Child Marriage in Islam and Its Consequences

22, she then had four siblings left. Her parents preferred boys over girls, so she tried to

Child marriage in the States is a serious problem. The current law for child marriage states that you must be at least eighteen years old to marry. However, state laws make exceptions if minors have parental consent. Due to the lack of awareness in this topic thirty-three states and two counties in the U.S. reported that between 2000-2015 there were a total of 170,363 minors that were married. Of which, six were twelve-year-olds, fifty-one were thirteen-year-olds, nine hundred eighty-five was fourteen years old. Not only is this number increasing but it is also alarming. The main reasons for child marriage are poverty, gender inequality, tradition/culture, education, and insecurity. Most of the child marriages happen in rural or backward areas of the country. The main reason for this is poverty for sure. Parents who have a daughter but don't earn as much choose this method to give them a better life. For the boys, the marriage does not take place but poverty triggers child labor. Another main reason behind this activity is gender inequality. Even today there are lots of countries that consider

Females were allowed to marry at 12, while males were allowed to marry at 14 ("Elizabethan Wedding Customs” 1).

Muhammad was born in the year 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca, located now in what is known as Saudi Arabia. His father, Abdullah died before he was born and his mother, Amina passed away when Muhammad was around five or six years old. He was then brought up by his grandfather, ‘Abdul-Muttalib, who treated him with the utmost love. Two years passed before his grandfather also passed away and Muhammad was left in the care of his uncle, Abu Talib and his wife, Fatima. They treated him just as well if not better than their own children. The love they had for the young boy was matched by no one.

and to be betrothed to one of the king's heirs. When she was about 15 she was married

nine at the time my ex-husband and I decided to get divorced. We had two young girls ages two

The girls stays at home with her mother until they married, the age that girls married in Athens was 14-15 years old.

Soon after a girl hits puberty, she is considered ready for marriage. Marriages were almost always arranged by the families of the bride and

Girls all over the world are forced into marriages due to financial necessity, tradition and to ensure their future. Most of these girls married are at a young age: “One third of the world’s girls are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15”( “Child Marriage Facts and Figures”). The young ages of those being married reveal how crucial it is to resolve this problem. When child marriage occurs the parents of the bride usually chose the groom for their daughters; and these grooms can be three times older than the young brides. Some children are brought into the world of marriage at the of 8 or sometimes less depending on their cultural views. The following can be used to help reduce the impact of early

until they are about eighteen years old and they usually marry after college or in their mid twenties. Our

Muhammad now recognized as the most important person in the Islam religion, demonstrated diplomacy. Muhammad’s first followers became his family that stuck by his side, and obeyed his wishes. During the evolving of Muhammad’s teachings, he married eleven different women. “Muhammad’s marriages are often viewed in political terms. The early biographers state that Muhammad consummated marriage with at least eleven women in Medina, most of whom survived him” (Gordon 16-17). Marrying all these different women was nothing but strategy. His wives were from prominent political tribes, which meant that Muhammad was securing and creating political bonds between all of them. This was a very smart move on Muhammad’s part. By marrying all these different women, he had the power to influence the women of political power and move them toward the Islamic religion. This was mapped as the starting point for Islam and it eventually spread through the

In many of the cultures in these parts of the world honor is of vital importance. It is a great shame to one’s family for a girl to have sex outside of marriage, consensual or otherwise. Women who have sex outside of wedlock are ostracized from their communities and at times even killed in order to cleanse the family honor. Based on these beliefs, a father (as it is almost always the men of the family who arrange marriages) may marry his daughter off early in an effort to protect her and the family. In Yemen there is a proverb that says “To guarantee a happy marriage, marry a nine-year-old girl” (Ali 74), and in Nigeria it is “considered shameful for a girl to menstruate more than once while still residing in her parents’ home” (Haberland

-English common law, and early American law, before the 1820's treated marriages like business mergers. The fathers paid dowries and often arranged marriages for their daughters. In the early 1800's fathers could contract their daughters to marriage as early as age 12 and there was no consent on her part. Boys had to be 14 before they could enter into a marriage contract.

Cultural and socioeconomic factors that reinforce child marriage differ from region to region. Where one lives within a country may strongly influence whether or not she will marry early. In India the highest rates of child marriage is concentrated in five states: Madhya Pradesh at 73%, Andhra Pradesh at 71%, Rajasthan at 68%, Bihar at 67 % and Uttar Pradesh at 64%. The median age of marriage in India is 16.4 years according to the National Family Health Survey. [8]It also found that 65% of girls are married by the time they are 18. There are many reasons why child marriage occurs but they can be put into two general categories. The first one is based on social norms, customs and religion. Virginity in India is very important. If one is raped, it is hard for her to be married. “As Vatsayyana said a couple millennia ago that a virgin bride is important, even if people don’t talk about it openly”.[1] Therefore, the younger the bride the more likely it is that she’ll be a virgin and so marrying off the daughter as young as possible, the faster the end of the parent’s responsibility to keep her a virgin.

In today’s society, adolescents have a positive opinion about cohabitation before marriage. The view of marriage as an institution has faded and cohabitation has taken a new part of this culture (Martin, Specter, Martin, & Martin, 2003). It has often been questioned whether or not premarital sexual activity causes marriages to be disrupted. According to Teachman, Premarital sex and cohabitation has not