Colleen Mills
25 January 2011
12:28 AM
Muniratu Adam, a high school student of Uthmania JHS in the Ashanti Region, was forced to marry a 60 year old Nigerian man. It has been only a week and she can barely remember his name.
When the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice discovered this situation, they became severely flustered and decided to question Muniratu Adam’s father. He began wailing insults at them as they questioned his rationale in allowing his daughter to marry a 60 year old man. Even with the risk of his daughter doing poorly on her Basic Education Certification Exams, he allowed for the marriage process to proceed. He was even threatened with prosecution but he still carried out his plan of marrying off his daughter.
When interviewed, Adams said that she has yet to have sexual relations with her husband. She also told the interviewer that she was relieved once the marriage was over even though it was forced upon her.
In the Ashanti Region, marriage is important to their community. Many of the marriages are polygamous as the man takes on many wives to show he can support a large family. The woman is traditionally married off by her parents without her consent. It is common for a couple to never have seen each other before they are wed. Divorce rates are low, allowing for almost all marriages in the Ashanti Region to be lifelong and therefore binding.
Arranged marriages are considered to be wrong in the eyes of many Human Rights advocates. In America, where freedom to marry whoever one so wishes is present, it becomes difficult to understand the rationale behind forcing one’s offspring into marriage, and at such an early age at that. Personally, the thought of marrying a stranger, that could probably be considered my grandfather, severely bothers me; any individual from the “freedom is a personal right” perspective can relate to such thoughts.
On the other side of the fence, the Ashanti people rarely reject their traditional style of marriage. Although it is not preferable, it is the way their society functions. They have participated in this practice since the beginning of their culture and probably always will. Something that is considered to have broken a social norm in America is an everyday occurrence in Ashanti. They, as the blog previously stated, are often accepting of the situation and are supportive of this mentality towards marriage.
Now it becomes a struggle of personal beliefs. Who’s to say that what the Human Rights advocates are doing is wrong? Or right? Is it their place to step in and “correct” the situation given the Ashanti people have accepted this tradition for generations and generations? Or should the advocates, because their personal beliefs are different, impose such beliefs on another non-accepting culture?
Personally, I believe that because this situation does not harm the girl’s health, then the Human Rights advocates should not step in and force their beliefs on the Ashanti people and their culture. For me, it becomes a problem that needs to be resolved once someone’s health is at stake or threatened. As I’m sure many would disagree, one should keep in mind that Muniratu Adam accepted her marriage after it was finalized. Although her marriage goes against my personal belief that one should have a choice in terms of who they marry and if the relationship is monogamous, I still think that forcing one’s own beliefs on someone else is equally as cruel and unfair in term of that other person’s rights.
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