The parents of two children (Nemah Abdullah Al-Shuwaiter, 13 years old, and Hafez Mansour Hameed Al-Hasani, 10 years old) committed themselves in writing not to enforce the marriage until the two children reach the age that qualifies them to take appropriate decisions regarding whether or not to marry each other.
The Monitoring and Advocacy Center assigned legal support official, Akram Noman, and specialist in receiving communications and complaints, Nour Al-Jamie, to follow up on the case.
For their part, the two children confirmed that they had no desire for marriage, but were compelled into it by their parents.
The father of the child Hafez Mansour confirmed that his termination of the marriage contract was a matter of protecting Nemah from the tampering of her parents, who married off her two older sisters Saada and Amna when they were of similar age.
This successful termination comes less than two weeks after Seyaj was able to prevent the marriage of the child Aisha Ibrahim Maqrebash, 12, in the coastal district of Al-Lahiya in the northwest of the country.
Seyaj calls on the Presidency of the Republic of Yemen and the Council of Representatives to quickly enact national legislation that criminalizes the marriage of young girls under the age of 16.
As the legislation cannot solely curb instances of underage marriage, Seyaj advocates for tackling the contributing roots.
Seyaj Organization – November 27, 2013
