Najaud is one of the early marriage victims who got married at the age of eight.

Like Najaud, thousands of Yemeni female children get married early causing physical and metal damage to young girls.

Maternity-related deaths shape the major reasons for death among women before childbearing age and UNCEF reported that there were 60,000,000 cases of early marriage worldwide in 2006 before the age of 18, of which 33,000,000 cases recorded in the Middle East alone.

Ahmed Al-Qurashi said that his organization, Siyage, in collaboration with major civil and human rights organizations, is trying to make Najaud's case as the first point from which it starts its campaign against the early marriage and its victims.

Al-Qurashi declared that intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, etc. have to share their concern about early marriage issue and to work for the protection and safety for children as this contributes to the well-being of our societies.

He hinted that no protection against early marriage could help minimize the spiritual and social damages that girls face. He maintained that lawyers, parliament members, journalists, researchers, and doctors have to play a role in educating societies about early marriage problems.  

Throughout the country, many people consider girls as an economic burden as long as they remain unmarried and families prefer boys over girls. Marrying daughters at an early age is a normal practice and families give priority to boys in all matters including education.

Professor and jurisprudence professor at Faculty of Law Sana'a University Al-Murtadha Bin Zaid Al-Muhatwari cited his marriage as an example of early marriage and stresses he was one of its victims. He pointed out that he got married by the time he was only 16. He describes his practice of sex with his wife to a baker who bakes bread in a cold oven.

Al-Muhatwari further added that he couldn’t end the marriage although his father was a scholar and religious person. He explained that his father didn't know that he was suffering under that marriage, maintaining that his mother was well-satisfied with his wife simply because she can milk the cow and take care of sheep.  

Moreover, marriage decision of a large number of Yemeni youth is still taken by the family and wives are always mothers and fathers' choices. There are very few people who can decide their future and choose the man or the woman to whom he/she is to be linked with.

Professor and jurisprudence's professor and ex-head of the Faculty of Law Sana'a University Hassan Al-Ahdel stated that it is not fair to force a female child to get married early because such a marriage could result in many problems.

He revealed that famous Islamic scholars as Abu Hainfah fixes marriage age at 18 and considers this age to be the minimum, because man or woman become full-grown and able to take decisions out of his own sense and consideration.

Al-Ahdel went on to say Islamic Sharia will be perfect once its rules are practiced to the benefit of people, stressing that Fatwa should be flexible in a way that fits into every era and place.

He further noted that an orphan female child should not be forced to get married against her will, especially at early age, hinting this could expose her to dangers and bad treatment. He pointed out the female child has the right to abrogate the marriage contract as she reaches maturity in case she was married against her wish.

Chief of Information and Communication for UNICEF-Yemen Nassim-Ur-Rahman, noted that any marriage before the age of 18 is considered early marriage. He lamented the fact that the Yemeni female child is the one  who is supposed to get up early to prepare food or go outside to bring water from far away wells or firewood from the mountains in rural areas.

He added that UNCEF conducted a survey in Hadramout and Hodaidah about early marriage where, to their surprise, they found that one out of 10 female children gets married under the age of 18, noting this is because the families feel that females who delay marriage after 18 will find difficulties in marrying in the future. The success rates of early marriage are still low because male partners find that young wives are not ready for marriage as they do not understand what it means to be a wife and mother. In return, many people prefer to marry young girls because older girls are not so appealing as their younger counterparts.

Moreover, early marriage leaves behind health consequences and many young wives get pregnant while they are not ready yet for that and further their sexual parts are not fully-grown.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Kamel a consultant at the Ministry of Health and Population indicated that early marriage, mainly under 20, doubles the danger of early pregnancy where women's parts are still under-developed. He added that early pregnant wives compete with their fetuses over food.

Al-Kamel continued that the main reason for the high infant mortality rate among neonatal is the early marriage and mothers themselves are likely to die because of giving birth difficulties or pregnancy complications.