An eight year old child-bride identified as Rawan has reportedly died from biological complications which brought about bleeding from internal organs connected with her reproductive organs.

This according to reports occurred on Rawan's wedding night. Rawan was given away to a 40 year old husband based on an age-long child marriage traditions in the land.

Her death according to reports are not unconnected with sexual "duties" carried upon her by her 40 year old husband on her wedding night in the Yemen Northern village of Medhi in Hajjah.

This event according to reports have brought about banters between the agitators against child marriage in Yemen and advocates of early marriage which is rooted in the traditions of the people of Yemen.

Child marriage in Yemen is a centuries-old tradition. Adults, especially those living in poverty, force young teenage girls to marry men decades older than them due to reasons such as the relief of costs in caring for a child and for the heightened protection of a husband's family.

But against this background, efforts by different local and international child rights groups succeeded in making Yemen to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage. But this has not really brought about the desirable result.

By customs in Yemen, Marriages are almost always arranged and frequently are undertaken at a young age. Although the opinion of a potential bride or groom might be solicited on the issue, the final decision on marriage belongs with the head of the household.

In the case of Rawan, reports have it that the have only been outcry in the media and banters between the anti and pro parties, and the husband who is five times older than his child-bride is yet to be actually apprehended.