REPORT: YEMENI WOMEN MARRIAGE TO FOREIGNERS RECORDS HIGH RATE

By: Yahya Jaber

Translated and Edited into English by: Tawfiq Alnadhif

SANA'A, Jan. 30 (Saba)- The marriage cases of foreigners and Yemenis from Yemeni and foreign women raised to 1230 cases in 2009 compared to 1149 cases in 2008, when the Saudis who got married with Yemeni women scored the 1st rank recording 412 cases.

A statistic belongs to the ministry of justice, regarding the approval of mixed marriages obtained by Yemen News Agency (SABA), shows that the mixed marriages approvals of the foreigners from Yemeni women reached 1024 cases while the total number of foreign women who got married with Yemenis reached 206 cases.

In 2008 the number of Yemeni women who got married with foreigners reached 945 cases, and the number of foreign women who got married with Yemenis reached 204 cases.

The latest statistics of the ministry of Justice of 2009 say that the men of the Saudi nationality ranked the first with 412 of marriage cases, and only two marriage cases of Yemenis with Saudi women, the statistics also show that, the Saudis marriages with Yemeni women declined in 2009 compared to 2008 which amounted to 424 cases, while the number of cases of the Yemenis who got married with Saudi women during the same year reached nine only.

The marriage cases of the Emirati men with Yemeni women raised to 230 cases, compared to 154 cases in 2008, while the total marriage of Yemeni men with Emirati women recorded six cases only compared with 21 cases in 2008.

Bahrain came in the 3rd rank with 71 marriage cases, including ten cases of Yemeni men marriage with Bahraini women and at the 4th rank came the Sultanate of Oman with 69 cases only one case of them is a Yemeni guy marriage with Omani woman.

In 2009 the statistics registered 54 marriage cases from American women and 35 cases from British women. The Statistics also revealed an increasing number of the Yemenis who got married with Somali women to reach 34 cases and those who got married with Ethiopian women reached 19cases.

In a statement to Yemen News Agency (SABA) The General Director of Documentation and Registration at the Ministry of Justice Ahmad Alqublani said that the high rate of mixed marriage is a good thing because it follows the legal procedures through the official channels for approval and to ensure the rights of the parties.