The Issue Of Child Marriage

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

Agreements such as this can lift the burden of paying for a girl’s education, thus making it easier for parents to choose to educate their children, instead of marrying them off. In rural areas of underdeveloped countries, the practice of child marriage is on the rise due to the fact that most of the girls being married off are not educated enough to know there are laws in place to protect them. Being oblivious of their rights, children are being married off before they are able to comprehend the harm brought upon them. Having knowledge of laws that protects them from being married before they are ready can assist them in taking steps to prevent the occurrence of early marriage. Educating young girls about their rights is one way of ensuring that one child may be kept safe from having to face the atrocities of marriage with mostly older men. We can accomplish this by setting up organizations that can go to different villages and provide information on how marriage at a young age can have negative effects on the health of young wives. These organizations could even work with the government to provide shelters for girls who are trying to escape the wickedness of early marriage.

Among those rights, is the right to choose who we love and marry. As child brides, that right to choose is taken away. These children are being married off by their parents and family members, sometimes for money, or sometimes because of their religion, to an older man. This “marrying off” takes away the young girl’s right to choose who she is going to spend her life with in the future. We, as Americans, are also born with the right to education. By being married off, these young girls are often forced to dropout of school and end her education to fulfill a marriage she didn’t even choose. The girls having to quit their education also, in a way, prohibits them from trying to get out of these marriages when they’re older because they will be financially dependent on their husband. They will be scared to leave the marriage since they are fearful that they won’t be able to support themselves enough to keep the lifestyle that they are living currently in the

“At its heart, child marriage happens because communities do not value girls as much as boys.” (10) Care International states. If we were to support women more in local communities, we could diminish this problem. Some organizations are already taking action by doing this; teaching young people to be an advocate for change and working with boys, parents,community and religious leaders are both suggestions for learning how to value women and respect them better. “Youth groups, encouraging dialogue between youth and community leaders, and building the capacity of young people are all ways of supporting young people to be champions of change in their own communities.”(12) is another solution to contemplate, states

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

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 marriage is a global problem that spans across countries, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. Today, 1 in every 3 girls worldwide is said to be married before the age of 18, which can lead to physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. In order to end the practice of child marriages, the international community must work hand in hand within the various societies to provide the policies and programs necessary to achieve this goal.

More than 700 million young girls are forced into marriage (GirlsNotBrides: Child Marriage Around the World). In foreign countries such as Niger (76%), Chad (67%), Guinea (52%), and many more it is very common for a young woman to be forced into marriage (GirlsNotBrides: Child Marriage Around the World). Many of these young women are poorly educated and do not know the rights as a human being they possess. This is a practice that is ongoing, but isn’t impossible to be stopped.

Gay marriage has come to be a pressing topic in the contemporary society as more and more individuals get actively involved in discussing it. Individuals who oppose same-sex marriage are typically inclined to bring on a deontological argument or to say that legalizing the act might bring on other issues. In contrast, people who support gay marriages focus on matters related to human rights and justice. The arguments generated by each of the sides are certainly thought-provoking and it is very difficult for someone to get involved in the debate and actually pick a side concerning the matter.

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.

Women are the one of most oppressed groups of people among all civilizations and nations of the world. Throughout history, women have been belittled, abused, and discriminated against. They have been second-class citizens and seen as objects through almost all civilizations and throughout most of human history. The ideology behind these views has been challenged, but still women all around the world have continued to be oppressed and silenced as a result of practices in today’s societies that perpetuate the oppression of women and the continuation of gender-based violence and discrimination. Ending these practices is key to the end of gender-based discrimination, as the control and silencing of women cannot happen otherwise. In many developing nations, the oppression of women is continued due to many cultural traditions that have the effect of limiting a girl’s autonomy and agency, from even before adulthood. I decided to focus on South and Southeastern Asia, where many women are not given the same rights and agency as men. Many women throughout South and Southeast Asia suffer from gender-based discrimination and are barred from achieving equality with men for a number of reasons: extreme poverty throughout the region, a prevalence of cultural traditions in this region rooted in controlling female sexuality, practices surrounding marriage customs, and the valuing of male children over female children.

Girls can be abused in their society daily, with an education, we can cut down the amount of, sexual harassment, and bought marriages. Girls with no education are three times as likely to marry by 18 as those with a secondary or higher education. Over 60% of child brides in developing countries have had no formal education. The time between the primary

Practice and customs surrounding marriage, such as preferable age and selection of spouse differ from society to society, according to understandings, structures and patterns of lives of families in each society. Marriage is a basic human right which is legally defined by a set of stipulations. The existence of a minimum age for marriage is one of those conditions. Afghanistan is in the top of 49 countries for bride under age marriages. 70 to 80 % of the marriage in this country is either before legal age or forced (Grigsby, 2013). According to Afghanistan civil law the minimum age for girls to marry is 16. While statistics by UN and UNICEF shows that 57 percent of girls are married before reaching 16 (UNFPA, 2012).

According to Svanemyr J, “Child marriage, defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18, is a reality for both boys and girls; however girls are disproportionately the most affected. Globally nearly one in three girls are married before the age of 18, and one in seven is married before the age of 15. An estimated 10 million child marriages occur every” (1). Childhood marriages in Yemen have been factual for centuries,

In some parts of the world, children are viewed as a wonderful gift from God, yet in others they are seen as a useless burden. To obtain value in a third world country which has absolutely nothing is nearly impossible, especially for a child that is born into a family who sees her as a social and financial catastrophe simply because of her gender. Perhaps this is why in multiple countries; children, specifically girls, are sold off into marriage on an hourly basis. Child marriage has been happening for hundreds of years and can be branched into many forms, including consensual and, the more often used, nonconsensual. Unfortunately, child brides are a repercussion of the families and parents who allow them to be married off so young. In the cultures which a child bride is raised in, a family sees them as nothing except a chance to get some money, the societies these children grow up in view it as tradition making it impossible to try to escape the cycle, and they will never have the chance to escape because of lack of education.