Lit Review on Child Marriages in Nigeria

Arranged marriages are very popular amongst many countries and cultures. It is the tradition of someone’s spouse being chosen for them, usually by their parents. Unfortunately, a decent amount of these marriages occur with the person being forced against their will, or the bride being a child. Arranged marriage, as seen in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” is an important topic in literature and modern-day culture.

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

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

For hundreds of years young children were married off early in life sometimes 12 years old for girls, and 14 years old for boys. So why doesn’t that happen now? This simply is because starting in the early 1900s the age “limit” as some would say started increasing. Now instead of having to be 12 or 14, a person has to be anywhere between 15 and 21 to get married. Some of the reasons why this change occurred is compulsory state schooling, child labor laws, and studies showing the negative effects of early in life marriages (Dahl).

11. Why arrange a marriage for your offspring? How has this been modified more recently?

Marriage is an essential contract between a husband and a wife. In the past, marriages were arranged between relatives and the parents of the couple were the main leads in discussing the ceremony.

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

Those individuals who are proposed of the idea of arranged marriage ask the question “whether a parent can be trusted to find the right partner for a child” (Kolker, 62). These days parents and children argue about almost every single topic let alone finding a spouse for them. It sounds weird when a mother looks for brides for her grown son. But, marriage “as we understand it,

This topic a is very important subject in cultural anthropology because of how it is represented in each culture around the world since they have their own customs and traditions. Although, marriage can be good it is not always about love between the two people who are getting married. An example would be an arranged marriage that is defined with the purpose of uniting a kinship group with a common goal. On the other hand, marriage is the union that is culturally defined as a sexual relationship between two adults who have a bond with the children they take responsibility for and the relationship of the kinship group that are united when the marriage takes place. Going back to arranged marriages, they are usually arranged by the

"More than 200,000 children have been involved in a child marriage in the last fifteen years," says Chris Baynes, an author at The Independent. When the words "child marriage," are said, I used to think of a third world country. I think of someone that I thought of as "uncivilized" or as "inhumane," but many people, including me, would be shocked to know that child marriage happens right here in our "civilized" United States. On top of the fact that it generally happens here, it is completely legal in twenty-five states! The other twenty-five states have minimum ages but the loopholes that those laws have are astonishing. Many of the laws loopholes, according to Nurith Aizenman, the writer of "The Loopholes That Allow Child Marriage in the

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.

Child marriage is a marriage that occurs between two people where one or two of the partners is under 18. While boys are also married under the age of 18, girls far outnumber boys in child marriages. It is usually forced and occurs often to girls who are ages 12 to16 years old[2]. The husband is also often several years older than his wife, sometimes even

In the generation where my grandparents came from, marriages were purely arranged by the elderly. Mothers or aunts usually selected a marriage partner for their sons. My grandparents got married when both of them were very

Birth, marriage and death are the standard trio of key events in most people’s lives. But only one, marriage is a matter of choice (Innocenti Digest, 2001). The rights to have a choice were recognized as a principle of law, yet many girls and some boys enter marriage life without any chance of their rights to choose. Childhood and adolescence are usually the greatest years of one’s life. However, the period is cut short when marriage and adult responsibilities come too early as ones practiced early marriage. Early marriage refers to any form of marriage that takes place before a child has reached eighteen. According to Adlakha, Arjun, Mohamed Ayad and Sushil Kumar (1991) early marriage extends a woman’s reproductive span, thereby