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A literature review on child marriage
Literature review on child marriages
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Child Brides Argumentative Research Paper
Child Marriage prevents girls of the opportunity to thrive as well as causes a humans rights violation which denies females of their education, health, and of when and whom to marry. The definition of child marriage is a informal union or formal marriage between a female and male before age eighteen. According to UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 2017; twenty countries with the absolute highest child marriages around the world are, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Brazil, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Philippines, Egypt, Niger, Mozambique, Sudan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Thailand, and Kenya.
Thus, one in five girls in the world are said to be married before they are eighteen. The persistent practice of child marriage prevents girls of improving their academic performance because females who remain in school allows them to avoid becoming a child bride. Girls’ face greater challenges in order to achieve an education than boys.
Meanwhile, there has been extensive global progress in terminating gender gap girls are provoked to become child brides when they begin to fall behind in primary and secondary level education. The informal union or formal marriage between a female and a male
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Personally, I like many other child brides suffered the consequences of child marriage. At the age of thirteen my father expected me to dropout of school and remain at home because of cultural aspects. Immediately after graduation my parents had urgent expectations of becoming a married women at the age of eighteen. The marriage was going to be arranged and I was not allowed to see an image or speak to the man prior to our marriage. Regardless, of refuting against the marriage my parents achieved their goal of making me become a child bride on April first, two thousand sixteen in Kandahar,
In the article titled “Pashtana’s Lesson” by Beth Murphy, she records the story of a 15 year-old Afghani girl who has a fiery passion for acquiring knowledge and pursuing education, but old traditions oppress her devotion to study. Pashtana is in the 7th grade at an all girls school which has been rejected by the elders in their community, asked to be torn down, or turned into an all boys school. Her mother strongly enforces studies on her children because she never went to school herself and she doesn’t want her children to end up blind to things in the world like her. In order to support her mother and three younger siblings financially, Pashtana is being forced by her uncle and father to marry her first cousin which is not uncommon, the
Why is a ten-year-old child getting married? Is the “man” also ten years old? Why would an adult want to marry someone who hasn’t even reached adolescence yet? It made sense to them to sell their daughters for marriage once they started menstruating, but why would they sell off a child who probably wouldn’t start to do that for up to two years after the marriage.
Finally, from a sociological point of view it can be seen that the girls’ decision to enter in to an arranged marriage may not have been one of total free will. The decision to choose a life partner was not hers but her parents. Her conforming to their wishes was pre-destined by the norms taught by her family. The girl may have consciously assessed that the benefits of an arranged marriage outweighed being an outcast within her family unit. Her behaviour could be seen as being determined by the system of relationships she shared with those around her (significant others). As a result the girl had no choice but to conform to the ideologies of her family.
Some of these marriages are extremely dysfunctional while others seem to be practical. These marriages are considered different from forced marriages and are an acceptable type of marriage in Afghan society. Some arranged marriages lead to poor or horrific outcomes for the brides in order to separate from her spouse. Occasionally these marriages shift into being forced marriages. In the article “Afghan girls bound by family betrothals” the author states “In Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, an 18-year-old girl shot and killed herself because her family would not break off her three-year-engagement to a drug addict.” This exhibits how certain family’s decisions for their children are atrocious. In addition it shows how an arranged marriage turned into a forced marriage. At times young women may run away from as a threat tactic to their family reported by the article “Afghan girls bound by family betrothals.” A 17-year-old girl who ran away from her home for a few days resulted in her parents letting her marry the man that she loved rather than who they set her up with. This shows how some parents would be tolerant enough to let his own daughter marry the person she
Imagine seeing a girl no older than eight years old, being forced into marriage to a man twice her age. For many girls around the world, being forced into marriage to much older men is an everyday occurrence in their lives. The word “arranged” is not usually associated with the word “forced” but in cases like these the girls have no choice but to agree to marry. Arranged marriages are deeply embedded into the cultures of some countries, with girls being promised into marriage when they are as young as a month old and marrying before they reach maturity. About a third of the women married in developing countries are married before they are eighteen years of age.
