12-year-old bride-child marriage, the reality of domestic violence-April 21, 15:00

When I woke up, I had a severe pain in my face.

It was like a hospital.

Without knowing why I was here, I went to the mirror to find out the reason for the pain, and what I saw there was like a different person.

(Kazuhiro Yamao, Director of Dubai Bureau)

Woman with a wound on her face

"If I hadn't been married to him, I would have finished my studies and would have been able to play with my friends."

This is what Al Anude Shariyan (19 years old), who was interviewed at the hospital, said.

I was hospitalized for terrible violence from my husband.

She had burn marks on the left side of her face and her left eye was barely open.

Sometimes, I couldn't speak well while I was talking, probably because of my face injury.

This time, he responded to the interview, hoping that as many people as possible would know that the damage he had suffered was happening in Yemen.

Life with a happy mother

She was born in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen.

His father was no longer there by the time he was aware of it, and although he was not wealthy, he lived a fulfilling life with his mother and sister.

However, one day when I turned 12, my mother told me something unexpected.

"You're getting married."

Suddenly, I was told that I had a marriage with my cousin, who was over 20 years old.

The reason was that her mother had a serious illness and was thinking about her future.

Even though I'm a cousin, I've never met him and I don't know what kind of person he is.

No wedding was held, she lived in a man's house with anxiety, and a "newlywed life" began.

She was 12 at the time.

It is said that he did not understand the meaning of "marriage" and "marriage life".

Days of violence

For some reason, my husband always had a dissatisfied look on his face.

He didn't even try to talk to her, and every time he screamed at her.

One day after a while, the husband suddenly grabbed her collar and dragged her, chaining her legs to the pillar.

When I asked him to stop, my husband didn't answer anything.

Then, almost every day, I was beaten with a stick.

I couldn't stop crying because of the pain.

I managed to get away from my husband, but I couldn't escape because of the chains.

The violence continued until she fainted.

"He hit me for no reason. I didn't know what he was thinking."

At one point, I was specially allowed to attend a friend's wedding.

However, I thought it would be a fuss when the scars on my body were known to others.

I covered the wound with clothes and couldn't say anything to the surroundings.

It is said that her husband was so scary.

I ran away, but ...

One day, about two years after the "marriage life" began.

She saw a gap and ran away.

I didn't think about the future, I just wanted to escape from the violence in front of me.

I ran away to my sister's house in the same Sanua.

My sister, who saw her full of bruises, immediately hid her in the house.

And she clung to her sister's body and kept crying for a while.

For a while, she escaped the fear of violence, ate her sister's hot dishes, and felt the warmth of her home for the first time in a while.

However, the fear that her husband might come back to bring her back is said to have been stuck in the corner of her head.

Deprived "face"

And that anxiety became a reality last October.

My husband came to my sister's house.

I forced myself into the house and tried to take her home with blood on my head.

But when she paid her husband's hand and refused to go home, she opened the lid of the container she had in her hand and scattered the contents toward her face.

Liquid spilled out of it and spilled onto her face and body.

At the same time, he suffered severe pain all over his body, and he doesn't remember much from there.

"I was in the hospital when I realized it. From then on, I'm just thinking about ending this pain."

She was taken to the hospital and immediately underwent surgery.

It appeared that the drug was exposed to a drug such as sulfuric acid, and had to undergo multiple skin graft surgeries.

And there are more deep scars in her mind than scars on her face and body.

The doctor in charge of her mental care is worried about her mental state.

Dr. Shariri in charge:

"She is becoming afraid that she will do something just by looking at people after the incident. She can't sleep easily, she just cries, and her heart is hurt. I have suffered. "

In February, her husband was arrested by police on suspicion of trying to kill Mr. Shariyan.

However, her wounds do not heal.

Child marriage continues in "Arabia Felix"

Yemen, where Mr. Shariyan lives, is a country with a population of about 30 million located in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, and was once prosperous in agriculture and trade and was once called "Arabia Felix".

However, in recent years Yemen has been one of the poorest economically economical countries in the Middle East, as opposed to the wealthy surrounding oil-producing countries, with long-standing political turmoil and civil war.

Against the background of such poverty, it is said that parents who marry their young daughters are endless in order to get a payment for their lives.

In Yemen, it is not uncommon for teenage girls to get married, and it is said that one of the reasons why "child marriage" has not disappeared is that the habit of deciding the marriage partner and father remains persistent. ..

The United Nations defines marriage under the age of 18 as "child marriage."

UNICEF estimates that in 2020, there will be 4 million “child marriage” girls in Yemen, of whom 1.4 million are under the age of 15.

In addition, the United Nations Population Fund has weakened the position of girls and women in Yemeni society due to the effects of the prolonged civil war, and violence against girls and women has increased by more than 63% in the two years to 2017, with 2.6 million women. It warns that it is at risk of violence.

In fact, when I interviewed the Yemeni Women's Federation, a women's support group in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, the group receives about 60 consultations about violence from her husband every month, most of which are cases of "child marriage." It's called.

Yemen Women's Federation Yune

"There is no law in Yemen that regulates'child marriage', so we must first make a law. The international community will change society and the environment to protect their rights. I want you to support me to go. "

To protect the rights of girls

Mr. interview was Shariyan is now also not stand the prospect of discharge, there was also clogged the words in the middle of the day when I had let the story.

Still, he said he responded to the interview because he didn't want anyone to have an experience like himself, and he strongly hoped that things would improve even a little.

"What happened to me is happening to other children. We are not slaves of anyone, no matter how young we are, we have our own thoughts. Not only the Yemeni people, but the world I want people to understand women like us. "

The United Nations is calling for the protection of girls' rights over "child marriage," but even domestic debate has not progressed in Yemen, where the civil war is intensifying.

I would like to continue to cover their small voices so that the rights of children and women like Mr. Shariyan will not be deprived.

Dubai bureau bureau chief

Kazuhiro Yamao

Joined the Asahikawa bureau to the Social Affairs Department Covered the case of foreigners as the Metropolitan Police Department and the Immigration Bureau at that time.