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Child marriage is a global issue that has stirred up debate since the modern era has taken over. According to girlsnotbrides.org, 1 in 5 girls are married before they turn 18. Women nowadays are fighting for their rights to make vital decisions about their sexual health and well-being as they no longer want to follow the footsteps of their ancestors. Despite being prohibited by international law, it continues to rob millions of girls under the age of 18 around the world.

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Which countries legalize child marriage?

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Which countries legalize child marriage?

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192 out of 198 countries have laws that specify when someone can get married. The six countries that failed to do so are Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen (Sandstorm & Theodorou, 2016) This puts the children in these countries at risk as children as young as 8 years old can be a part of an arranged marriage without having any laws to back them up. In addition, 117 countries allow child marriage and most countries have some exemption to their legal minimum age of marriage. For instance, in Australia, if a person is 18 and above, their spouse can be as young as 16 with judicial approval. In Iraq, Jamaica and Uruguay, children can marry with parents’ consent.

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Sometimes the different age requirements depend on religious affiliations. In Malaysia, non Muslim bridegroom cannot be under eighteen and the bride cannot be under sixteen. In certain circumstances, Muslims can marry at younger age if a Shariah Judge has granted his permission in writing. According to Sandstorm and Theodorou (2016), Muslim boys can marry at 15 and Muslim girls can marry at puberty in the Philippines. In Tanzania, Muslim and Hindu girls can marry at 12 as long as the marriage is not consummated until the girl reaches 15 years old.

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The challenges that come with enforcing the law on child marriage include underage marriages can happen outside the law. As a result, the official data for child marriage is scarce and hard to search for. Furthermore, underage marriage usually happens in rural areas with few resources to enforce the law. Besides that, misinterpretations happen in different religions’, especially Islam, or traditions’ position on child marriage. However, it must be stressed that it is against Islamic law to put minors in disadvantageous situations, as child marriage during the Prophet’s time did not entail forcing a child into marriage or to bear the responsibilities of marital duties according to the religion.

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Nowadays, story about child marriage are familiar to be heard in the media. A lot of news related to child marriage usually not a really good news since it leads towards negative impacts to the victims especially the girls. The occurrence of child marriage maybe due to lack of exposure towards the negative impacts of child marriage.

Since the girls are married before the legal age which is below 18 years old, they experienced a lot of negative impacts and get a bad vibes. The negative impacts ruined the life of the victim by affecting their physical and mental health that can lead to death. Anita Raj (2010) states that an adolescent mother will experience more pregnancy complications such as obstructed labour that can cause the risk for neonatal death will rise. This proves the girls are still not prepared for pregnancy either physically or mentally so they can’t bear with the pain since their body is still not in a steady state for pregnancy.

In addition, the abusement by practicing child marriage also leads to denial of basic rights for the girls. The misopportunity for rights in education and rights for leisure will affect the girl’s life since they cannot educate themselves to be a better person. John Zhang (2008) believes that the girls who undergoes child marriage will not in position to make any decision upon her life and they need to accept the decision made by their husband or in-laws  since they are not educate enough. Therefore, this problem will assures the girl from getting their rights and this will affect their emotion and mental development since they can’t decide on their owns.

In conclusion, occurrence of child marriage need to be avoid in the entire world since it leads to bad concequences. Cooperation from all parties is needed to overcome the problem of child marriage.

REFERENCES:

Anita Raj. “ When The Mother Is The Child: The Impact of Child Marriage On The Health And Human Rights Of Girls ”. July 6, 2010. https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2010/10/07/adc.2009.178707.full.pdf

John Zhang. “ Early Marriage : The Benefits And Disadvantages “. February 29, 2008. http://ezinearticles.com/?Early-Marriage---The-Benefits-And-Disadvantages&id=1016812

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In a nutshell, policies to curb child marriage must start with implementing strict law on underage marriage. We should continue to drive the momentum forward in the discussion of the various issues surrounding child marriage in Malaysia.

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Girls Not Brides. "Welcome to Girls Not Brides." Girls Not Brides. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/.

Sandstorm, A., and A. E. Theodorou. "Many Countries Allow Child Marriage." September 12, 2016. Accessed December 18, 2019. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/12/many-countries-allow-child-marriage/

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It's time for us to know what are actually happens behind the early marriage. We have to realize that we live with the society so we need to know that internally-displaced person and refugee returnee camps were a group of people that contribute the highest number who practice child marriage. What the government can do to stop this from arisen in our community? Actually the government should enact and enforce appropriate law, arranged of programs reduced rate of child marriage and give free education.

Government should enact and enforce appropriate law. Despite, the marriage law had be made by parliament it still fail to reduce the number of early marriage. The governments should enacts the law without discriminates of some groups of people. To ensure this crisis from getting worse, the government should introduce fair and square laws by not discriminating against others so that nobody can escape the laws that have been made

Other than that, they can also arranged various programs to reduce rate of child marriage. The benefits that we will gain from this program are we can provide the child with life skills, raising awareness and commitment among parents, teachers and other influential adults. According to Anju Malhotra(July,2010), in Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, ICRW’s Development Initiative Supporting Healthy Adolescents(DISHA) program reduced the rate of child marriage from 60 percent to 40 percent. As we can see by creating some programs for this child, it can reduce the number of child marriages because not only children are aware of the consequences of early marriage, but also parents.

