Child marriage is the formal marriage or union entered into by individuals under the age of 18. While it is a reality for both boys and girls, it affects girls more widely and can lead to a lifetime of deprivation and disadvantage (UNICEF). UNICEF also reports that worldwide, more than 250 million women alive today were married before the age of 15. Because many of these girls come from already impoverished backgrounds, they are even likelier to drop out of school and experience domestic violence at the hands of their husband and/or in-laws. Photographer Stephanie Sinclair and Rena Silverman for National Geographic (2013) reported that teenage brides were much more likely to die in childbirth and complications form pregnancy than women in …show more content…
Nour, who reported his article on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), describes that child brides are more likely to be infected with HIV and HPV than unmarried girls. This is because the risk of acquiring HIV from a single act of unprotected vaginal intercourse is 2-3 times greater than for women than men, especially in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa. Since married girls are under more pressure to prove their fertility since their husbands paid a large dowry for them, these girls would have more unprotected sex. Studies have also found that in some African regions, the husbands are considerably older (10-15 years average) than their bride, and would have had a few sexual partners by the time they were married, furthering the risk of infection. Another high risk involved for young girls is becoming pregnant after marriage. Since many child brides are trying to prove their fertility, they may become pregnant soon after. In malaria regions of Africa, pregnant girls were found to be infected at higher rates. Pregnancy increases the risk of acquiring malaria, and pregnant girls under the age of 19 had a higher malaria density than girls above the age of 19. The rate of malaria and HV co-infection are also deadly to a young pregnant girl. Malaria can increase the HIV viral load and increases the risk that the mother will …show more content…
An interesting point she brings up is “abuse by isolation”, which may deprave children of certain necessities like proper education, health care and life skills, while keeping their innocence. This is something that child brides in developing countries also suffer from if they have a much older husband and don’t have access to necessities. By isolating children from society, the community which is already affected by these practices shield children from the much needed help to get out of these
An example she presented in the article was a case of 16 years old girl that was married to her uncle at the age of 9, and pregnant at 12 in which she developed obstetric fistula after the death of her baby, she was recovering her 4th fistula surgery. This not even close to covering the horrors of childhood marriage in which many young girls are suffering around the global. She concludes that Fistula is 100% preventable, but because many of the young girls undergoing this, is in areas where there is no access to health care and resource, they are badly suffering this and even resulting in death. An important message she addresses is that child bride is preventable as this fistula is if it is taken into consideration in our
The impacts socially of the gendercide include women being married younger and younger due to the lack of suitable age females. This young marriage and the pressures on the young girls to provide families causes them to miscarriages and create harm to their underdeveloped bodies. In addition to younger marriages, high rates of prostitution become a problem. Most girls will be stolen and sold into sex trafficking. The lack of females causes male tensions to be high with no female perspective to calm down all the male testosterone in the environment. With no females to marry and love, they turn to illegal practices to satisfy their desires. The marriage of such young females also hurts their opportunity to grow and develop as women in society. They lose their chance for education, and they settle down to simply raise children. This also
The author mentions a few key take away main points. First of all, solutions must address the underlying causes of HIV risk among women. This mainly includes poverty and disempowerment because women in lower living standar...
In Haiti there is a system of child trafficking call “Restavek” parents give their children – its always a girl, to a stranger, to work as a slave. The narrative mentions “Marilaine is a very sweet 13-year-old from the countryside who is a restavek, she arrives at school with marks indicating she’s been beaten …” (Kristof) I’m angry at the fact that Haitian parents give their children away to function as a slave, putting the children in danger to be physically and mentally abuse because of the lack of resources. Barbara Ehrenreich is an American author and political activist who wrote an article called “It Is Expensive to Be Poor” there she mentions “The original welfare reform bill – a bill, it should be recalled, which was signed by President Bill Clinton – included an allocation of $100 million for “chastity training” for low-income women” It’s inhuman to control women from getting pregnant just because they can’t afford a pregnancy. Comparing both governments, they aren’t doing anything to change the inequality that exists in their countries social
Over 2 million children are sold into sex trafficking each year (Global). Sold gives the eye-opening narrative of just one of them. I followed Lakshmi through her journey as she learned about life outside her small hometown in Nepal. She loved her mother and baby brother and worked hard to keep up with her repulsive step-father’s gambling habit. When given the opportunity to take a job that could provide for her family, Lakshmi accepted the offer. Unknowingly, she walked into the hands of horrible people who led her blindly on the path of prostitution. Discovering her fate, Lakshmi latched onto hope when all seemed bleak. After months of endless abuse, some Americans gave her the opportunity to escape her situation, and, thankfully, she took
Malaria is a disease that is caused by parasites. It is transferred from one person to another by the infected female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria has been a serious health problem nowadays. WHO has provided the information that approximately 660,000 people died from malaria globally during 2010. Also, after estimating, there are 219 million cases of malaria infection in 2010 worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, being one the country that has the high rate of HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, had 90% of the people that...
