Child Marriages

[Coyote]

I think anyone can agree that child marriages are an evil in the modern world - and, in fact, are usually synonymous with forced marriages.

It's easy to blame a religion for it, but the reasons go far beyond religion.

Wikipedia states:

Child marriage is defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18.[1] While child marriage is observed for both boys and girls, disproportionately most affected worldwide are girls. It is related to child betrothal and unmarried teenage pregnancy.

In some cases only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the female, due to importance placed upon female virginity. Other causes of child marriage include poverty, bride price, dowry, laws that allow child marriages, religious and social pressures, regional customs, fear of remaining unmarried, and perceived inability of women to work for money.

Child marriage was common in human history. Today child marriages are fairly widespread in parts of the world, especially in Africa,[2][3] South Asia,[4] Southeast and East Asia,[5][6] West Asia,[7][8] Latin America,[7] and Oceania.[9] The incidence rates of child marriage have been falling in most parts of the world. The five nations with the highest observed rates of child marriages in the world, below the age of 18, are: Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh and Guinea.[10] Top three nations with greater than 20% rates of child marriages below the age of 15, are: Niger, Bangladesh and Guinea.[11]

What's disturbing is that it is still "fairly widespread" including areas that are surprising such as Latin America.

Niger is dominant Muslim.
Chad is religiously diverse.
Guinea is dominant Muslim.

There is no doubt that religion plays some part in the pressure to marry - many religions place a premium on virginity (for just the female of course) and the younger the bride the more likely. But is it a dominant reason?

In all the areas where child marriages are common, including Latin America - women's rights are virtually non-existant. In fact, in most of the world it sucks to be a woman and there is no religion that truly gives women any inherent rights equal to a man. Such rights are only derived through modern interpretations. I suspect that child marriages are most likely occuring in rural, village and tribal areas rather than more educated urban areas.

Child marriages almost always mean an end to the education of a girl and little premium is placed on the education of girls in these regions anyway.

So how do you change this around the world? I don't think there are simple answers - conflicts, poverty, and traditional societies aren't easy to alter.

 

[Coyote]

An interesting article on child marriage and Islam:

Rejecting the Myth of Sanctioned Child Marriage in Islam

Name one thing Muslims and Christians share? Their level effort pointing fingers elsewhere whenever pedophilia comes up. Catholic priests are an obvious and easy target, but when my 16-year-old daughter raised $26,000 in her high school to combat North America's growing child-sex-slavery trade, her grandmother complained that she wasn't doing enough about misogyny and abuse in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and the Sudan. Although she wasn't very clear how Marley would get there. My pen on the other hand? We'll see.

Another similarity? Neither Muslims nor Christians blame Christianity for the problem, but the same can't be said for Islam. You've got to give pedophiles their props though. Most sane people consider them something beyond abhorrent, and yet on this issue they have convinced even Christian leaders to climb into bed with them, and with some Sunni and Shiite scholars to boot. And it's time to pull the sheets back and see what's really going on for the sake of women and children everywhere.

There are really only three reasons to insist -- as so many do -- that Aisha was only 9 years old when Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) married her: Either you are such a crazy Islamophile that you are willing to go to your grave insisting Muhammad could do whatever he wanted, or you are such a crazy Islamophobe that you want to insist he did, or you are such a weirdly religious sex-crazed pervert that you hope accusing him makes it OK for you to do it too.

There is absolutely no other reason to either make or repeat that disgusting claim. Aisha was married in 622 C.E., and although her exact birthday is unknown, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari recorded that it happened before Islam was revealed in 610. The earliest surviving biography of Muhammad, Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Malik bin Hisham's recension of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah -- The Life of the Messenger of God records that Aisha accepted Islam shortly after it was revealed -- 12 years before her marriage -- and there is no way she could have done so as an infant or toddler.

Furthermore, it is a matter of incontrovertible historical record that Aisha was involved in the Battles of Badr in 624 and Uhud in 625, in neither of which was anyone under the age of 15 allowed.

Finally, Imam Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, dead for more than 700 years, recorded in the biographical section of Miskat al-Masabih that Asma, her elder sister of 10 years, died at the age of 100, 72 years after Aisha's wedding. This makes Aisha's age at the time of her marriage at least 14, and at the time of her marriage's consummation almost 20.

Although those dates make it obvious that Aisha's child-marriage couldn't have taken place, according to Arab tribal traditions of the time it could have, and apparently it can still happen in Arabia today. A case that recently raged through the international press and Saudi courts -- of an 8-year-old girl who had been married by her father to a 47 year-old "friend" to settle Dad's debts -- shows how little things there have changed. However, that's despite Islam, not because of it.

It's a long article but it makes some very good points both on religion and the cultures surrounding it - including using religion to legitimize child marriages.

 

[syrenn]

as far as i am concerned .... "child marriage" is nothing more then a patina to cover

pedophiles who want to fuck little girls....and the only way to get what they want is to marry it.

 

[Coyote]

as far as i am concerned .... "child marriage" is nothing more then a patina to cover

pedophiles who want to fuck little girls....and the only way to get what they want is to marry it.

I think you are right, at least in cases where it's an older man and a prepubescent child - I can think of no other reason why a "normal" man would otherwise do so

 

[syrenn]

as far as i am concerned .... "child marriage" is nothing more then a patina to cover

pedophiles who want to fuck little girls....and the only way to get what they want is to marry it.

I think you are right, at least in cases where it's an older man and a prepubescent child - I can think of no other reason why a "normal" man would otherwise do so

most child brides are married to much older men.... sick bastards that they are.

and unless the *cough* husband is within 2 years of age to said child bride... i would still call him a pedophile.

