Some Differences Are Just Hard To Understand

Re: Yemen: Ban on Child Bride Is Imperiled
Tuesday March 23, 2010

To the editor:

In 2009 a law was passed in Yemen making "child brides" illegal. This meant that marriage would be illegal for anyone under the age of 17. Currently, many influential Muslim leaders are calling this law un-Islamic. They are referring to the supporters of this law as runways from the Islamic religion. This claim of the law being un-Islamic is strongly endangering the law from being passed. However; this raises the question as to whether marrying a child is considered acceptable and a part of religion. Is it really un-Islamic to ban child brides? It is difficult to understand the cultural difference in this situation. This is one area that is completely opposite of American or Western thought in general. It would be considered completely illegal and morally wrong to marry anyone under the age of 18 in the U.S. so, grasping this idea that child marriage is acceptable or encouraged in some cultures is hard. This is just another example as to how much different their society is. Of course, what's wrong to us is not necessarily going to be wrong to others and it is important to respect the different ideologies, but I think even the most open-minded person might be concerned as to why child marriage is not illegal.