When children pay a price for their parents' mistakes: child Salma .. Victim of early marriage
English - Tuesday 23 July 2019 الساعة 09:33 am
Mocha – NewsYemen.net
In Khabt al-Nawaji area, located in the north of Mocha district, Qaid al-Afif lives, 40s, he lives in dire circumstances, poverty is almost everywhere, he cannot leave his rural area and cannot bear it, he lives with his eight children who is living in misery, in their midday afternoon they run away to their small nest house to decrease the heat weave of the summer times.
Qaid's son Khalid, his eldest son, is about 15 years old, the son gave two choices to his father whether to choose to marry him a girl from the rural area when they live or he will leave and he will not come back again.
Both the two choices are difficult for the poor father, the son escaped the house, while the marriage he could not afford to bring a bride to his son while he could not feed his children what about the expenses of marriage costs.
Qaid al-Afif said to a NewsYemen reporter that ''after my son saw the difficult living conditions, he decided to flee the house and join one of the fighting fronts or to bring him a bride, I was terrified that this could lead to lose his 15-year-old son".
Khalid's threats were serious. In order to stop him, and under the influence of fatherhood, the father had no choice but to bow. Khalid's sister, Salma, 13, was the wife of the brother of the girl whom Khaled intends to marry her, which also known by the law Exchange Marriage / marriage by barter.
Al-Afif feels remorse, he was forced to carry out the exchange marriage as his daughter to a 30-year-old man in order to ensure his son's safety. He said that the awakening of conscience is following him, and he feels the enormity of the injustice he caused to his daughter, as daughter has not yet reached the adulthood.
He describes his daughter as a girl who still loves to play, but the difficult factors of poverty have ruined the lives of his children.
Al-Afif, a father of eight, half of them are males, lives in a desert area called Khabt al-Nawaji area, and lives in a difficult economic situation. Al-Afif receives assistance from the villagers in the form of daily meals.
The desert area lacks all aspects of life from clinics, schools and safe drinking water, and aid organizations are unable to provide food assistance to the population.
