Think back to age 8...what were you doing? What were your hopes or dreams or desires? What was something important to you then? Did you ever consider getting married to a man as old as your father, that you did not know? Could you have imagined being beat and forced into sexual intercourse with this man? This might not have been your reality when you were 8, 9, or 10, but it is reality for many girls around the globe. I recently read about two brave young girls who escaped their marriage in Yemen - one running to the courthouse asking for a divorce and the other running to a hospital - both within a month of one another. In Yemen, it is a common practice for young girls to be married off - usually around the ages of 12 or 13. What is even more interesting is that in 1992, the minimum age for marriage was set to 15, but later ruled by Parliament in 1998 that girls could be married off earlier but could not move in with their husband until they reach sexual maturity. Typically, these child marriages happen because of some kind of financial need or poverty feed this behavior. But it is also done out of fear of the parents for their daughter being kidnapped and forcibly married or just from cultural pressure.
This article expresses how just two similar stories can affect a movement and can show the importance of fixing an issue. These two girls, both under the legal marrying age, show how negatively forcing young children to get married. These girls were not ready to be wives, they did not know the first thing about carrying a child or raising her/him, nor were they mentally ready to grow up so quickly. These young girls were raped, beat, forced to drop out of school, and, in other cases of child marriages, are ostracized from their family because they want a divorce. Child brides, not only in Yemen, create a cyclical relationship between poverty and the marriages - poverty encourages child brides and child brides creates poverty (by lack of education and health issues). Commonly, child marriages, and in turn children having children, cause women to be illiterate and health issues for both the young woman and the children. Either way, the cycle of child brides is negative, and in the end does not help anyone.
It is important to consider whether I am saying to stop child brides because it is an issue of trying to change culture or if it is an issue of increasing the betterment of society. I write this blog, and I read articles of young women who have their lives stolen from them, typically to repay the debts that their parents created. I want to help the young women who are forced to marry older men who beat them and rape them. But most importantly I want to end the cycle. By educating people of the other effects of child marriage and stopping the cycle, the whole economy of the country, and the world, would benefit. Stopping the cycle would lessen poverty, increase education, increase equality, and most importantly make life healthier and better. So think about your life when you were 8 or 9 or 10...were you concerned or even considering being married off because your parents had financial troubles? If not, make sure no one else will have to think about it either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
This article expresses how just two similar stories can affect a movement and can show the importance of fixing an issue. These two girls, both under the legal marrying age, show how negatively forcing young children to get married. These girls were not ready to be wives, they did not know the first thing about carrying a child or raising her/him, nor were they mentally ready to grow up so quickly. These young girls were raped, beat, forced to drop out of school, and, in other cases of child marriages, are ostracized from their family because they want a divorce. Child brides, not only in Yemen, create a cyclical relationship between poverty and the marriages - poverty encourages child brides and child brides creates poverty (by lack of education and health issues). Commonly, child marriages, and in turn children having children, cause women to be illiterate and health issues for both the young woman and the children. Either way, the cycle of child brides is negative, and in the end does not help anyone.
It is important to consider whether I am saying to stop child brides because it is an issue of trying to change culture or if it is an issue of increasing the betterment of society. I write this blog, and I read articles of young women who have their lives stolen from them, typically to repay the debts that their parents created. I want to help the young women who are forced to marry older men who beat them and rape them. But most importantly I want to end the cycle. By educating people of the other effects of child marriage and stopping the cycle, the whole economy of the country, and the world, would benefit. Stopping the cycle would lessen poverty, increase education, increase equality, and most importantly make life healthier and better. So think about your life when you were 8 or 9 or 10...were you concerned or even considering being married off because your parents had financial troubles? If not, make sure no one else will have to think about it either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
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