Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."

Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."(YNet).

A backwards society, shoddy economy and Islamist terror – many difficult problems flood the country of Yemen, one of the worst is the phenomenon of young girls forced into marriage.

Just last month an eight year old, identified as Rawan, died of internal bleeding, apparently the result of being forced to have sex with her 40-year-old husband on her wedding night.

Dr. Arwa Rabi'i, a gynecologist from the capital city of Sana'a, talked to the i24news channel and called for raising the marriage age to 18. "When a woman marries before the age of 18, before the uterus and hips are fully developed, there are going to be many gynecological complications such as multiple miscarriages and life-threatening infections," she said. "We see it every day, not every month or week, every day! A lot of them, 10 or 20 sick girls."

Belkis Wille, an activist in Human Rights Watch, talking to i24news from Yemen via Skype, said that in rural areas, it is common to see marriage at the ages of eight or nine. Regarding Rawan's story, she said: "Unfortunately, this specific story is influenced by a lot of rumors; various local authorities are saying the story is not true, while the journalist who broke the story refuses to believe it's not true.

"Different human rights organizations are taking different position locally, but from every point of view, whether this story is true or not, it's irrelevant considering that this happening around the country all the time. I've personally come across two or three cases I've heard from gynecologists of girls who bled to death on their wedding night."Read and see the full story here.