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Yemen cleric: fight draft law banning child brides

Arab World Materials 24 April 2010 17:27 (UTC +04:00)
Yemen's most influential Islamic cleric is vowing to gather a "million" signatures to protest a draft law banning child brides in the impoverished country.
Yemen cleric: fight draft law banning child brides

Yemen's most influential Islamic cleric is vowing to gather a "million" signatures to protest a draft law banning child brides in the impoverished country.

Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani
spoke Saturday at a conference in the Yemeni capital, San'a, reported AP.

Proposed legislation to set a minimum marriage age of 17 has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders who say it's un-Islamic. A quarter of all females marry before they turn 15 in Yemen.

This month a 13-year-old bride bled to death after she her 23-year-old husband forced her to have sex.

The radical cleric says if the law is passed, he'll gather a million signatures to demand that it be repealed. If that doesn't work, he promises to organize mass protests.

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