A lawyer arranged for a divorce between 10-year-old Maram and a 40-year-old man, then married Maram himself with the approval of her father
Mother rescues daughters from child marriage in central Yemen
[ 10-year-old Maram (right) and her sister Nidhal, 9, were to be married off to adult men before their mother intervened. ]
Hayat Abdo Mohammed Awadh intervened to save her 10-year-old daughter from an arranged marriage to a 40-year-old man in central Yemen's Ibb governorate.
Awadh filed a complaint with the local Houthi authorities in Ibb on Sunday morning demanding the arrest of her husband, Ali Ali Ahmed Al-Arabi, according to a document seen by Almasdar Online.
The complaint stated that Al-Arabi authorized the marriage of his daughter Maram, 10, and sought to do the same with their younger daughter Nidhal, 9, for money.
A lawyer in the governorate arranged for a divorce between Maram and the 40-year-old man. However, the same lawyer then married Nidhal himself with the approval of her father.
Awadh demanded that the authorities arrest Al-Arabi and prevent him from interfering in their daughters’ lives.
In the meantime, Awadh and her two daughters took refuge with the Yemeni Women's Union, which has assigned a lawyer to hold Al-Arabi and the two men who married Maram accountable, local sources said.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story confused the names of the two sisters. Ten-year-old Maram was married off by her father, not Nidhal, who is nine.
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