TRAGEDY IN YEMEN - AT 6:06 P.M. ET:  This is a stark example of why "multiculturalism," as it's current practiced on the left wing of our universities and intellectual elites, is such a fraud:

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, died during a painful childbirth that also killed her baby, a children's rights group said Monday.

Fawziya Ammodi struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a hospital on Friday, said the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.

"Although the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening," said Seyaj President Ahmed al-Qureshi.

Born into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and married off to a 24-year-old man last year, al-Qureshi said.

Child brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs hold sway. Hodeidah is the fourth largest city in Yemen and an important port.

COMMENT:  Where are the international "women's" groups?  Where are the trendy "feminist" organizations?  They are silent because, in the precincts of the left, there is a definite pecking order.  Women's rights, and certainly children's rights, are pretty far down the list.  At the top are anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and race.  Sadly, many "feminist" organizations are, today, simply satellites of the political left, and follow the rules.

When a woman murdered by police on the streets of Tehran became a symbol of Iranian resistance recently, there was a similar silence by organizations claiming to speak for women.  It is a disgrace.  Many women's rights advocates are probably too intimidated to speak out.  But one exception is distinguished feminist writer Phyllis Chesler, who has essentially been expelled from the feminist movement.

September 14, 2009