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Child Bride Kills Older Husband With Poison

After her sister died, Tino Borantu was married off to her sister’s husband when she was 9 years old. Still she does not clearly understand what her role is as a wife, inheriting her older sister’s husband and child. But obviously she cooks for the family, looks after the small baby and lives in same house with the man who is older than her by over 26 years. Tino is from a society where is common for girls, irrespective of their age, to be forced to inherit the marriage and children of their dead sisters. This kind of phenomenon fuels HIV & AIDS epidemics, and raises maternal mortality and morbidity. This is one of the challenges CARE Ethiopia is trying to address with one of its development projects called Healthy Unions which started in November 2007.

After being forced to marry, 14-year-old bride Wasilu Umar of Kano, Nigeria, rebelled by poisoning her husband, Umaru Sani, according to the Associated Press.

SEE ALSO: Poem: Raise Up the Girl Child

In order to celebrate his wedding to Umar last week, 35-year-old Sani reportedly invited about 12 of his friends to his village of Ungwar Yansoro over the weekend. Umar reportedly prepared a pot of rice with rat poison that was served to the guests, after purchasing the poison from a village market.

Sani and a guest died the same day, while two other guests reportedly died later on at the hospital. According to the BBC, 10 others were also taken to the hospital.

Assistant Superintendent Musa Magaji Majia says that Umar confessed to poisoning her groom, saying, “The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love.”

Umar will likely be charged with culpable homicide.

Even though Nigeria forbids the marrying of youth younger than 18, the north of Nigeria is dominated by Muslim populations who observe Shariah law, which obviously permits marrying at a younger age. In Britain, child marriages have been called an “epidemic,” according to the Gatestone Institute, after Muslim clerics were caught on-camera agreeing to marry off 14-year-olds. And in Iraq, about 24 women protested a new Islamic law that would allow girls as young as 9 years old to be married and sole custody of children to go only to Fathers last month.

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View Comments

M Manuel Cruz says:

April 12, 2014 at 1:47 am

As a Muslim, I congratulate the sister for defending herself, against this un-islamic practice. What is sad is that "Shari'ah" is not even a legitimized law. It is unwritten. There are no Shari'ah Law books. The girl protected herself against potential rape, and unwanted children. The two guest were simply "Collateral Damage", and were too cowardly to speak up for the child. Mabrook, to the sister.

at Face 2 Face Africa, is there a fund going around to help pay for legal, and education fees? If so, I would like to give Zakat on her behalf.