Difficulties Of Growing Up A Girl In Ethiopia. Girls should be able to live out their childhoods carefree. They should not be forced to stop being children due to the fact they have their own kids now. Sadly, this is a reality many young Ethiopian girls have to face. Ethiopian women usually have to endure early marriage, being “split” and domestic abuse from a young age. In Ethiopia, being a girl indicates a hard life.
In Ethiopia, early marriage is a large factor in a young girl’s life. Even though illegal, parents will exchange their daughters for goods in order to get a higher standing in the community. For example, in the article “Save Us from Childhood Marriage,” Meekers writes that, “ In Ethiopia, more land and more cows guarantees a higher standing in the community.” She explains that, “They can wait to marry their daughters. It is only moral that parents acquire their money by their own means instead of taking advantage of their daughters,” (Meekers). She explains to us that some parents marry off their daughters as if they were material objects as opposed to human beings.
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Their husbands have a lot of power over them. They can not leave their husbands because they can not survive on their own. Because of this, men abuse their wives, and the wives can not really do anything to fight back. According to the article “Ethiopia”, “49% of women in Ethiopia have experienced physical violence from a partner (“Ethiopia.”).” And that 49% are only the ones reported. Many women do not speak out because they are seen as property of their husbands and the husbands are free to do whatever they want to do to them. In the movie, Girl Rising, Azmera’s mother wants to marry her off so that she can have a chance at a better life. What her mom does not realize is that, “50% of sexual assault happen to girls under 15” (Robbins). Azmera would most likely of been abused if her brother did not step in and help
What causes hunger to exist in Ethiopia? and What effect does it have on the people of Ethiopia? are two big questions regarding the people of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the 8th hungriest country in the world currently. There are many factors contributing to the starvation of the Ethiopian people. Hunger in Ethiopia is mainly caused because of famine; this affects the people greatly in their health but can still be prevented.
Many people moved from their country to another to have a better life, moreover; they would adopt another culture and shifted to new culture. when I first come to the United States, it is hard for me to interact with culture because American culture is different from Ethiopian culture. For some Ethiopian people is easy, they actually adopt American culture. today, it is going to be hard to leave and to come in the United States as immigrant because of the new president of The United States, Donald Trump. There are two differences between Ethiopian and American culture such as, have a right to speak and how they are respect the elders.
When considering what the African diaspora is, there is one period of time that people commonly refer to. This period of time is the Atlantic Slave Trade. While not the only diaspora of the African people in history, the Atlantic Slave Trade is most commonly thought of due to the scale at which Africans were being emigrated, with around 10-15 million Africans being brought over to the Americas, as well as the effect it has on us today. When looking at the experiences of Africans, they greatly differed dependent on where they landed. These experiences affected later generations of Africans, forcing them to adopt their own culture based on their surroundings and what they were accustomed to from Africa.
If these girls are forced into marriages, they will be missing pieces of how to be a woman and a wife. It is so risky for not only the family but could jeopardize the girl’s future. If she is ‘tarnished’ she can’t get a husband. This can really take a toll on their psychological wellbeing. It makes the girls feel as if they are not enough, or have no value. The only value women have in the Afghan society is to be a wife and mother. The tradition of bacha posh can really hurt these young
Immigrants have always been an important part of United States’ population. Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants, from all around the world, including legal and illegal, come into the United States for job opportunities, new life, or the American Dream. “Immigrants have contributed significantly to the development of the United States. During the Lincoln administration, immigrants were actually encouraged to come to America, as they were considered valuable to the development of the country.” (Soylu & Buchanan, 2013). They believe that the US will give them more freedom, protection, and opportunities, which sometimes it becomes the major issues for immigrants. That’s why “the U.S. population is becoming more racially and
In the society, women can be prone to different kinds of violence. The book “I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced” is a true representative of this. Written from the first person, it is a real expression of the experiences of Nujood Ali and her suffering. This is a personal autobiography of the little Yemen girl who was married off when she was only 10 years of age. In Yemen, young girls are forcefully married off to men who are way ahead of them in terms of age. It might be that many of them do not come out to challenge the decisions that are imposed on them by their families. However, Nujood had the courage to come out and speak on behalf of other young girls like her and also women who are forced into suffering and oppression. Young girls should not be forced into marriage and it is
In the Ethiopian culture, if men came to the house, the women are supposed to cover up because it would be considered immodest. I personally do not have a problem with dressing modestly because I do part take in this practice when I am at home with my parents. I respect the traditional values I grew up in and can acknowledge that those values have contributed in making me the person I am today. As Dr. Stangor (2011) discusses how some women will hold a certain persona to prevent culture disagreement, it made me wonder if women in my culture are dressing by choice or if that was reinforced upon by society. I do respect the traditional values that I was taught to express, but because now I have been immersed in the American culture, I am exploring to see how I can make it work for me especially gender roles. The reading, GIRL (Kincaid,1993) empathizes on the idea that growing up, she was mentally controlled by her family and what they perceived was the 'right' way of acting like a woman. It really made me wonder what kind of values and viewpoints I want to take into my adulthood because there are good attributes in the American culture and the Ethiopian culture.