Lastly, the practice of child brides is a violation of basic human rights because when young girls are forced into the marriage they lose their independence.To begin with, child brides lose their independence in the process of not being able to attend school no more. Tara S Beatie in "Supporting adolescent girls to stay in school, reduce child marriage" indicates that child marriages frequently end a girls education. The reason for this is because when a young girl becomes a child bride she takes upon far too many responses that she does not have the time to attend a school like her peers. Her role as a child bride is to maintain in the household and attend to her husband. When child brides are not educated they become financially dependent
Some of the main challenges being cost of education, school environment, position of women in their societies as to how they are treated, conflicts and social exclusion. One of the main reasons why parents discriminate against the girl child when it comes to education is the cost when compared to economic returns to the household after the completion of education and also the expenditure of marrying off a daughter is enormous in many societies. It has also been documented that girls in most developing countries start helping in household chores from an early age and being highly educated causes constraints regarding marriage as many grooms don’t prefer a literate wife. Studies have shown that girls are the first to discontinue schooling to provide care to a sick member in the family or take care of younger siblings in case of death of a parent, and this is one of the main reasons why in Sub-Saharan countries there are many child headed families. Social exclusion is another barrier that prevents girls from going to school as they are excluded based on caste, ethnicity and religion (DIFD Report,
For the duration of time, society perceives men as superior, which infused to their cultural aspect in life. Society instilled male dominance to the minds of young children, imposing a role each sex must play. Girls are slaves of society, submitting to men as their master. And child brides are a perfect way to exhibit patriarchy society (Ludden). The young girl would be married off to take care of her own family, crippling them in attaining an education and getting a job. Girls were not meant to work (Radu). It is also said that the purpose of marrying off girls young was to keep their attractiveness. Roberta Radu says, “'Virginity is an "asset" that families customarily trade for substantial sums of money, so marriage is arranged as early as possible in order to preserve the girl's "desirability". Out of all of these inducements money was the biggest factor. Parents would arrange their daughter marriage due to poverty. The bride’s family would receive a dowry, basically trading girls for money. Again, girls were burdens and the parents used child marriage as a relief...
There are some social pressures on women especially the teenagers in early marriages which effects women to purse education. The impact of teenage and early marriage contributes double disadvantages in female education especially, in rural area. Educational opportunities tend to be more favorable in boys than girls due to cultural differences in gender roles. They think that education is more beneficial in boys. Some parents put more effort in training the boys and neglecting the girl’s education.
Girls all over the world are forced into marriages due to financial necessity, tradition and to ensure their future. Most of these girls married are at a young age: “One third of the world’s girls are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15”( “Child Marriage Facts and Figures”). The young ages of those being married reveal how crucial it is to resolve this problem. When child marriage occurs the parents of the bride usually chose the groom for their daughters; and these grooms can be three times older than the young brides. Some children are brought into the world of marriage at the of 8 or sometimes less depending on their cultural views. The following can be used to help reduce the impact of early marriage: reinforcing laws that are passed against child marriages, and providing information on contraceptives to victims of early marriage. The most efficient way of resolving the problem of child marriage is through educating the people who practice it about its adverse effects.
While arranged marriages are still a common practice, and some girls believe that there are benefits from the arranged marriage, some future brides feel uncertain and scared of getting married because it would mean that they would have to leave the comfort of their home. Not only that, but it is not uncommon for the family of the groom to put extra pressure on their new daughter-in-law. Everything, including her behavior, her clothing, and her housework will be under observation. Whether or not arranged marriages are the best way to create families or find love, it is interesting to see how there is not just one way to get married.
Because of child marriage many kids lose the opportunity to continue with school. When kids don’t go to school they lose out on many employment opportunities to help the household financially. When children miss out on employment opportunities it keeps the cycle of poverty going. Parents should not be marrying off their children so young just because they cant provide for them, there is other options instead of throwing out your daughter. Every child is valuable and deserves to live a childs life and have fun and just worry about being a kid instead of having a grow up while still yet a child. Each child should enjoy their child years, it only happens once and then real life hits, no child should be deprived of a childhood. Parents should step up and take responsibility for the life that they brought into the world. These countries that waddle in child marriage are some of the poorest because the cycle of poverty starts all over again as these two people joined together have to figure out to make finances work when they couldn’t even finish school to get a good job. Parents should let their children be children, their lives should be more valuable than any money they can get for marrying off their
Young marriage has an impressive number of disadvantages and bad repercussions that can be observed in most of the early wedded couples’ lives. While most boys have a say in when and who they marry, and what they do once they are married, many girls do not get the chance to make these decisions. Husbands of young wives are often older men who expect their wives to follow traditions, stay home, and undertake household and child-care duties; or non mature irresponsible young men who consider themselves able to pull such a burden. Early marriage involves huge responsibility from male, especially financial support. Combining job and education is not an easy case to deal with. So, early marriage has a high possibility of putting an end o...
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.
This practice proves to be dangerous not only to the woman herself but also to the rest of us around her. The impact this practice has on the society is dangerous not only to the women but to everyone in it. Demographers have warned that in the future in twenty years the nation will have to face a shortage of girls as brides as the sex ratio is quickly becoming unfavorable. This practice is also causing an increase in crimes and violence towards women. Women are more likely to be exploited, molested and also raped as an obvious result. Awareness on this situation should be made and people who want to determine the sex of their child should be punished severely. Laws have been passed in the Indian Penal Code to punish any person who tries to determine the sex of the child. The society needs to understand that it needs the girl child as much as it needs the boy child. There was no past without the female and there will be no future without the girl