In addition government has to provide free education for its citizen because as what we can see that people who involve in child marriage are come from family who having extreme financial hardships and they are not even afford to pay for their children education that is why the kids are illiteracy and lack of educational. The kids are not be able to make a decision because they do not know what the consequence of child marriage. Through education, child can have a better future and can develop their thinking skills in managing their daily life.

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The Truth That Hides Under Child Marriage

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The Truth That Hides Under Child Marriage

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When we mention about child marriage, society will relate the causes of child marriage with pregnancy and immature thinking of adolescence. However, society is unaware the truth that hides under child marriage.Sometimes, their marriages were arranged, unwanted and unexpected. Society should realised that family is also the one who contribute a lot to child marriage. There are three truth about how family motivate child marriage.

The first reason is to avoid expenditure on female education. Expenditure incurred on a person’s education determines his or her capacity building.According to Suresh (2015), male children are treated as future assets and economic base of the family where as female children are treated as burden on the family economic base and they are treated as someone’s else asset as they are to be given to someone in marriage. I acknowledge that the discrimination of female in social status cause them to lose chances in receiving education.Hence, family who cannot provide education for all children will choose to give up on girls and decide to resort them to early marriage.

The second reason is to avoid sharing in Ancestral Property. The acquisitiveness of other family members would encourage child marriage because if marriage of girl is done at early age, she as a girl would not demand for her share. For benefiting male heirs, female heirs are denied property rights in practice by resorting them to early child marriage. Hence, cupidity among family members to get more property leads to unwanted child marriage in females.

Thirdly, poverty of family is one of the causes of child marriage. A poor family naturally jeopardizes female children and every chance is used for avoiding burden of female. They are eager to arrange marriage for female children so that the burden of family can be reduced. Sometimes it can also be perceived the poor family selling girls and the child marriage is a hidden form of selling girl. So, female members are usually victimised by poverty of the family.

In conclusion, family is one of the main cause of child marriage. We should try to understand the victims of child marriage and put ourselves in their shoes but not discriminate them. Stop discrimination and spread love to the world. As the saying goes, “Each of us can practice rights ourselves, treating each other without discrimination, respecting each other's dignity and rights. ”

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In conclusion, the action that government can take to reduced this child marriage issue are enact and enforce appropriate law,arranged various of programs and give free education.

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Anju Malhotra "The Causes, Consequences and Solution to Forced Child Marriage in The Developing World". July 15,2010.

Megan E. Corrado "What Gender Equality, Let's Start with Ending Child Marriages" December 10,2018.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/411084-want-gender-equality-lets-start-with-ending-child-marriages

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Child marriage surely brings more harm than good. It continues to disproportionately affect girls in certain cultures and communities with significant impacts to their education, health and social life. Hence, it is our responsibility as a society to help prevent child marriage in every aspects.

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]According to UNICEF, one in three girls in low-to-middle income countries will marry before the age of 18. Olson (2014) mentions that, illiterate girls have little to no understanding of her human rights. Thus, we can help them by providing sufficient education to the girls so that they would not be discriminated. Selby (2018), explains that equal access to education and allowing the girls to complete their studies will enable them to support themselves and lead a fulfilled, independent lives. Next, in countries where child marriage is prevalent, girls are often seen as economic burdens, have low self-esteem and little confidence. Therefore, research has shown that empowerment programmes can improve their sense of self and self-efficacy through informing their basic human rights, legal right to refuse a marriage and education programmes on health and sex education.

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One of the most powerful tools is by supporting the legislation against child marriage. The minimum legal age of marriage should be raised to 18 years old. Brown (2018) believes that, we must have no exemptions or special cases where child marriage is allowed. Olson (2014) claims that, communities that practice child marriage usually do not allow women to voice in local politics. So, it is a good idea to advocate for women as community leaders. Therefore, they will be able to voice their concerns and advocate for women’s rights in all spheres.

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In conclusion, we should take all possible actions in order to prevent child marriage. By reducing child marriage, child mortality and disability related to child pregnancy or birth will be decreased and vulnerability to HIV and AIDS will also be reduced. Though the practice of child marriage is rooted in tradition and culture, neither culture nor tradition is immutable and there will always be glimmer of hope for change.

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Carol Olson. “16 Ways of Preventing and Intervening in Child Marriages”. November 26, 2014.

https://16days.thepixelproject.net/16-ways-of-preventing-and-intervening-in-child-marriages/

Daniele Selby. “Child Marriage: Everything You Need to Know”. February 21, 2018.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/child-marriage-brides-india-niger-syria/

Victoria Brown. “Child Marriage is No Happily-Ever-After”. July 1, 2018.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/07/01/child-marriage-is-no-happilyeverafter-children-who-get-married-at-a-young-age-tend-to-have-health-co/

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Annabel Erulkar." Adolescence Lost: The Realities of Child Marriage."May 2013.

https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(13)00124-9/fulltext#article-outline

Nawal M. Nour. "Health Consequences of Child Marriage in Africa. "November 2006.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/issues/206216/