VOA标准英语2010年-Child Brides in Yemen Seek Legal Prote

A legislation in the country's parliament to set the minimum age for marriage at 17 has been languishing² for a year

Heather Murdock | Sanaa 01 February 2010

In many parts of Yemen, it is customary to marry girls as young as 10-years old.  About a year ago, a bill was introduced to the country's parliament that would set the minimum age for marriage at 17.  But it continues to languish¹ in committees after some religious leaders voiced their opposition³. 

Sally al-Sahabi lives in a tiny stone hovel with no running water, and rusty⁴ hotplate for cooking.  When she was 11, she wanted to get married.

Sally says she was seduced⁵ by the promise of new clothes and jewels for the first time in her life.  But now, at 13-years-old, she thinks marrying her 25-year-old cousin Nabil al-Mushahi was a huge mistake.

Not long after the wedding Sally says she was beaten and raped⁶.  She begged her father to help her escape.  But he hit her until she bled for disobeying her husband.
 
And Sally is not alone.  Lawyer and children's rights advocate Shadda Nasser says as many as 40 percent of Yemeni girls are married before they are 13-years old.  Nasser says the girls grow up uneducated, resenting their husbands, and later their children, for their own lost childhoods.

"They put her in the small jail in the home," Nasser sais. "She cannot go outside, she cannot play, she cannot continue her study.  Only she stay in the home."

Having babies before puberty also puts the young brides lives in danger.  Girls who give birth before age 18 are almost eight times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, according to the U.N. children's agency.

Fawziya Youssef was 12-years old when she, and her baby, died in childbirth in September.  She had been married to her 26-year-old husband for one year.

Nasser says many families also marry their daughters early to alleviate⁷ the pressure of poverty.  Almost half of Yemen lives on less than two dollars a day.  Sometimes girls are married so the family can collect the dowry traditionally due to the father of the bride, sometimes they are married simply so the parents can have one less mouth to feed.

In February, a bill that would set the minimum marriage age at 17 won a majority of votes in the Yemeni parliament.  But before the president could sign it, the bill was blocked.  Several prominent sheiks objected, saying it contradicted Islamic law.

Parliament member Sheik Mohammad al-Hamzi says the proposed law is yet another bow to Western culture that would limit choices for families.  He says God, not law, decides when a girl is old enough to marry.  Yemeni law, he says, should focus on helping⁸ to educate parents about what is safe for their children.

Sally's father, Mubkhoot Ahmed, supports the law, but also blames early marriage on illiteracy⁹ and ignorance.  He says he did not know it could harm his daughter, and admits to beating her after he was accused of teaching her not to sleep with her husband.

But after Sally ran away, refused to eat for three days, and then threatened to kill herself, Ahmed realized how much Sally suffered as a young bride.  He is now fighting for his daughter's divorce and says although he is illiterate¹⁰, he should now have a college degree in the dangers of early marriage.  

1 languish   

vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎

参考例句：

• Without the founder's drive and direction,the company gradually languished.没有了创始人的斗志与指引，公司逐渐走向没落。
• New products languish on the drawing board.新产品在计划阶段即告失败。

2 languishing   

a. 衰弱下去的

参考例句：

• He is languishing for home. 他苦思家乡。
• How long will she go on languishing for her red-haired boy? 为想见到她的红头发的儿子，她还将为此烦恼多久呢？

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

5 seduced   

诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷

参考例句：

• The promise of huge profits seduced him into parting with his money. 高额利润的许诺诱使他把钱出了手。
• His doctrines have seduced many into error. 他的学说把许多人诱入歧途。

6 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

7 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 illiteracy   

n.文盲

参考例句：

• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining.从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。
• We must do away with illiteracy.我们必须扫除文盲。

10 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。