'I was forced to marry a 35-year-old at 11 by 13 I was pregnant with his baby'

Noora Al Shami was forced to wed a man in his 30s when she was 11 years old. Her story is typical of (Image: Oxfam)

One 11-year-old girl was dressed up in grown-up clothing, completely unaware of the horrific ordeal awaiting her that evening when her 35-year-old cousin and bridegroom would take her home to sexually assault her.

The three-day celebration in the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah saw Noora Al Shami don "three beautiful dresses" at the family event before enduring years of sexual violence from Mohammed Al Ahdam.

What seemed like innocent dressing up for Noora was merely a disturbing preview of her nightmare ahead. "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 first exposed himself to Noora, she fled. She managed to escape the attack for 10 days before Al Ahdam's sisters told her she was "bringing shame on our brother by rejecting him", reports <a href="/news/world/2082538/forced-marry-35-man-11" rel="Follow" target="_self">the Express</a>.

During her first rape, 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."

Campaigns continue to end child marriage in Yemen (Image: Getty)

Al Ahdam, a distant relative well into his 30s, wed Noora in 1989 shortly 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.

Numerous families are driven by removing a burden whilst securing a dowry, with young girls left vulnerable under 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 endured two miscarriages within twelve months, before Noora delivered a son called Ihab - all by the age of 13. A daughter, Ahlam, arrived when Noora was 14, followed by Shihab, another son, when she reached 15.

Every pregnancy proved troublesome and challenging.

Al Ahdam grew progressively 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 attacked Noora's children with him seizing Alham by the feet and smashing her against the floor, rushing her to hospital, bleeding, at just two. Following a decade of dreadful mistreatment, Noora enrolled in a programme operated by Oxfam and the Yemeni Women's Union which supports survivors of domestic violence.

She subsequently managed to secure a divorce through the courts.

A legal dispute followed as Noora battled for financial support to raise her children. She succeeded in returning to education and qualified as a teacher, now actively advocating for legal limits on child marriages.

Noora refuses to be governed 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 difficulties persist for life, however, despite Noora and other activists' efforts to see the legal age of marriage increased from 15 to 18.

Yet even if legislation were amended, there exists no minimum age for marriage under Islamic law, and Yemeni religious leaders consistently oppose 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 info@sarsas.org.uk or seek NHS advice on help after rape or sexual assault.