In likeness to Aids, the malaria virus can be in your body for up to
Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases are treated at home, one in twenty children die of the disease before they reach the age of five. Pregnant women are also more vulnerable to disease and in certain parts of Africa, they are four times as likely to contract the disease and only half as likely to survive it.
The bravery Nujood demonstrated opened the doors for many other child brides. The issue of underage marriage had never gained as much exposure as it had after Nujood was publicly recognized as the youngest divorcee in the world. Yemen Times, along with other journalist wanted to share Nujood’s story. As uncomfortable as it was for Nujood to replay her occurrences for the journalist, she did it for a greater purpose. To help others in a situation like
Ludden, Jennifer. “Can Child Marriages be Stopped?”. npr.com. 25 Nov 2013. Web. 10 Feb 2014
Since the 1970s, many countries in the world the problem of adolescent sexuality and first sexual experience at young age appeared. To make matters worse, the trend of adolescent pregnancy became increasingly serious. From the fact sheet of World Health Organization, there are about 16 million adolescent girls giving birth every year – most in low- and middle-income countries. Among them, an estimated three million girls aged 15-19 undergo unsafe abortions every year. In low- and middle-income countries, over 30% of girls marry before they are 18 years of age; around 14% before the age of 15 and complications from pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19 years.
That is 545 deaths per every 100,000 successful deliveries. Also, a woman’s chance of dying from “pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in 13” (Abara 2012) Nearly 50% of Nigerian women are mothers before they turn 20. There in inability to access quality 6 health care services, poor access to safe childbirth services and lack of adequate and affordable emergency care. In some parts of the country, religion does not allow women to deliver in the hospital. Also, the husbands are not to be happy to see their wives opening up to a doctor for any from of virginal exanimations. So from a young age, the girl child is taught how to deliver her baby unassisted. This leads to infections and death. Also, gender inequality is imbedded in Nigerian society and culture. Although women do have rights to land, the patriarchal society dictates that their rights are weaker than a man 's. This shows the unequal distribution of power between man and women. Women have a very high fertility rate of six children per woman, due to the pressure on her to give birth to boys who can inherit and own land. As said by Newbury, “If a woman has a girl first, she is more likely to have more children, not use contraceptives, have short periods between pregnancies, and be subjected to polygamy” (Newbury 2004). Each of these factors increases a woman 's vulnerability to
Polygamy causes children to grow up faster than needed, experiencing adult like experiences. Becoming married as young as fourteen, and marrying a man that ages much older. Escaping a polygamous community clearly depicts a difficult task, as much as this idea appears to be emphasized and craved for, women are too afraid. Attempting to escape means risking the chance of them getting caught and taken away from their own children. They are deprived of their money and therefore, if they escape successfully, then they are already homeless. Competing for the attention and respect from the husband depicts a conflict many wives’ face. The social status of wives’ go down once the husband no longer longs for affection. Children are victims of both, physical and sexual abuse from father or other family members. Family members could also include step-family members. The abuse that these children face often cause them to have anxiety in the
Child marriage is a popular practice in India and Middle Eastern countries. It is defined as “a formal union before the age of eighteen” (unicef). In some cases the husband can be more than twice the age of the young girl. The median age of women at the time of their marriage is starting to increase, although this primarily includes women in higher income families. Seen as taboo in western countries, the practice is common in rural towns in places like India and Yemen. As a result of the marriage many young girls get pregnant, which is a serious health risk due to their underdeveloped bodies. The practice of child marriage takes away a young woman’s right to an education and also poses serious health risks.
Statistics show that in 1998, 2,256,000 couples became married, and 1,135,000 couples became divorced (Fast 1,2). For every two couples getting married, there is one that is getting divorced. In fact, half of ALL marriages end in divorce (Ayer 41). That is a sad reality to face. Those percentage rates increase as the age of the participant’s decrease. It seems these days, fewer and fewer teens between the ages of 14 and 18 are getting married. This is a change for the better. Teens are usually not prepared for marriage. Marriage comes with many responsibilities; most of which teens are not prepared to handle. “Early marriage, though possessing certain inherent dangers, is widely practiced in contemporary America” (Teenage 1). Even if teens feel they have the potential for a lasting marriage, they should still wait to become married.