He would ask me to bring him something and if it wasnt there, he would beat me, Arwa recalls. Her husband offered a generous dowry but before long, he became violent and abusive. Encouraged by her father, she ran away. We cannot find a good balance between the husband and the girl. It is not marriage, it is only rape! says her lawyer, who successfully campaigned for a new law to mak More..e seventeen the legal minimum age of marriage. Before Arwa’s divorce, there was no protection for child brides, with the countrys influential religious conservatives opposed to change: Islam determines the age of marriage to be when the girl is ready for intercourse, not a specific age. Until the President ratifies the new law, it could still be reversed, leaving many Yemenite girls to suffer the same fate as Arwa.
source