Uproar after Yemeni cleric suggests clothing to blame in rape of young girl

A Yemeni MP and cleric, known for provocative speeches, sparked a major uproar online after posting a Facebook post entitled “clothing of young girls is a gateway to rape”, days after a girl was raped in the capital Sanaa.

Abdullah al-Adaini was met with widespread criticism for suggesting the “absurd” way in which young girls dress leads to their rape.

“How many young girls have been raped due to the effects their clothing has had on the human animals [who rape them],” he wrote on Facebook. “The result [of these clothing] is a girl living in the ruins of psychological conditions, deformities or death."

Social media users slammed the comments made, accusing the cleric of justifying rape and spreading extremist views in his home city of Taiz.

Prominent Yemeni journalist Mustafa Rajeh responded in a Facebook post stating the views shared by the cleric is “equal to twenty such disgusting crimes”.

Meanwhile, Hind al-Eryani, a popular Yemeni activist said “the only place for such a man would be in a prison cell in countries that respect human rights.”

“The people of Taiz should arrest him for justifying the rape children,” she added.

Al-Adaini's post comes days after a three-year-old Yemeni girl was raped in the capital Sana'a on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, and a court in southeast Sanaa on Sunday sentenced a child to murder and rape the girl.

The Yemeni Organisation for the Prevention of Human Trafficking on its Facebook social networking site said that the court sentenced the rapist to death by hanging in a public square.

The perpetrator, identified as Mohammed al-Maghrabi, pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of the girl in his hut in the south of the capital Sana'a on the first day of Eid al-Fitr. Local activists and citizens identified the defendant as he walked through the streets of Dhamar and authorities arrested him two days later.