And here it is...

What makes child marriage such a controversial issue in some of the developing countries? A lot of people, especially religious clerics have misinterpreted religion and taken the permission to marry a child to the extreme. For example, in Islam it is permitted to marry a child if, and only if, there is no other option left. That means if the child is homeless, needs shelter and has no other choice but to live with a man not directly related to her by blood. In such circumstances, a man can marry the girl but there are rules for how she should be treated. This is totally contrasting of how people have misused this liability to their advantage and turned it to child abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking and what not. Gaffney-Rhys (2011) mentioned in his article that a senior Saudi cleric stated that, "a girl aged ten or twelve can be married and those who think she's too young are wrong." This is a clear example of how religious laws that were meant to make things easier for people are now taken to the extreme and the children have to pay the price for that.

However, child marriage is not the only idea that has been affected with religious fundamentalism and extremism. Lack of education among the policy makers and people in power has affected several aspects of a society, especially lives of their women. The only way to even begin fighting this unfairness and bigotry is to provide basic education to children as well as adults. 

Women...are they really treated like one?

Girls Not Brides is a global initiative taken against child marriage all around the world. This initiative aims to eradicate child marriage in order to save the lives of millions of girls around the world and provide them with their health and education rights which are sacrificed on their way to becoming child brides. From this non-governmental organization we can understand the steps a country needs to take to help eradicate child marriage. Firstly, Girls Not Brides suggests that at the local level, families and communities need to be educated about the severe health risks young girls face because of early marriages as that is the most endangering part of marrying at an early age. Secondly, at national and international level, the leaders and policymakers need to be convinced to give this issue more attention, have stricter laws against the practice and dedicate enough resources to this issue. If the governments and the non-governmental organizations work together, this problem can see its end.

This video explains the plight of young girls in developing countries who have almost no say in their life's most important decision with great consequences and also enlightens on how to make a difference.

"The job of a wife is to obey her busband"

"The job of a wife is to obey her husband" (Amver, 2008). Yes, and all a wife is, just a wife. Of course, society has forgotten that she is also human, who not only has feelings, but also fears, and marriage may be one of them. Perhaps, the biggest one is these situations. 

Imagine your daughter, who's 13, getting married to man who is 40. I can't do that, now imagine yourself being the 13 year old. EVEN WORSE. Then why is it so hard for us to see what is happening right in front of us, are we blind? or is the tradition that is invisible? Personally, I think it is both. 

While doing my research, I found an article that bought tears to my eyes, and gave me goosebumps, because it was so disturbing to learn about these girls. Here is a small part of the article, that sheds light on what the two are feeling:

"Haiima and Alia, now sitting on woven chairs in the cool shade of a neighbor's hut, seem to know little of what it means to be a wife, or maybe they're just too embarrassed to say "The job of a wife is to obey her husband." offers Haiima, whose husband-to-be is 40. "And to pound the millet for dinner" (Amber, 2008).

What I feel is even more disturbing is how the innocence is snatched away...anotehr abstract from the article states: 

Halima's friend Tchima says she knows how to write her name. But give her a pencil and she holds it hovering over the paper and smiles sheepishly. She scribbles the first two letters and hands the pencil  back. Her parents, she states, only sent her brothers to school. And without school on their side, these girls have only one destiny. "If a girl does not go to school, she must get married" (Amber, 2008).

Isn't that the best option if not education?
THINK. FOR YOURSELF.

Why?

Child Marriage is happening in countries all over the world. although it has a lot to do with economic and other cultural beliefs, it is also something that is happening because not much is being done to stop it.

One specific example is Bangladesh, a country where a lot of trade happens internationally. Trading of products like fruits and vegetables, electronics, clothing is a something on a daily basis. However, a special trade also happens here, a trade of girls, where they are sold and bought as items of business. If seen from a relativist point of view, everything is wrong in this act, however, from a cultural point of view, nothing is wrong because it their culture. Who stops you from eating a burger at 5 in the morning, who stops you from watching TV all day long, in fact, even if someone does, do you stop? No.

These people will also, not stop. 

