‘My brother married me off for the money’: Child marriage rises in Yemen during war

More than 4 million Yemeni girls are child brides as first tradition and now war makes the practice more common, reports Charlene Rodrigues

Nearly two-thirds of girls in Yemen are married before the age of 18 and many before 15 years of age (EPA)

When Fatimah Ali’s father stopped her from attending school she became withdrawn.

Aged 13, he married her to a 17-year-old man unknown to her, in 2019. A family member speaking to The Independent on condition of anonymity from Dar Al-Sha’ab village in Yemen’s southwestern Ibb region, said she could not shoulder the burdens of marriage.

She found living in a crowded house with a large extended family unbearable. Her husband’s unemployment and their poor financial situation did not help either.