This is Amina [Archives:2006/926/Letters to the Editor]

Rashid A. Abdu, M.D.
[email protected]
After I read “This is Amina” parts one and part two, by Shadha Mohammed Nasser, I was moved to tears. First I thought it was a fiction, but when I realized that it was a true story of a nine year old Amina, who was forced to mary, bear children, and later to be sentenced to death, I cried, not just for Amina, but for my beloved country, where many “Aminas” are deprived of their childhood, robbed of their innocence, and are subjected to a life of misery and servitude.

Her story is a cause for people, especially Muslims, to demonstrate in the streets, and to preach in mosques, against this type of cruelty to the innocent and helpless children. What happened to Amina is a crime against Islam and against humanity.

I applaud President Ali Abdullah Saleh for commuting her death sentence, and I hope that his crown legacy will be to help in establishing and, in enforcing laws, against the exploitation and early marriage of children. Until then, we all should be crying for our beloved country.

Just think, given the opportunity, Amina had the potential of being another “Shadha”.
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