The disturbing world of child brides: Shocking images show girls young enough to be in pre-school who are married off to older men
Ghada* (name changed to protect her identity) was 15 when she fell pregnant with her third child.
For three years, she had been married to an older man - a man her father had paired her with out of perceived necessity.
'My family is poor,' she explained. Her father 'accepted the first proposal for the marriage that came to him, not only for me but for my sisters, not caring that we were only children'.
Child marriage existed in Yemen before the civil war. But years of bitter fighting have exacerbated the issue. Famine looms over the population as the 'fortunate' survive on bread and water. For families like Ghada's, children are an impossible expense.
And so, Ghada was married at 12. Within a year, she gave birth to a baby girl. Her husband, who wanted a son, abused her and forbade her from leaving the house. She was only allowed to see her family when she delivered her second child, a boy.
Ghada pleaded with her father to let her come home. But the family could not afford to feed more people. She went back to her husband and fell pregnant for a third time.
Seeing no way out, Ghada tried to poison herself with pesticide stolen from her husband. She was rescued by her sister-in-law, but still could not return home. It seemed her life had been decided for her.
Ghada's story is not unique. Child marriage does not belong only to Yemen, but festers in countries ravaged by war and instability.
Around the world, hundreds of millions of girls have their own stories of abuse and neglect, bound to men often much older than themselves as a result of trafficking, cultural norms or, indeed, because there are no clear alternatives for a better life.
In the time it takes to read this sentence, another child, somewhere in the world, will have been married.
Nine-year-old Nujood al-Ahdal, whose marriage was terminated by a court, attends a news conference with her lawyer Shatha Nasser in Sanaa, Yemen
A six-year-old girl was forced to marry a 45-year-old man in Afghanistan after she was given away for money. The haunting photo of an older man and a little girl standing together horrified even the Taliban, who intervened with the union.
In the same year as the Taliban came to power, after the Biden Administration's heavily criticised exit, a nine-year-old girl who was sold by her father to a 55-year-old man as a child bride was rescued by a charity. Parwana Malik (centre) was sold for the equivalent of £1,600 in land, sheep and cash to a stranger named Qorban (left) so her father Abdul Malik could pay for food.
Parwana Malik, a nine-year-old girl (pictured) who was sold by her father to a 55-year-old man as a child bride in Afghanistan was rescued by a charity
Ghada's story may not be unique. But it is relatively rare in finding a happy ending.
Edmund Fitton Brown, the UK's Ambassador to Yemen between 2015 and 2017, told MailOnline that before the war, it was common for young girls, 'often below the age of 10', to be married to men many decades older than them.
He said he recalled hearing of girls as young as eight being married.
'Part of the incentive was economic, easing financial burdens on the family. Also for protection and to create a family alliance.'
'All of these drivers have been growing stronger.'
Yemen does not have a minimum legal age for marriage. And Houthi ideology, 'violent and aggressive', has only set back rights for women since their 2014 takeover, while limiting the ability of families to object to imposed marriages.
The impact of child marriage on the children varies case by case, country by country. But girls who marry or cohabit before the age of 18 are, on average, more likely to experience domestic violence, to drop out of school and miss out on developing skills and relationships beyond the home.
Child brides are more likely to become infected with HIV/AIDS, more likely to have children while still a child, and more likely to die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
There are today more than 650 million women suffering the direct consequences of child marriage. Global figures have declined in recent years, but global instability poses new threats to the lives of children around the world.
In times of conflict, families may arrange marriages for girls, believing it will protect their daughters from violence by strangers or armed groups, and to ease financial burdens on the family - as in Ghada's case.
In Yemen more than two-thirds of girls are now married under the age of 18. Before the conflict escalated, this was around one in two.
It is not only war that creates the conditions for child marriage, then. Poverty and wider insecurity lead parents to part with their children, either in the hopes of giving them a better life or reducing costs.
Nor is it the case that legislation necessarily offers a watertight solution.
In China, the minimum age for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women. But there are more than 35 million girls who married before the age of 18.
