Global Issue: Women’s Rights

Stolen childhood is a side effect of early marriage. In poor and undeveloped countries is common to see weddings between adolescent and even children. Often the parents choose and their childhood is interrupted from their rights. As a married person the child has to perform activities that they are not psychologically or physically prepared. This happens to boys but girls suffer the most. Some child brides are as young as 8 to 9 years old, sometimes they marry much older men. The poverty makes the young brides to leave the school and start

In the article, Child Marriages in Sub-Saharan Africa, states the reasons and crazy expectations of child marriages. In Sub-Saharan Africa 39% of girls are married before the age of 18. Child marriages has spread throughout all of Africa. In West and Central Africa 42% of girls are married before age 18 and in Eastern and Southern Africa it is 36% of the girls (Child Marriages in: Sub-Saharan Africa). These number vary throughout the year yet they never drop to zero. It is a mass dilemma to outsiders yet in the depth of Africa, it a tradition that is hard to break. Daughters may be married off due to poverty or fear of safety. It is a custom in which the daughter does not have much control and marriage can be used as a leverage in a heated

The article states, “We first met in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, where Syrian girls as young as 12 and 13 are being married off to older men. For these girls’ families, marriage is seen as a way to protect their daughters from poverty and violence (Almellehan, Yousafzai).” Even though the genre of this article is nonfiction, readers can still see how social issues affect people. In this case, readers are shown that girls are sent off to be married at the age of 12 or 13. Most readers do not agree with this; therefore, they may do something to stop

“Government statistics in South Sudan show half the girls there aged 15 to 19 are married, with some brides as young as 12 years old.” Many girls in countries such as South Sudan and Trinidad are married off at a young age and later face abuse from their husbands. Many of these cases go unnoticed, unpunished and numerous girls die because of birth complications. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, emphasizes the issue of marriage rights and household equality that affect real people in countries such as the United States, South Sudan and Trinidad.

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

In Afghan society, a forced marriage is when either the man or women is married against one’s will. This includes childhood brides and young women who are sold from their family in order to pay off debt. Adolescents that are forced into marriages in Afghanistan are consistently mistreated and abused in their households. In the article “Afghanistan: Women, Socially Bound

A seventeen year-old student in Australia, has recently found himself caught in the slavery-like practice, majority of us have never heard of, let alone realised it existed. This practice is called ‘forced marriages’, a practice, in which one or more parties is married without fully consenting, as they have been coerced, threatened, deceived, or because they are incapable of understanding the nature of forced marriages. This male student, while in high school, developed a secret relationship with a female outside his community.

Some of these arranged marriages are assigned at one’s birth with the girl (future woman) having absolutely no say on the matter. When viewing the photographs from NPR, Photographers Capture The Sorrow And Pain Of Global Girls, we see the first image of a 13-year-old Syrian girl being prepared to be married. In the girl's culture, it is seen as bad fortune if a girl “of age” dies without a husband. Due to harsh times and the fear of death, the family of the girl decides that their daughter is old enough to be married. Throughout this ordeal, it is possible that the girl detested the idea of marriage and was forced, or because it is a custom in their culture, it was normal to get married young. Being married at a young age relinquishes one's childhood and forced to assimilate into the role of a wife, this personifies the image that in these cultures a woman is not equal and instead of a minority within society. They are seen as less than men to the point where it is justifiable to beat women (Story Map/ Women’s Rights). On the Story Map website, one can see that mostly in Africa and middle-eastern countries it is reasonable to assault a woman. Assaulting men is a crime, which can lead to death, but ok if it happens to women. From being stripped of childhood at a young age to allowing the assault to occur, women are minorities in a majority of cultures around the

Women have faced many obstacles in their struggle to gain their rights all around the world and the biggest difficulties are the social and cultural factors, and some aspects of law. To start with the legal obstacles that deprives women of simple rights without any rational explanation. This fact is only found in our Arabian societies. For example, women who marry a foreigner in our country cannot pass on their nationality to their children, whereas men in that situation can. Another obstacle that increases the discrimination is the cultural and social restrictions. In most Arabian countries women are free to choose what to wear, and can choose their jobs and education. And the law does not require them to wear any particular form of clothing.

Girls being forced into early marriage and selling of daughters are two of their common practices. Discrimination with women and girls is very common. 70% of girls early childhood do not attend school and 94% of female births are not registered (Swanson & Swanson, 2011). Their marriages are usually arranged and are less educated than men. They

When one thinks of marriage, they think of two adults being in love and deciding to spend the rest of their lives together. To most, marriage is a choice, but according to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), one third of the girls, under the age of eighteen, in the world marriage is not all they would have dreamt of. All around the world girls under the age of eighteen are getting married. Girls are getting married to strangers, to men drastically older than them and also unwillingly. This can be and is extremely dangerous. A person under the age of eighteen should not be allowed to marry simply because they are not mature nor developed enough to handle adult situations. These girls are having to be put in situations that they do not understand how to solve. Ending child marriage requires work across all sectors and at all

Because they are girls, women in third world countries are forced into marriage, forced to give up their education, if they are even lucky enough to receive one in the first place, before they reach the age of 16. They are forced to become mothers, and are forced to be seen as less than the males who control them.

This gives rise to the issue of girl child marriage in Nigeria. It is mostly practiced in Northern Nigeria and some parts of Eastern Nigeria. It is an arranged marriage whereby girls who are not physically and emotionally ready to get married are given off by their parents to men who are sometimes old enough to be their fathers. These parents deem their female children as the means by which their impoverished state can be rectified. As a consequence of this act, many of these girls are faced with traumatic experiences, some of which include domestic violence, marital rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and the overwhelming experience of raising a child as a child. Marriage is definitely a thing of joy, but this does not hold true when it is forced on someone who is obviously not ready for such

Child brides are a little voiced problem that occur around the world. Fourteen million girls become child brides every year, a number that is increasing due to the growing populations of countries where child marriage is common (Fisher). I chose to focus on child brides specifically in Africa and the Middle East due to the high instances of child marriages in those parts of the world. In my research I also found that child brides are very common in South Asia and South America as well. In Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Nepal over half of girls are married before they turn eighteen (Fisher).This is largely due to traditional tribal practices, cultural norms, and an overall lack of education.

In many societies, marriage is a celebrated institution commemorating the union between two consenting adults and the beginning of their lives together. However, this experience and celebration is different for the millions of girls around the world who are forced to wed while still children, some not even yet teenagers.