11-year-old Nada al-Ahdal escape arranged marriage in Yemen, her video goes viral on Internet
A video of an 11-year-old Yemeni girl’s account of escaping her arranged marriage has gone viral across the Internet.
In the 3-minute clip, Nada al-Ahdal says she would rather die than get married at her age and calls the potential marriage “criminal.”
According to a report in NOW Lebanon, Nada fled to her uncle when her parents agreed to marry her to a Yemeni expatriate living in Saudi Arabia.
A version of the video with English captions received more than 7 million views in two days.
In a follow-up report by the pan-Arab television channel Al Mayadeen, Nada’s father pledged not to marry her off until she is 17-years old. He did not say what pushed him to change his mind.
The clip shows Nada speaking to a group of lawyers at the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection and hugging her parents.