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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:14 pm
Time: 9:14 pm
Results for child marriages
1 results foundAuthor: International Organization for Migration Title: Pilot Study: Tourist Marriage in Yemen Summary: Definition: For purpose of this research the authors define Tourist Marriage as a legal union between a Yemeni woman and a man from an Arabian Gulf country which was intended by the groom to be of a limited duration - a fact not clearly communicated to the parents, bride or Yemeni officials. Such marriages often occur during the summer months when there are significant tourists from Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC3) countries visiting Yemen. In Yemen, marriage is a formal relationship between two families with the primary purpose of legally producing children which impacts economic status in the immediate term with implications for future generations through inheritance rights. In Yemen's Personal Status Law 1992 (No. 20) provides the legal framework for this central, social institution. Modifications were made to the Personal Status Law in 19984 and in 1999 the minimum marriage age of 15 years was abolished. The amendment tied marital age to a provision allowing the guardian of a minor to marry her off on the condition that she is fit for sexual intercourse at the onset of puberty (interpreted by some more conservative perspectives to be at the age of nine). One aspect of the legal framework for marriage that has generated heated debate in recent years is contradictions between the Personal Status Law and Yemen's CEDAW obligations. A further law relevant to Tourist Marriage is the Nationality Law 1990 (No. 6) and its subsequent amendments. In 2010 the Parliament ratified an amendment to the Nationality Law (Article 3) which gave Yemeni women the right to confer citizenship to their children. Currently, a key driver of changing marriage patterns in Yemen is economics. Increasing costs for the various aspects of marriage in Yemen from the mahr to celebration costs, exacerbated by rising levels of poverty, food insecurity and numbers of conflict-affected populations are all contributing to transforming marriage in Yemen. Poverty rose dramatically from 42 per cent of the population in 2009, to 54.5 per cent in 2012 and food insecurity has increased dramatically. As a result of increasing poverty and rising marriage costs, marriage traditions are transforming. Increasing incidence of mass marriages, consanguineous marriages and shegar marriages are all trends that are heavily influenced by the deteriorating economic situation in Yemen. A further marital trend in Yemen that bears relevance to this study is the issue of early marriage which has gained increasing urgency in Yemen due to increasing levels of poverty exacerbated by long-term displacements as a result of conflict. Among increasingly economically vulnerable Yemenis and conflict-affected populations in the country, one coping strategy has been marrying off girls at a younger and younger age. This practice has perceived benefits to family honour among internally displaced persons (IDPs) and provides the desperately poor with some financial benefits. Following up on NDC recommendations, on 27 April 2014, the Legal Affairs Minister Mohammad Makhlafi submitted to Prime Minister Mohammad Basindawa a draft amendment to the Child Rights Law (2002) which would establish 18 as the minimum marriage age. The practice of temporary marriage dates to pre-Islamic times and was accepted under certain conditions when the first Muslims were away from their homes for extensive periods of time, although it has often been a practice which generated heated religious and social disputes on its legality within Islamic law and its cultural impact. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is an increase in temporary marriages in Muslim countries. Currently, all Yemeni madhahib (doctrines - singular madhhab) condemn the above mentioned practices of temporary marriage including Shafi'i (Sunni), Zaydi (Shi'a) and Ismaili (Shi'a - with an estimated 60,000 Yemeni Dawoodis, more commonly known as Bohras). The practice of Tourist Marriage emerged as a significant trend in the media between 2005 and 2007. In 2003 the first of four Government official decrees and memos was issued by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to regulate Mixed Marriage (defined as a marriage between a Yemeni national and a non-Yemeni). This implies that the practice of Tourist Marriage preceded 2003, possibly going back to 2000. While it is clear that Ibb has had significantly high numbers of Tourist Marriage and, to a lesser degree al-Hodeida, this research found allegations of the practice in the Governorates of Hajja, Taiz, Sana'a, Rayma and Aden, as well as evidence of relative frequency of the practice in Hadramout, where there has been very limited media attention. Based on interviews for this pilot study, key nationalities of Gulf men engaging in Tourist Marriage include: Saudi men in Ibb, al-Hodeida and some in Hadramout; Omani men in Hadramout (al-Sahil, al-Wadi and foremost in Tarim); and Emirati men in Ibb and a few reported incidents in Hadramout. The phenomenon of Tourist Marriage has a key economic dimension. For young, uneducated and rural women from poor families, Tourist Marriage, along with other types of Mixed Marriage, are often seen as addressing a number of economic and social issues. The shorter-term benefits include protecting the honour of the young woman and her family and addressing poverty. The longer-term logic of such a marriage includes having kin with legal residence (and hopefully citizenship) outside of Yemen, as well as producing legitimate heirs. Unfortunately, the reality is that Tourist Marriage does not further any longer-term strategies and causes grave harm and trauma for the young brides. In the 2005 Ibb University Workshop, a number of papers were presented which hypothesized the factors behind the spread of Tourist Marriage in Ibb. The consensus in this workshop was that Tourist Marriage constitutes a warping of the notion of marriage from a bond between a husband and a wife recognized by society into a deceptive opportunity to have legally sanctioned sexual relations with a woman. Workshop participants also agreed that the parents of the brides in Tourist Marriages sincerely believed that the union in marriage is not temporary, hence the mahr costs are very close to "market rates," namely equivalent to amounts that would be requested from any potential Yemeni grooms. The impact of Tourist Marriage is particularly devastating on young girls who fall prey to the practice with regards to their reproductive health, psychological well-being, educational aspirations and emotional development. While some of the "wives" in Tourist Marriage may receive divorce papers from their former husbands, many do not. A study conducted in 2005 by Dr Fuad Hamoud al-Shibami, a professor at Ibb University, with 40 brides of Tourist Marriage from Ibb governorate found that 35 per cent were ages 15-19 and 38 per cent ages 20-24, with 92.5 per cent from urban areas and 7.5 per cent from rural communities. Tourist Marriage as assessed in this pilot study can be prime facie categorized as human trafficking, due to deception on the part of the groom and the Marriage Broker about the "temporary" nature of the marriage for the sole purpose of sexual exploitation. The deception is perpetuated by the father or male guardian negotiating the marriage contract, the family of the bride to be, as well as the bride who will soon be robbed of her virginity. Others may be in collusion with the deception, such as the Akil al-Hara, the Marriage Judge and the khatba connecting families to Gulf men seeking to marry. However, each case would need to be examined to determine collaborators to the deception and if sexual exploitation occurred. Details: Sana'a, Yemen: International Organization for Migration, 2014. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2015 at: http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/Tourist_Marriage_Yemen.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Yemen URL: http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/Tourist_Marriage_Yemen.pdf Shelf Number: 136968 Keywords: Child MarriagesHuman TraffickingMarriagesSexual ExploitationSocioeconomic ConditionsTourist Marriage |