The effects of China's infamous One Child Policy (1979 to 2015) still drives this in part. Selective abortions favouring sons have resulted in widespread gender imbalance. Coupled with reduced population growth, this may have spurred a trend towards allowing children to marry.
Poverty squeezes the problem. In vulnerable households, girls can be sold as child brides. Families may also 'buy' foreign brides from neighbouring countries. The most popular age of girls for the China 'market' was between 13 and 16 years old.
'These girls typically fetch between $2,000 and $3,000 for 'three years and a baby'.'
After delivering a child and staying with a Chinese man for three years, she may then be sold on to other men in China for 'similar usage'.
Seven-year-old groom Mohammad Waseem (R) sits with his four-year-old bride Nisha (L) and his father Mohammad Ismil in a police station in Karachi, Pakistan
By proportion, child marriage is most prevalent in central Africa, stretching from the coast of Mauritania, in the West, through Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea and ending up at Somalia, in the East. All are experiencing - or have experienced in living memory - internal instability, conflict or insurrection.
Niger has the world’s highest prevalence: 76 per cent of women were married or in a union before 18. The Central African Republic and Chad both report 61 per cent, Mali, 54.
In Bangladesh, 51 per cent of girls are married before the age of 18. Afghanistan reports 29 per cent, just ahead of Iraq on 28.
Afghanistan and Iraq have very different political systems, but neither have rid themselves of child marriage. In Afghanistan, it was reported this week that a six-year-old girl had been forced to marry a 45-year-old man.
The marriage was set to take place on Friday in Helmand province but the Taliban stepped in and arrested the father and the bridegroom. The Taliban said the latter needed to wait until she was nine.
There had been a 25 per cent rise in child marriages in Afghanistan since the Taliban banned girls' education in 2021.
Iraq has amended its personal status law to legalise marriage for girls as young as nine. The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance, allowing clerics to rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law.
These interpretations allow the marriage of girls under the Ja'afari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq. Proponents of the changes, which were advocated by primarily conservative Shiite lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14885977/world-child-brides-marriage-yemen-india-china.html
Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology - a prominent body that advises the government of the Muslim majority nation 'whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam' - has opposed a bill banning child marriage
Pakistani Christians protest against child marriage and forced conversion of Christian child brides to Islam, in Karachi, Pakistan
NikkahGram, a British child bride service for Muslims, describes itself as a service for Muslims who want a 'shy, untouched spouse' and those that support taking more than one wife. Virgin females are able to use the service for free.
NikkahGram's website lists Dr Asif Munaf, who was suspended from the medical register after making anti-Semitic remarks, among its staff. He described Zionism as a Satanic Cult.
Men are advised to beat their wives if they are disobedient
NikkahGram was first founded in 2023 'to facilitate marriage for Muslims who stick to core Islamic values, including taking a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th wife.
Iraqi women hold banners and chant slogans during a protest against the amendment of the Personal Status Law to allowi marriage of girls age 9, at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq
Iraqi women demonstrate against child marriage in Tahrir Square
This amendment will have disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls through the marriage of girls at an early age.
Protesters hold up signs in English and Arabic calling for secular law to protect children
Groom Abdulrzak Ampatuan, 48, sits with his 13-year-old child bride - his fifth wife - in Muslim Mindanao, Philippines, while guests laugh and smile in the background
Ampatuan sits next to his bride dressed in traditional white
A Muslim child bride who fled to Australia has told how she was beaten and abused by her husband, claiming Islam caused her 'nothing but suffering and hardship'
Progress: A new law in New York bans marriage under any condition for anyone under age 18; Naila's Law was named after former child bride Naima Amin
Just a baby: At 13, Naila — a dual US and Pakistan citizen — was taken to Pakistan for a religious marriage ceremony to her 26-year-old cousin
After returning to the US, her father submitted paperwork to get her new husband an American spousal visa. Shockingly, this raised no red flags in the federal government
During her childhood her parents beat her
Amin in her mid-20s turned to activism to help other girls escape and recover from child marriages
She founded the The Naila Amin Foundation, which is working to eradicate child marriage
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