Mick Hartley

Human Rights Watch report on child marriage in Yemen (via):

Fourteen-year-old Reem, from Sanaa, was 11 years old when her father married her to her cousin, a man almost 21 years her senior. One day, Reem’s father dressed her in a niqab (the Islamic veil that covers the face, exposing only the eyes), and took her by car to Radda, 150 kilometers southeast of Sanaa, to meet her soon-to-be husband. Against Reem’s will, a quick religious marriage ensued. Three days after she was married, her husband raped her. Reem attempted suicide by cutting her wrists with a razor. Her husband took her back to her father in Sanaa, and Reem then ran away to her mother (her parents are divorced). Reem’s mother escorted her to court in an attempt to get a divorce. The judge told her, “We don’t divorce little girls.” Reem replied, “But how come you allow little girls to get married?”

Following the notorious case of Nujood Ali, who was married at the age of nine to a man in his thirties, and became a divorcee at the age of 10 after she was repeatedly beaten and raped, some efforts were made to bring in legislation to set a legal minimum marriage age. These have always been thwarted by the clerics:

In March 2010, parliamentarians again tabled the draft bill for debate. The same conservative members of parliament voiced sharp criticism, and the draft bill was again referred to the Sharia Legislative Committee. On April 10, 2010, the Sharia Legislative Committee issued a 14 page document citing religious reasons for not setting an age of marriage. The document stated that article 15 is in contradiction to the Quran, Sunnah, the Constitution, and the interest of the child. This maneuver effectively killed the bill for this session of parliament.  

On March 21, 2010 a number of clerics issued a fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue), which stated that defining an age for marriage is contrary to Sharia and that “God had legitimized marriage to safeguard births and their protection.” The fatwa included evidence of instances where prominent women in Islam were married at a young age, specifically Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad’s wives.

So there you have it. To admit that child marriage is wrong would be to admit that the Prophet Muhammed did something wrong. That's impossible. Therefore….