Early marriage in America – Part 2

Anis Albasha

During my work in the Public Relations at the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, I have been in touch with a number of local CSOs and I was able to see the two faces of some of those organizations. In fact, it was cynical and yet provocative to observe the materialistic approaches adopted by entities which are supposed to perform humanitarian and social services for nothing in return. This kind of practices is not confined to local associations, but many individuals who call themselves 'activists' act in the same way. For both, the aim is to avail any opportunity in order to acquire fame or to get financial benefits.

In Yemen, there is something funny about doing business, even if that business is so small and modest. If someone starts any commercial project in Yemen, once it turns out to be successful, everybody then tries to proceed with the same idea! That's why it is a common thing to see small streets in different Yemeni cities full of shops which sell the same items or provide similar services. It was the same case with the emerging of the civil society work at the beginning of the nineties in the last century. When Yemenis found out that this kind of not-for-profit business is actually a successful one from a commercial point of view, thousands of civil society organizations have been registered during the period of 1996-2006! Most of these CSOs have managed to change the humanitarian/social work into a real business. Therefore, CSOs and activists look for themes not in order to serve the community or to advocate the interests of the poor but to make money or to be famous. There were many activists who exploited the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country in order to find a way-out for themselves or to secure financial aids for personal use.

On the other hand, there were few people and organizations that really cared about their community and wanted to alleviate people's suffering. I have seen cases in which lack of financial support was the main obstacle which prevented some serious and honest people from doing something good for the society.  For instance, there were persons who wanted to help in critical areas such as reducing illiteracy or combating Qat and supporting coffee instead, but those people couldn't do much because of the little fund and support they have got comparing to those who were busy with combating early marriage or spreading democracy. One time, a local association for female journalists received a fund from a foreign entity with 25.000 $ in order to print some brochures! We can easily notice how silly that was when we know the fact that the percentage of illiteracy in Yemen is more than 65 %. So, I was just wondering, who was going to read those brochures and what purposes they would serve? With that amount of 25.000 $, it would be possible to dig five wells in areas which suffer from water scarcity.

Another time there was a fund provided by the U.S. Embassy to one of the local CSO in Sana'a in order to cover the expenses of holding an event for youth. I don't remember what the exact theme of that event was, but I do remember being asked to take part in the supervision over the implementation of the financial fund offered for that event. To my surprise, I found out that most of the fund was spent to cover unnecessary expenses or to pay for services that could have been paid less. I set up a meeting for me and my supervisor with the principal of that association in order to discuss this issue.  Though she tried to sugar coat it, the argument provided to explain the mechanism of spending the money was not convincing at all.

Because of the high promotion of the matter of early marriage at both the local and the international levels, I used to think that this issue exists exclusively in Yemen until I accidentally read an article in the Washington Post titled 'Why can 12-year-olds still get married in the United States?' According to the newspaper, Fraidy Reiss, the author of the article is the founder and executive director of Unchained At Last, a nonprofit that helps women and girls escape arranged and forced marriages and works to end child marriage in the United States. In her article, Reiss mentioned that 'in 38 states, more than 167,000 children — almost all of them girls, some as young 12 — were married during the period from 2000 to 2010, mostly to men 18 or older. Twelve states and the District of Columbia were unable to provide information on how many children had married there in that decade. Based on the correlation we identified between state population and child marriage, we estimated that the total number of children wed in America between 2000 and 2010 was nearly 248,000.'

Reiss added that 'While most states set 18 as the minimum marriage age, exceptions in every state allow children younger than 18 to marry, typically with parental consent or judicial approval. How much younger? Laws in 27 states do not specify an age below which a child cannot marry....'. She stated that '...Many of the states that provided data included categories such as “14 and younger,” without specifying exactly how much younger some brides and grooms were.' The article is quite long and full of surprising facts, why surprising? Because that article didn't talk about early marriage in a developing country in Asia or in Africa, but it discusses this issue in a country like the United States of America.

In conclusion, I do understand that in modern developed countries such as Canada, Germany or Sweden, topics like environmental awareness, palliative care or even early marriage are discussed. Yet, in a very poor and developing country such as Yemen, it was ironic to focus on non-vital issues like early marriage in a society suffered from the absence of the most basic needs. Still, I have to admit that early marriage is a problem which has a presence in the Yemeni society. However, let's get our priorities straight. Yemeni people, activists, local NGOs and CSOs along with all the concerned parties should stop dramatizing early marriage and should focus instead on the serious issues that threaten people's lives. I know this might sound cynical given the devastating war the country is going through right now, but as Goethe once said, things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.