Children without childhood: Stories of Yemen's underage brides through a decade of war

Efforts to raise the minimum age of marriage for girls from 15 to 18 were thwarted with the start of war 10 years ago

Hana, now a 20-year-old mother of two, is a victim of underage marriage. She says her husband abused her and abandoned his family. Photo: UNFPA

In a four-part series, The National reflects on a decade of war in Yemen, uncovering 10 years of conflict that has torn apart families, lives and livelihoods. The first part can be found here

Aisha gave birth one year after her marriage when she was just 14, and Amira was forced to marry a 42-year-old man at the age of seven. In Yemen, a lawless and impoverished country devastated by a decade of war, such stories are all too common.

Child marriage, already a widespread issue before, has worsened significantly during the conflict as families, driven by poverty and insecurity, marry off young girls in hopes of survival amid a world filled with hardship and abuse.

The instances of child marriage have not only increased in the past 10 years, but they have also appeared in communities where the issue did not exist before the war, according to Yemeni and UN sources who spoke to The National on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The conflict between the Houthi rebels and the government has resulted in widespread destruction, poverty, and a collapse of basic services. Many Yemenis suffer in silence, with international aid struggling to gather funds and reach those in need, leaving millions on the brink of starvation.

The UN warns that Yemen is at risk of a large-scale famine, with hunger particularly widespread among internally displaced people. At least 2.4 million children, half of them under the age of five, are acutely malnourished, and five million children require life-saving interventions due to starvation.

In 2013, only 17 per cent of girls throughout Yemen were married between the ages of 15 and 18, according to government figures at the time. Today, that number stands at 32.4 per cent in rebel-held areas alone, according to UN figures. However, the numbers are believed to be even higher, as the country is split, and documents are often falsified to allow such cases, making it impossible to know the true extent of the issue.

Two is too many

Aisha gave birth earlier this year. Her young and frail body suffered complications as she brought her daughter Jana into the world. She blames her family for what became of her after they married her off at 13.

“My family forced me to get married and took me out of school,” she shouted.

“What future does my baby have?” asked the young girl.

On the other hand, Amira’s marriage lasted two years. During that time, the now 10-year-old was beaten and tortured by her stepson until she ran away, finding refuge in a local sheikh's home. She now considers him to be her father, and views his wife as her mother.

Amira, whose name was changed to protect her identity, struggles to cope with the trauma she endured.

Like many others, the fates of these two girls were sealed on September 21, 2014, after the Houthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa, and subsequently ruled over 21.6 million people – two-thirds of the country's population – with an iron fist. The war halted all progress in raising the minimum age of marriage for girls in Yemen from 15 to 18.

A 2023 UN report showed that child marriage is more common in poorer households, with 11 per cent of girls married before the age of 15 and 38 per cent married by 18, compared with wealthier households where only five per cent of girls are married before 15 and 23 per cent are married by 18.

“A father who has five daughters [for example] may choose to marry them off,” thinking that he would be “relieving the burden and protecting them,” a member of a local civil society group in Sanaa told The National.

Aisha gave birth at 14 years old. Her young and frail body meant she suffered complications when she brought her daughter Jana into the world. UNFPA

Bribes and forged documents

In Yemen, getting married is a fairly easy and unsupervised process, often relying on the personal judgment of marriage officiants rather than strict protocol. A father's desire to have his daughter married can be so strong that forged documents are often used to fake a young girl's age, the source in Sanaa explained.

Speaking to The National, a lawyer in Yemen's Houthi-run western city of Hodeidah, explained that there are two main reasons why an officiant might ask for a girl's documents to verify her age nowadays.

“This can either be because he opposes underage marriage and is aware of its consequences or because he wants more money from the girl's family or her would-be husband’s family.”

In most cases, a girl’s consent is not required, and her face is not even shown to the judge, so no physical assessment of her age is conducted, the lawyer added.

Hana, now a 20-year-old mother of two, is another victim of underage marriage. At 15, her father informed her she was to be married, taking her away from school and her friends.

“He said it was a form of protection for girls and that there was no better place for a girl than her husband’s house,” she recalled. “I nodded.”

Hana was unaware of the hardships that awaited her. Her relationship with her husband worsened after she gave birth to their first child and began experiencing severe illness and heavy bleeding. “I asked my husband to take me to the hospital. He refused and accused me of pretending to be sick,” she said, adding that “he began beating me violently and even tried to strangle me with a scarf.”

Hana’s husband locked her in a room and took her phone so she could not seek help. She says her son saved her life by running to a neighbour for help. “Through the window, they gave me a mobile phone, and I was able to call my family.”

Back to school

Hana does not know what has become of her husband or whether she is still legally married to him, saying he abandoned them. She now survives on a dollar a day from her brother to feed her children. Without skills or an education, she struggles to find work.

While the Houthis remain in control of the majority of the population and laws on marriage remain lax, a real solution to Yemen's deeply embedded problem of child marriage seems elusive. Until then, the only effective tool to delay marriage for young girls is education.

UN statistics show that child marriage before the age of 18 is most prevalent (41 per cent) among girls with little to no education, slightly less prevalent among girls with basic education (39 per cent), and least common among girls with higher education (8 per cent).

“After education, we can offer vocational training and awareness campaigns for parents to help curb this phenomenon, which effectively ends any girl’s future,” said the source in Sanaa who has worked on gender balance initiatives for the past decade.

Recognising this, Hana says she longs to continue her studies and finish the education she was denied. She has sought help from one of the UN Fund for Development’s women's centres, where she hopes to get legal assistance regarding her marriage.

“I want to go back to school,” stressed the mother of two.