Child brides not acceptable practice



Innocence: Vulnerable Yemeni girls like these are often married off to older men. Photo - Stephanie Sinclair and dailymail.co.uk.

What do you think?

We have to do our bit here to try to protect the vulnerable!

I don't think these countries can keep hiding behind culture to allow these things to continue.
But then we can't force cultures to drop these kinds of practices either.

Sometimes I struggle with the concept that some people don't know any better.

It's amazing how many deslolate and provety-stricken places you see on news items, where you still see people on smart phones. All the information they need is there to try to effect cultural and economic change to make better choices, one would think?

We can only keep talking about these global issues and putting it out there.

This is not acceptable:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415871/Yemeni-child-bride-8-dies-internal-injuries-night-forced-marriage-groom-40.html

also in this next story from the dailymail.co.uk:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2216553/International-Day-Girl-Child-2012-Devastating-images-terrifying-world-child-brides.html

What are some of the reasons for cultural practices like child brides?

Council on Foreign Relations website below, discusses the main reasons why this practice occurs in some developing countries:

http://www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-human-rights/child-marriage/p32096#!/?cid=otr_marketing_use-child_marriage_Infoguide#!%2F

Early marriage appears to be an answer to poverty mostly, together with cultural norms and how much value there is of women and girls generally, in some societies.

Child marriage transcends regional and cultural boundaries.

Across developing countries, an estimated one in three girls is married before turning eighteen, and one in nine before fifteen.

Analysts project that if current trends continue, 142 million girls will marry before adulthood within this decade.

Reasons for early marriage of girls include:

Economics

In communities where women are generally not considered viable wage earners, families often view daughters as an economic burden. Impoverished parents may decide to betroth a daughter early to avoid the cost of education—if schooling is even available for girls—and ease the financial load of caring for a child. When schooling is not available, parents have an extra incentive to marry off daughters sooner. Families sometimes marry off a child to erase debts or settle feuds.

Dowries and bride prices also factor into the timing of child marriages. In such cases, youth is seen as enhancing the value of a bride; a younger girl has more time to dedicate to her new family and bear children. In many parts of India, dowries, or money given to the groom's family, can be lowered if the bride is younger. Bride prices, money given to the bride's parents (a common custom in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa), rise if a bride marries at an earlier age.
Research from the World Bank, based on Demographic and Health Surveys data, shows that across countries, girls from wealthier families tend to marry at later ages, supporting the hypothesis that poverty and economic survival are drivers of early marriage. Low esteem for girls and women facilitates these transactions involving young girls.

Cultural Norms

 

Child marriages occur most often in patriarchal societies where parents and elders have a significant role in selecting spouses for their children and new brides are absorbed into their new families as domestic help. Girls are often married shortly after puberty to maximize their childbearing potential.

Many cultures place an emphasis on girls' virginity, which is closely tied to a family's honor. Parents may marry off a daughter at an early age to ensure that she marries as a virgin and to prevent out-of-wedlock births. In Northeast Africa and parts of the Middle East, child marriage frequently occurs shortly after female genital cutting, a practice that is often justified as promoting virginity and deterring sexual assault.

People of various religions and sects support early marriage, which is contentious within many religious communities. In Ethiopia, for instance, child marriage is embedded in the customs of Orthodox Christian communities like those in the Amhara region, even though the country’s Orthodox church opposes the practice.
Some Muslims who follow a conservative interpretation of sharia argue that Islam permits child marriage as the Quran specifies that girls can be married upon reaching maturity, which conservative scholars define as puberty. However, there is debate within Islam about at what age a girl reaches maturity. Many Muslim communities and Islamic scholars agree with the internationally recognized age of maturity, eighteen. Moreover, many Muslims argue against child marriage because Islam mandates that men and women should choose their partners freely, and children are unable to do so.