A woman who was sold as a bride before she was 12 has recalled how her aunt was so traumatised by her marriage that she set herself on fire.
Nada Al Ahdal, now 20, was just 11 years old and living in Yemen when her family sold her to a fully-grown man because her aunt and sister were so scarred by the early wedlock that they set themselves ablaze.
Thankfully, her sister Nadia survived the suicide attempt but Nada is still traumatised by the horrific memories of tending to her beloved sibling's immolation wounds.
As she nursed her sister back to life, she was completely unaware that she had been put forward as her sister's replacement.
With her sister laying beside her, her parents entered their room to warn her she would be married in just three days.
The marriage had been formalised in an official contract called a Nikah, which is used in countries that uphold Sharia Law.
It is a legally-binding document that details the husband and wife's rights and responsibilities in a marriage.
Feeling her childhood slipping through her fingers, Nada ran away from home.
Speaking with The National, she said: “Seeing the suffering of my sister when she tried to commit suicide the same way my aunt did by burning herself … unfortunately, I didn’t have the childhood I was supposed to.
"Our place, as a child, is in school playing, feeling safe around our parents, not threatened by them. I knew that white wedding dress would burn me like it did my aunt and my sister.”
After escaping, her parents raised the alarm and contacted the police, claiming the youngster had been kidnapped.
However, Nada, who had turned to social media as a way of escaping her torment, decided to post a video on YouTube detailing her parent's twisted plans, which eventually went viral.
“I escaped from my parents,” Nada says.
“I am 11 years old and my mum wants me to marry. Is there no mercy in their hearts?
"I would rather die. They threaten me with death if I go to my uncle. I would rather die than go live with them. They killed our dreams. This is a crime … a crime.”
But it wasn't the first time Nada was sold off to an older man.
Just a year earlier, she escaped from another agreement after a wealthy expat paid her family $2,000 for her hand in marriage.
Her uncle stepped in to stop the sale, saying: "I could not allow her to be married off and have her future destroyed.”
Child marriage is common in Yemen, a country scarred by five years of a civil war that has dragged it back to the dark ages, where lives are constantly under threat of militia clashes, famine and disease.
It's one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with 24 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
These living conditions exacerbate poverty and make public services like education impossible to implement. These are all factors driving the prevalence of child marriage - which currently stands at 9 per cent of girls under 15 and 32 per cent of girls under 18.
Families often see selling off their girls as a way of coping with economic woes, as well as protecting them from the violence tearing the country apart, according to Girls Not Brides.
It is also driven by cultural perceptions which create gender inequality, the belief that women and girls are inferior to their masculine counterparts.
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