Dad burned teenage daughter to death for contacting fiance: Yemen police
DUBAI -- A father burned his 15-year-
old daughter to death for keeping in
touch with her fiance, police in Yemen
said.
"The father committed this heinous
crime on the pretext that his daughter
had been keeping contacts with her
fiance," according to a statement
posted on a police website Tuesday. It
added that the 35-year-old man had
been arrested in a remote village in the
central Taiz province.
Local news websites reported that the
father had caught the girl chatting on
the phone with her betrothed.
Her death sparked further outrage in
the country where an eight-year girl
died from internal bleeding on her
wedding night last month. Authorities
said they would prosecute those
responsible.
Traditional tribal customs in parts of
Yemen prohibit contacts between men
and women before marriage. Poverty
and concern about "family honor"
prompts many Yemenis to marry off
their daughters young, often below the
age of 18, a practice that has been
criticized by groups like Human Rights
Watch.
