Around the world, in developing countries, there are sixty-five million young women who were married before the age of eighteen; this is according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. South Asia hosts thirty million of these women. In Bangladesh and Nepal, more than half for the women are married before they are eighteen.
In these countries, young girls are seen as economic burdens, so in very poor families, they are sold off for economic relief. In the article, it tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl, sitting next to a forty-year-old man, her new husband. When asked on why her parents married off their daughter, her parents said, “We needed the money.”
A Minnesota Congresswomen is working on getting the United States to promote the end of child marriages. She labels it as forcible rape, “It’s an issue for the young girls for their health. Women will tell you that rape is a violent act. Can you imagine being a young girl, ten, eleven, twelve, being forcibly raped? This puts that young person at great risk for a host variety of health problems, both physical and mental.”
This is a scary issue and it is not the norm in the United States, but across the world, in these developing countries, reality is they are expendable; to their families, to their new husbands. No human being should have to endure this kind of treatment, and this goes on everyday and to many young girls.
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2008-01-16-voa2.cfm
3 comments:
Joseph Borawski, Friday January 18th 2008, 2:06 AM, comment.
The entire subject of child marriage is something that we have to come at with a couple of understandings. First this is a very normal thing to have happen in these countries, not that I think its right by any means but Society defines what is right and wrong and if these societies have continued on in this fashion for since who knows when, its going to be hard to forcibly change that behavior. Families will still feel the desire to sell of their daughters if its seen as a way to lighten financial burden. Which means that to accomplish a goal of limiting or destroying this practice will require Education, a general agreement and by and in the society that it is wrong, and also perhaps economic change in the regions so that keeping these daughters can be viewed as, economically viable, if not desirable.
Aside from the mental and physical ramifications of "marriage" at this age, I think ill hop on my high horse, and I am sure the original poster would agree with, when I say that theres no bloody Way this marriage as anything Other than purchasing a slave, for whatever purpose. These girls should be going to school and finishing growing up, and there is certainly no way they could be in love with these old bastards. Then again I suppose marriage and love are not mutually inclusive are they? There is my 2 cents.
I think in order to end practices like child marriage and human trafficking, people all over the world have to completely change the way in which they view women. Unfortunately, in many cultures all over the world, and indeed even in the United States, women are seen as a financial commodity or burden. So not to sound too much like a stereotypical feminist, but the truth of the matter is until women's bodies are actually seen as their own, practices like this will continue.
Marriage doesnt always mean love. Like in Japan, romance is discouraged, some African countries dont even have a word for kissing. To them, marriage means money to the families.
Could you imagine how these girls feel? Even if their society may approve of this, the United States and other Industrialized counrties should step in.
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