Child bride in Nigeria uses rat poison to kill her husband and three of his friends.

10 year old Yemeni girl celebrating the granting of her divorce from her adult husband.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

A child bride forced into marriage in Nigeria killed a groom and three of his friends with a poisoned meal, police said Thursday. 

Fourteen-year-old Wasila Umaru was married last week to 35-year-old Umaru Sani, according to assistant superintendent Musa Magaji Majia. 

Over the weekend, the groom invited a dozen friends to celebrate at his Ungwar Yansoro village, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the northern city of Kano. 

The teenager told police she bought rat poison at a village market and used it to prepare a dish of rice. 

"The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love," Majia told The Associated Press. 

The groom and a friend died the same day, and two other victims died later in the hospital. 

Umaru is cooperating with police and likely will be charged with culpable homicide, according to Majia. 

Child marriage is common in Nigeria and especially in the mainly Muslim and impoverished north, where the numbers increase in times of drought because a bride price is paid and it means one less mouth to feed. Fifty percent of Nigerian girls living in rural areas are married before they turn 18, according to the U.N. children's agency. That's a lot of child brides in a country of some 170 million people of whom half are under 18.

Before I start let me point out that the young girl in the picture above is NOT the girl in this story, however she is yet another child, this one from Yemeni, who was forced into a loveless marriage as very young girl.

Fortunatley for her she was granted a divorce, the girl in this story was not given that option.

This is a particular problem in areas with large Islamic populations, partly due to the fact that their prophet, Mohammad, took his own child bride, who was only six years old at the time. (Though to be fair he showed great restraint in not taking her virginity until she as 9 years old.)

Of course this is a despicable practice that the world should condemn, and influential nations should refuse to deal with countries where it is still practiced.

It might have made sense in ancient times for girls to marry young, since life expectancies were short, and infant mortality was high, but we live in a different time today.

Today it should be viewed as an aberration and religion should not be used to justify its continued practice.

In my opinion that fourteen year old girl was a victim, and should be released as having responded to an extreme situation in the only manner left open to her. I would not even suggest jail time, as she has clearly already served her sentence.