The Evil Among Us

8-year-old Yemeni child dies at hands of 40-year-old husband on wedding night

Al Nahar, Lebanon, has reported that an eight year old child bride died in Yemen on her wedding night after suffering internal injuries due to sexual trauma. Human rights organizations are calling for the arrest of her husband who was five times her age.

The death occurred in the tribal area of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. This brings even more attention to the already existing issue of forced child marriages in the Middle Eastern region.

My heart aches so much for this child and others like her.  I didn’t sleep well last night because I kept thinking about this story and found myself growing more and more angry, and more and more hurt.  Who am I angry with: Islam, Muslims, the Middle East, pedophiles, this girl’s parents, or the bastard husband, God, the devil? 

I understand men make their own laws.  I don’t blame Islam or even Muslims for this travesty, because I have seen first-hand how men twist and pervert the words of their religion and their laws to justify or excuse their behaviors.  What this bastard did to an 8-year old child had NOTHING to do with his faith, his religion, his country, his politics or his laws.  Anyone who tries to blames these things alone serves an injustice to this child.  When this bastard looked down on the face of that child and then committed the despicable and deplorable acts of evil, he did so by his own evil choice.  I don’t give a damn his religion, his politics or his culture… he is a human being capable of making a rational decision, and he CHOSE to violate, mutilate and murder this precious child because he’s a selfish evil bastard.  NO ONE in their right mind could do such a thing and EVER think ANY part of it was okay, justified, or their God-given right. 

When that child screamed in pain, while that infidel satisfied his perverted sexual desires, it identified him as an evil monster.  I’m so angry that such evil exists in this world.  Yes, I know of other travesties such as starvation, cruelty, imprisonment, human trafficking, slavery, disease and neglect.  I’m not blind to the other acts of evil in this world.  I just sometimes don’t understand how we humans can treat each other.  We are the cruelest race, yet also the most loving and kind and understanding. 

I hope that bastard gets raped, mutilated and tortured.  Will he?  I doubt it.  I hope the parents who thought it okay to sell their child to such a man are tormented with nightmares for the rest of their lives.  I hope the lawmakers who turn their backs and refuse to protect their own children suffer unimaginable pain and disappointment.  It is my faith and belief that all of those who have this girl’s blood on their hands will face the God they hid behind, and will find no manner of twisting will save them from the justice that waits for them. 

As long as evil men have free will, stories like this will continue to be conducted in this world.  We, humans (regardless of race, color or creed), are not who we claim to be with our mouths, our proclamations, our clothes, our appearance, our governments, or politics, or our confessions – we are who we truly are in every decision we make, in every response to every situation and circumstance in our lives.  How we respond and act is the true testament to our character.  Some of us are just plain evil. 

Till next time,

~T.L. Gray