"In Bangladeshi society, marriage is considered as a personal matter till today. Social mobilization and grouping announcement may help to mitigate individual beliefs and ignorance about marriage. To promote behavioral change between genders, human rights should be emphasized, especially those of women – including impartiality, entrance to education and liberty from exploitation and discrimination" (Zahangir and Kamal, 2011). This is an abstract taken from a Social scientific study conducted in Bangladesh where data was taken from different families, to learn more about the causes behind the happening. However, the one main cause that stands very firm on its ground is the cultural aspect. 

All I don't get is, why can't better cultural norms exist form these people? Why cant they educate and become better citizens? Why cant they be treated as girls, as humans beings? WHY?? :'(

10 million girls is NOT a small number!

"It is estimated that 10 million girls a year worldwide, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, are married under the age of 18, some as young as 7 or 8" (Crossette, 2012). Ten million is an astonishing number of girls, all of them victims of child marriage. These girls are being forced to live their life with a stranger starting at the age of as young as seven. Imagine yourself at the age of seven, what was that time like in your life? Did you ever of getting married at that age? Obviously not, while we were and still are having the time of our lives, several girls out there who are younger than us are being forced to get married. Several others are victims of being child prostitution and rape. We all believe that child marriage is mostly common in Asia and Africa. However, it is not that way. For example, the minimum marriage age for girls on New Hampshire is 13 under parents consent. Even though it is under parent consent, what if the bride herself is not ready? Does she have any rights? Once again, imagine yourself in place of such girls. Did you ever think of how it would be to be forced for marriage at such a young age? Young girls are dressed up as a brides at an age when they have just learned their first words and steps couple years back. Girls are married off at an age when they have no idea what a marriage itself is. Why? I don't even see a point of getting two people married at such an early age when they haven't even faced the real world. The worst case is when girls are married off to a man who is 10-20 years older to them. It frustrates me to try to think of the parent's point of view. I cant because I don't see any point, any reason for getting them married at an early age. There's nothing wrong in getting them married, but why when they're not even perfect at eating their food by themselves? If I could, I would save each and every girl form being a victim of this, and the one who are suffering such abuses. Stop child marriage. Stop child marriage. STOP CHILD MARRIAGE!

Impacts of child marriage

Child marriage can have many different affects on females. The first thing that child marriage takes away from a female's life is happiness. The study conducted that females who survive rape and child prostitution are proved to be more symptomatic and emotional than the one who are married at an early age. However, child marriage does have a huge affect on their life and their thinking. In child marriages, brides become very lonely and live in fear. They become very anti-social and live in fear, remaining with no choices. It causes them to try to be away from men and not open themselves to anyone. Child marriage makes them regret for being a girl. The way in which the are beaten by their husbands or any male in their life makes them regret every moment of their life for being a girl. According to the researcher, child marriage, prostitution, and/or rape has an affect of having negative reaction by others and self blame on girls. Also, females for whom less time had elapsed from their very first experience of abuse showed a higher level of stress disorder and guilt. Whereas females for whom more time had elapsed since such incidents had started to overcome their stress and guilt. I know that this blog will not help in trying to stop child marriages and child prostitution, yet I am still trying to spread awareness for people out there who can actually make a huge difference. I try to imagine myself as being one of these females and I fail. I can't imagine myself surviving in place of these girls after such abuse. In my opinion, these ladies deserve an award for being so brave and having such guts to still survive. (Childhood sexual abuse research, 2011).

Another brave soul

Sometimes a small incident in one part of the world can affect people in many other parts of the world. Same is the case with Sahar Gul, an Afghan teenage girl, and her life after she was married to a member of the Afghan army when she was only 13. Gul's story was brought into light after she insisted CNN on publicizing her name and story to the world. According to Gul, after being married to an army official, she was raped and locked in the basement for months for the 'crime' of not getting pregnant immediately. There she was tortured, electrified and burned, and finally forced into prostitution by her in-laws for "failing her obligation as a woman."

Now after becoming an international symbol of the women's rights struggle in Afghanistan, Gul has opened our eyes to one of the many struggles young girls and women go through every day in countries without laws for women's rights or weak law system. This is due to their lack of education and awareness about their rights on the global level.

Gul's case is one of the hundreds of thousands of child marriages around the world, especially in developing countries. This is a serious issue and the governments need to take a stand in order to save the lives of not only the little girls who are married off at tender ages, but also their offspring that grow up in the same environment making this a vicious cycle

Here is Gul's interview after she was saved from her in-laws by the neighbors:  (Tortured Afghan teen on attackers, CNN, 2012).