Girl, 11, forced to marry 35-year-old man and was pregnant at 13

One 11 year-old-girl was paraded around in adult clothes in blissful ignorance of the sick fate she would meet later that night when her 35-year-old cousin and groom took her home to rape her.

The three day party in the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah saw Noora Al Shami wear “three beautiful dresses” at the family gathering before she subjected to years of sexual abuse at the hands of Mohammed Al Ahdam.

What felt like playing dress up for Noora was only a nauseating indication of what was to come. "I was allowed to wear adult clothes, to put on jewellery, to accept presents," Noora, who is now 47, told The Guardian.

"What had not dawned on me was that I would be abused by a violent criminal."

When Al Ahdam showed his naked body to Noora for the first time she ran. She avoided the assault for 10 days before being told by Al Ahdam's sisters she was "bringing shame on our brother by rejecting him". When she was first raped, Noora's body went into shock.

"I was rushed to hospital – I was a child being treated as a sex object, but the abuse did not stop. Nobody was interested in my complaints, as I was legally a wife."

Al Ahdam, a distant cousin well into his 30s, married Noora in 1989 just after her 11th birthday. "He was three times my age and saw marriage as a means to act like a depraved animal," said Noora.

In 2021, there were 4million child brides in Yemen, according to UNICEF. Decades after Noora’s marriage Human Rights Watch figures showed 14 per cent of girls were married by the time they are 15, and more than 50 per cent before the age of 18 in 2006. Many families are motivated by getting rid of a mouth to feed in trade for a dowry, with young girls unprotected by Islamic law.

"My husband provided a dowry of around $150, which was a huge amount. But it was at the end of the wedding that the fear and horror set in. I was taken away from my parents and left with a man who meant nothing to me. He drove me to the house he shared with his widowed father in Al Hudaydah. It was a nice home but I immediately started to quiver, and to cry."

She suffered two two miscarriages within a year, before Noora gave birth to a son called Ihab - all by the age of 13. A daughter, Ahlam, followed when Noora was 14, and then Shihab, another son, when she was 15. All pregnancies were problematic and difficult.

Al Ahdam became increasingly violent. "He thought nothing of hitting me, even when I was pregnant," said Noora.

"If his father hadn't been in the house, it would have been even worse. His presence was some kind of restraint, but I was still very badly injured."

Al Adham also abused Noora’s children with him grabbing Alham by the feet and banging her on the floor, sending her to hospital, bleeding, at just two years old.

After a decade of horrific abuse Noora joined a project run by Oxfam and the Yemeni Women's Union which assists victims of domestic violence. She then successfully filed for divorce.

A legal battle ensued as Noora fought for money to bring up her children. She managed to return to school and trained as a teacher and now actively campaigns for legal restrictions on child marriages.

Noora does not want to be dictated by the "ruins of the past"."We need to change the lives of our children, and not just by paper laws," she says. "We need a complete change in culture.”

"It's not really something that the law has been able to control, especially not in tribal communities," said Noora.

"The legal marriage age has been 15 for some time, but my mother was first married at nine, and divorced by 10, before going through another two marriages. She had me in her early teens.

"I wanted to stay at school and get a good job, but my parents could not afford it. They did not want me to live in poverty forever. I did not understand their decision to marry me off – only that the same thing happened to most girls my age.

Physical and psychological problems last a lifetime, however, despite Noora and other campaigners efforts to raise the legal age of marriage to be raised from 15 to 18.

But even if the law was changed, there is no minimum age for marriage in Islamic law, and Yemeni clerics regularly argue against legal restrictions.

Today, 30 per cent of girls in Yemen marry before the age of 18 and 7 per cent marry before the age of 15, according to campaigners Girls Not Brides.

If you are affected by the issues raised in this article, contact SARSAS on [email protected] or reach out for NHS advice on help after rape or sexual assault.