenomenon. We hear of dozens of young girls who are killed every day.
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