I have come a long way in both my professional and personal life. I come from a very different cultured family. Both of my parents were born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia just like me. My family and I migrated to the United States about a decade ago seeking for a better way of life and more freedom of expression and opportunities. After we moved here it was challenging for us to adapt to U.S.’s culture because it’s very different from our culture. Located in the horn of Africa, Ethiopia is the tenth largest country in Africa. In recent years, the Ethiopian economy is currently the fastest growing economy in Africa and the third fastest growing economy in the world. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. The settled population is scattered, making delivery of health and social services difficult.
This decision highlights the significant difference in cultural norms regarding marriage between Igbo people and Western society. In Igbo culture, the purpose of marriage is to produce babies in order to continue the family line. It is acceptable for a father to marry his own daughter, so that she can produce babies who will take her father’s name. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the father will have sex with his daughter – it simply means the daughter will not marry anyone else. The identity of the baby’s biological father is not important, as long the baby takes the name of its mother’s father’s. By contrast, when two people marry in Western society they commit to loving each other for the rest of their lives, and they establish a family based on this commitment. Adaeze loves Ezenta, she is already married to him and she is pregnant with his child. She cannot accept the idea of marrying her father. When she fails to convince her father to change his decision, she decides to disobey her father and flees to London to live the life she
In many regions of Asia, women and young girls are not recognized as hard working beings as men are and aren’t granted opportunities such as education or work. Because of this predicament, the demographic of these women are forced to care for their families or arranged into marriage not of their choosing by their own families. Many women are even sold by their own families into the trafficking business. In the film “Half the Sky” young girls describe their family’s abandonment, whether they were raped, exploited or sold as commodities to brothels.
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and
Being the 1st generation of an Ethiopian-American family is like living two lives. On one side I would go to the movies and school dances on weekdays. Meanwhile, for my Ethiopian side I would attend gualyas that lasted until 2 am and would have to speak Tigrinya at home. But then once it hit Monday morning I would switch it back to english at school making sure I had no accent was heard. However, growing up I realized that in both the American and Ethiopian side, one core value that was important in both is education.
In the contemporary society, education is a foundational human right. It is essentially an enabling right that creates various avenues for the exercise of other basic human rights. Once it is guaranteed, it facilitates the fulfillment of other freedoms and rights more particularly attached to children. Equally, lack of education provision endangers all fundamental rights associate with the welfare of human beings. Consequently, the role of education and in particular girl child education as a promoter of nation states welfare cannot be overemphasized. As various scholars asserts, the challenges and problems faced by the African girl child, to enjoy her right to education are multifaceted. Such difficulties include sexual abuse, child labor, discrimination, early pregnancies, violence and poverty, culture and religious practices (Julia 219). Across the developing world, millions of young girls lack proper access to basic education. In the contemporary society, this crisis, which is particularly critical in remote and poor region of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have fascinated increased public attention. However, almost all global nation states have assured their commitment in addressing various girl child challenges and allowed a declaration to enable each young girl and boy receive education by the year 2015 (Herz and Sperling 17). This target was firmly established and approved in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, this study will focus on girls’ education in Africa and its impacts to their livelihood.
Ethiopia has ratified the CRC in 1992 and it has made a major contribution in the domestic recognition of the human rights of all children and it had a significant contribution to incorporate prohibition of child trafficking in the 1995 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Constitution as provides Article 18. The underlying implication of the ratification of this Convention can be explained in terms of domesticating the Convention as an integral part of the law of the land, according to Article 9 Sub-article 4 and Article 13 of the Constitution It is clearly embedded with the Convention that State parties, which have ratified the Convention, are assumed to have made a commitment to treat these as their respective social policy obligations for children. Therefore, the ratification of these instruments is primarily the expression of the commitment of the Ethiopian government towards recognizing the protection of children in particular and to the rights of children of its citizens in general.
Women are often considered lower in status compared to men. Many women are treated poorly and men consider them as their property. Girls are frequently married at a young age in developing countries. For example, in Nepal, 7% of the girls there are married by the age of 10 and 40% are married by the age 15 (Cohen, 2006). In other countries it is very often for the girls to get married before the age 18. In some cases, if the family is not able to get the