Twelve-year-old Sally Sabahi, far right, lives with her family in a single room tucked down a back alley of Old Sanaa. Her father, far left, sells chili mix in the market for a dollar or two a day. Her mother, second from right, was married at 12, enduring five years of beatings before she finally divorced. [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
Published On 6 Sep 20106 Sep 2010
"My parents called for me to come from the yard," said Sally, explaining how she got married aged 10 to her 25-year-old first cousin. "They told me Take a deep breath and asked How about getting married Sally? So, I replied: Yes, but will you give me a dress, and candy and toys and stuff like that? They answered: Yes. They promised to give me everything." [Credit: Annasofie Flamand]
Advertisement
Her father, Mabkhout as Sabahi, left, earned 200,000 Yemeni Rial, around $1,000, for agreeing to the marriage to Nabil. "Nabil promised he would wait for her until she was grown up," said Mabkhout. "But the people in Hajja [where Nabil is from] kept telling him Sally is grown up and ready to sleep with him and that she does not because her parents told her not to." [Credit: Annasofie Flamand]
A picture of 10-year-old Sally trying on her wedding dress. Beaten, drugged and raped, Sally won a divorce from Nabil recently after her story made headlines in local media and became the focus of a national debate that has polarised Yemeni society. [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
Nojoud Mohammed Ali al-Ahdal, was nine years old when she was married to a 30-year-old man she had never met. "I got scared and used to run away and he would chase me. I did not think I was a wife," said Najoud. After taking a taxi to court and finding a lawyer, Shada Nasser, to represent her Nojoud became the first child bride in Yemen to successfully divorce. [Credit: Annasofie Flamand]
Several hundred women protested against a proposed legal minimum age for marriage."In the case of Nojoud it was her father who was wrong. Why not go and see the women who are happy?" asked one demonstrator, Zeinab as-Sumaidar, a secretary at Iman University. [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
Sheikh Mohammed al-Hazmi inspects the fatwa, or religious ruling, he helped author which forbids any Yemeni from supporting a minimum age for marriage. [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
Advertisement
Lawyer Shada Nasser, centre, went to a neighbourhood of Sanaa, to file the initial case for divorce. But it would require Nabil to travel to Sanaa from Hajja. If Nabil did not agree to the divorce the case would have to be heard in Hajja. "The judge may look more favourably at their own kinsmen," said Nasser. "Many judges are governed by arcane views of women." [Credit: Annasofie Flamand]
A clerk of the court counts the 200,000 Yemeni Rial dowry which had to be paid back to Nabil in order for Sally to divorce him. An American-Turkish woman offered to pay $700 after hearing about the case. The remaining $300 was donated by local Yemeni women. The divorce papers were signed by Judge Mansour Ali in the presence of Sally, her lawyer and Nabil. [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
Nabil drew laughter from those gathered when he urged men to consider the "age, brain and that they are not crazy" of any potential wife. He said: "I just came and married her. I did not think it was a problem because I did not know her exact age." For Sally, the moment was about looking forward. "I was feeling there was a black cloud hanging over my head. Today I feel so free." [Credit: Hugh Macleod]
