In many countries and religions, marriage is a sacred act, and choosing who you will spend the rest of your life with is arguably one of the most significant decisions of your life. Especially considering most religious people don’t believe in divorce.
Imagine a world where young girls and women have no choice about who they will marry and spend their lives with, and the view of marriage is negative and seems more like a misfortune than a sacred and exciting event. Well, unfortunately, that is most women’s reality.
While I know that most of us may think forced and arranged are the same, they certainly aren’t. Arranged marriages were prevalent throughout the world until about the 18th century. The family usually set them up, and while I don’t agree with them either, I find women had more say than men and were less aggressive than forced ones. So, if you’re like me, you’re thinking, how can women have less say now than before the 18th century? Why are we regressing as a society?
Forced marriage occurs when family members or others use physical or emotional abuse, threats, or deception to force you to marry without your consent and can be both a cause and a consequence of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Now that we have provided some background and understanding, I would like to focus my post on children being forced into marriage today.
Worldwide, over 650 million women alive today are married as children. Every year, at least 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18. To put it in perspective, that is 28 girls every minute. Young children are forced into marriage every day, and while I will say it happens more frequently in underdeveloped countries, it still happens everywhere. Not only is it dangerous for health reasons, but complications from pregnancy and childbirth are also the leading cause of death between the ages of 15 and 19. But it also changes the entire trajectory of their lives, physically and emotionally. Subjected to domestic violence and emotional abuse can often leave many of these women with psychological damage. Objectified and uneducated, they often feel hopeless and don’t seek help. Suppose we, as a community, society, and country, put severe efforts into educating and advocating for these women. In that case, we can lower the number of forced marriages among young women worldwide.
While researching, I found that a solution that has already started showing results of regression in child brides is education. Increased rates of girls’ education have prevented 25 million child marriages globally in the last decade. This is an improvement, but I believe there is more to be done. I have always been aware of forced marriage. Still, until researching it, I didn’t fully understand what it entails, and sadly, many members of our society aren’t informed enough. Like me, this is unsafe because this negligence will diminish our world.
There are countless reported cases of forced marriage on the internet. Recently, many influencers have used their social media platforms to advocate for this cause and similar ones, which is a very effective way to get our generation involved. Two stories I came across resonated with me, so I want to share with you the story of The Norwegian 12-year-old, Thea.
Plan International Norway realized Thea, so they created a blog about her situation, a complication of interviews, posts, and her thoughts and feelings. The 12-year-old revealed she was marrying a 37-year-old man named Geir. Well, if you’re sitting here in awe, I was too, considering he could be her father. Well, in Thea’s luck, this story went viral worldwide, having famous people on Twitter about it and having its hashtag #stopthewedding. The outrage and protest made prime minister Erna Solberg announce a national campaign to stop child marriages. In the end, Thea got a victory. She got to continue to be a young girl and grow up without the damage that, unfortunately, other women in this world have and go through at her age and ages similar because people, especially their families, don’t protect them.
Many parents feel they are giving their daughters better chances in life by marrying them off early, especially in families with multiple children who have insufficient funds and struggle to make ends meet. Sometimes, they offer the families a dowry, property, or money brought by a bride to her husband in their marriage for their daughter’s hand in marriage. This becomes a considerable determinator in parents’ decision-making and in single households, where the mother is financially responsible for everyone. When I think about the mothers in these vulnerable situations, I have compassion for them. I watched a video about a 13-year-old girl from Dosso, Niger. I watched as her mother explained she was married off when she was only ten and is now widowed. She fears when she will eat next. She never had formal education. So educated others looked her down in her community because her daughter was no longer attending school because of bullying. She feared she would be “damaged goods.” She would have a baby out of wedlock and then not be able to get married, therefore struggling in life. We need to comfort and consult the parents of potential child brides with other options and support to make them less vulnerable. Educating these parents in impoverished communities may turn them away from the idea of forcing their young daughters into marriage. By the end of the video, Mariama could go back to school as her mom called off the wedding and spoke to the school about the bullying, and now she can hopefully continue to pursue her dream of becoming a judge. Many organizations make significant efforts to stop and prevent a forced marriage, but we must do our part as young thinkers, innovators, and the world’s future. We need to be more aware. Child marriage violates human rights, exposing young girls to abuse, exploitation, and early pregnancy.
Work Cited:
https://plan-international.org/case-studies/7-short-child-marriage-stories/
https://www.larsonjewelers.com/culture-and-history-of-arranged-marriages
Good post! I particularly like your title. Keep up the good work. – VP