The recent death of 13-year old Yemeni child bride Elham Assi, who reportedly bled to death last week after being tied down and forced to have sex with her 23-year-old husband, has sparked outrage among rights activists in Yemen.

They are now stepping up their lobbying efforts to push for the implementation of a child marriage ban. 

But that may prove a daunting challenge since fierce opposition against a ban on child brides still runs high among some religious leaders and conservatives.

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party Islaah and the imam of the Al-Rahman mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sana, is one of those who staunchly opposes a legal ban on child marriage.

Although he emphasizes that a woman should not get married before she is physically and mentally ready and that she herself needs to accept the marriage, he believes a law that prohibits child marriage constitutes a rights violation.  

“I am against the child marriage law because it restrains the freedom of others. When a certain age [for marriage] is set, it violates the rights of others. For example, imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. … This is a violation of his rights,” Sheik Hamzi told The Times in an interview at his Sana home last week.

The young girl had had enough. For months the Yemeni teenager named Hind from the Red Sea town of Hodeida had allegedly been repeatedly beaten and sexually abused by her 70-something husband to whom she was married off by her father and three uncles for the equivalent of $1,400 last year, according to the Yemeni English newspaper the Yemen Times.

She tried to run away from her forced marriage and abuser several times but was caught fleeing by one of the uncles who had arranged her marriage.

Angered that she had tried to run away from the deal he had brokered, the uncle felt Hind, thought to be 13 or 14 years old, needed to be punished for her deed.

So he put a long, heavy iron chain around her neck and tied her to his house like a dog for two months. The uncle apparently made the chain long enough so that Hind could move from the yard to the kitchen and the bathroom.

During this hellish time, Hind was also allegedly beaten by her uncle and sexually abused several times by her cousins.

She finally managed to escape two weeks ago, and details of her tragic story have begun to emerge.

Nujood Ali was just 10 years old when she borrowed bus fare to a Yemeni courthouse and demanded a divorce from her husband, more than 20 years her senior.

A year and a half later, Ali is using her fame and the money she received for her story to help 12-year-old Sally Sabahi file for divorce from her 21-year-old husband.

The Yemen Observer reported Friday that Ali has announced her intention to donate nearly $500 to Sabahi's cause, half the sum of the dowry needed to buy her freedom. Ali's lawyer, Shadha Nasser, also has said she will take on the case.

“Please free Sally from this unfair marriage and let her go back to play with her friends, brothers and sisters,” Ali said. "We are not toys. We are children."