Child Marriage
Child Marriages: Acceptable or Abusive? Christina Asima had no choice in her marriage at the age of 12, now she is raising her cherubic, 8 month old, son on her own. Christina isn't alone. All throughout the world child marriages are destroying girl's lives. Many girls muddle through brutal pregnancies, and are often to weak or small to handle them. These pregnancies have become one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Child marriages are destructive and abusive, but parents continually sell their daughters due to a lack in money. Despite the fact that some countries trying to end this perennial issue, other places are taking little action against it. Although child marriages are erratic, and typically illegal in America, they are common in places like Africa and Afghanistan. In both of those territories child marriages aren't rare for families in poverty. This is due to the marriages being lucrative for the families. In an article written by Jennifer Ludden, a headman in Chitera Africa says, "early marriages to us was a weapon for reducing poverty" (Ludden). It's common around the world for parents to result in child marriage for money. In another article, about child marriage in Afghanistan, published in NYtimes says, "Poverty is the motivation for many child marriages, either because a wealthy husband pays a large bride-price, or just because the father of the bride then has one less child to support"(Nordland and Rubin). Even though in some culture poverty may be an acceptable excuse to send a young girl off with an abusive husband, the general public believe it's dissolute, and that we shouldn't condone this dilemma. Many marriages result in the young brides dying, this could be from abuse or pregnancy, and possibly even suicide. It's hard to imagine that these parents could put their own children through such hardships. They must feel guilty at some point. However, in some places, such as Afghanistan, child marriages are welcomed. For instance,