She wasn't famous. She wasn't rich. She didn't have access to "the best health care in the world". She didn't have a list of accomplishments that anyone is likely to ever hear about. No one followed her tragic story in the press for months.
Fawziya Ammodi was just a 12 year old Yemeni girl who was forced to leave school and marry a 24 year old man when she was only 11.
She bled to death on Friday after three days of painful labor. Her child did not survive, either.
This won't be a long diary, and I have to get up early tomorrow, so I won't stick around too long after I publish it, but Fawziya Ammodi's short life and sad passing are worthy of our attention as much as any movie star. Perhaps more so.
"A 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said Saturday.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 140 miles west of the capital San'a.
Child marriages are widespread in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, where tribal customs dominate society. More than a quarter of the country's females marry before age 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry.
Youssef was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, said Ahmed al-Quraishi, chairman of Siyaj human rights organization, which promotes the rights of children in Yemen."
Source
Whether due to lack of education, poverty or "tradition", the child bride problem is one that continues to haunt us, despite the thin veneer of civilization that covers up so many similar tragedies.
And lest we think that this issue is only one that we view from afar, let us not forget Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a 10 year sentence in federal prison for arranging the "marriage" of underage girls via his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Anyways, it's late for me and I don't have much more to say about this, but I just thought that we could all hold a good thought for Fawziya Ammodi, and all other victims of this crime, and hope that a time will come when this scourge is gone from the face of the Earth.
Some more information on this topic atWiki.