 

[Coyote]

as far as i am concerned .... "child marriage" is nothing more then a patina to cover

pedophiles who want to fuck little girls....and the only way to get what they want is to marry it.

I think you are right, at least in cases where it's an older man and a prepubescent child - I can think of no other reason why a "normal" man would otherwise do so

most child brides are married to much older men.... sick bastards that they are.

and unless the *cough* husband is within 2 years of age to said child bride... i would still call him a pedophile.

I think you had it spot on when you said it was about men and dicks - but also desperation and poverty for those that sell their children into it, and a disregard for females in the culture, overall.

 

[Coyote]

The statistics are astounding: Child Brides - Child Marriage: What We Know . NOW | PBS

Who is affected?

• More than 100 million girls in the developing world will be married during the next 10 years.
  
• Although the definition of child marriage includes boys, most children married under the age of 18 years are girls.
  
• While the practice has decreased globally over the last 30 years, it remains common in rural areas and among the poorest of the poor.
  
• In Southern Asia, 48%—nearly 10 million—of girls are married before the age of 18.
  
• In Africa, 42% of girls were married before turning 18.
  
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, 29% of girls are married by age 18.

What are the effects of child marriage?

• Child brides are more likely than unmarried girls to die younger, suffer from health problems, live in poverty and remain illiterate.
  
• Premature Pregnancy: Child brides almost always bear children before they are physically - or emotionally - ready.
  
• Maternal Mortality: Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die during child birth or pregnancy than older women. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.
  
• Infant Mortality: Mortality rates for babies born to mothers under age 20 are almost 75% higher than for children born to older mothers. The children that survive are more likely to be premature, have a low birth weight, and are more at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS.
  
• Health Problems: Premature childbirth can lead to a variety of health problems for mothers, including fistula, a debilitating condition that causes chronic incontinence. Girls with fistula are often abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by society. There are approximately 2 million girls living with fistula, and 100,000 new cases every year.
  
• HIV/AIDS: Married girls may be more likely to contract sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS, than unmarried girls. Young girls are more physically susceptible to STD's, have less access to reproductive education and health services and are often powerless to demand the use of contraception.
  
• Illiteracy: Child brides are often pulled out of school and denied further education. Their children are also more likely to be illiterate.
  
• Poverty: Child brides - already poor - are isolated and denied education and employment opportunities, making it difficult for them break out of the cycle of poverty.
  
• Abuse and Violence: Child brides are more likely to experience domestic abuse, and violence than their peers who marry later.
  
• Mental Health: Violence and abuse can lead to post-traumatic stress and depression.
  
• Isolation and Abandonment: Child brides are often isolated from their peers and abandoned if they develop health problems like fistula.

Fistulas are a horrid condition - both of early childbirth and women who have borne multiple children. We, here, do not see it so much partly becuase access to birth control limits the number of children to choice. In most of these countries, women with this condition are isolated, ostricized or abandoned.

What can be done to prevent child marriage?

Education

• Girls with a secondary education are up to six times less likely to marry young compared to girls with little or no education.
  
• Education delays the age at which a woman marries.
  
• Education provides an alternative opportunity for girls other than marriage.
  
• Education increases socio-economic status and earning potential for girls.

So how do you convince people it's worthwhile to educate their daughters?

 

[Tank]

In Mexico the age of consent is 13

 

[syrenn]

I think you are right, at least in cases where it's an older man and a prepubescent child - I can think of no other reason why a "normal" man would otherwise do so

most child brides are married to much older men.... sick bastards that they are.

and unless the *cough* husband is within 2 years of age to said child bride... i would still call him a pedophile.

I think you had it spot on when you said it was about men and dicks - but also desperation and poverty for those that sell their children into it, and a disregard for females in the culture, overall.

any culture that revolves around men and their dicks.... the women in that culture are usually worthless..... unless you can sell them for or into sex.... again, something for men and their dicks.

 

[syrenn]

In Mexico the age of consent is 13

and i am sure its the old men who pushed that age of consent...and my guess they are pushing trying to push it back even farther.

 

[Tank]

Looks like people of color have different values when it comes to this issue

 

[syrenn]

Looks like people of color have different values when it comes to this issue

It has nothing to do with color.... its about men and their dicks.

 

[Tank]

 

[TheOldSchool]

Looks like your pals the muslims have it right!

 

[Jroc]

I think anyone can agree that child marriages are an evil in the modern world - and, in fact, are usually synonymous with forced marriages.

It's easy to blame a religion for it, but the reasons go far beyond religion.

Look around the world and see where women are oppressed then get back to me ok?

 

[Jroc]

Looks like people of color have different values when it comes to this issue

It has nothing to do with color.... its about men and their dicks.

Ummm... No it isn't. It's about control, dominance, it's about suppression of women's rights, it's not necessarily about sex

 

[Tank]

Looks like your pals the muslims have it right!

The muslims are mostly dark green "must be married"

 

[TheOldSchool]

Looks like your pals the muslims have it right!

The muslims are mostly dark green "must be married"

Yeah. Isn't that your thing?

 

[Tank]

Looks like your pals the muslims have it right!

The muslims are mostly dark green "must be married"

Yeah. Isn't that your thing?

No, "must be married" has no age limits

 

[TheOldSchool]

The muslims are mostly dark green "must be married"

Yeah. Isn't that your thing?

No, "must be married" has no age limits

You do know there's a few colored countries that have the age of consent at 18+?

Are you sure you want to acknowledge them as being up to your standards?