You do, I don't
“Child marriages inflict great harm upon the well being of women and girls, depriving them of their childhood and education, and at the same time placing them at risk for abuse, disease, and in some instances, death.”(Erica Ronchetti) Imagine this, you’re at the kitchen table and your eating with your family.
Your dad stands up and says you’re being sold of to a 60 year old man, so your family can pay the bills. Imagine the feeling of anger and horror. Today is your first day married to your 60 year old husband, you will never be a teenager again, and you’re a wife now, a slave. He orders you to rub his feet, you refuse and then he smacks you as hard as he can on your head. Now you’re terrified, you alone in this big house filled with people who’s only intentions are to hurt you. Millions of young girls from the ages of 6 and up are taken or forced to leave their house to be put into the house of a strange man.
America needs to step up and try to lend a hand to these young girls because even though they are in places ,where we might not like but it isn’t their faults and no one deserves to suffer and if America can’t stop being childish than these girls have no hope for the future. These young girls are being sexually, physically, and emotionally abused and this beyond unfortunate. Osama bin laden had three forced child brides, people see it because it really exists. Child brides are forced into slavery, abusive relationship, and sold of like trash. Young girls are being cruelty abused by their husbands.
According to Times Magazine, a young child bride, who was married of to a Taliban fighter, tried to escape but she was returned home. Where ” her husband , father-in-law, and brother-in-law with approval of the local mullah (Muslim clergyman)- sliced of her nose and both her ears.” ( Nordland and Ruben). Girls are being whipped, cut, chained, and beaten to death all by their older husbands. Further more these abrupt attacks can happen in public and the bystanders will go about their day.
“Instead, the police officers who found the girls fleeing on a bus sent them back to their home village to be brutally flogged for running away from their husbands. The two girls’ fate is nothing unusual in Afghanistan, where marriage of girls under 16 and public flogging—though both illegal—remain widespread”(Yager) These two girls were flogged (publicly whipped) and their agony was video taped and released by the Afghanistan Independent Rights Commension. People who stand around and watch these gruesome outburst, show a joy in their pain. How sick can this world get? Other girls stated that they are “routinely beaten, fed rat poison by their husbands, and forced to become suicide bombers” (Yager). If a husband beats or kills his wife , he will just replace her with a new one. Ages 8-14 are at their most vulnerable states for abuse.
The child brides are being forced to enslavement by their husbands and their husbands families. ” Child brides also suffer psychologically after being taken from their families, friends, and school, and forced to serve their much older husbands”( Nordland and Rubin) Child brides are forced to clean, cook, take care of their children and many other needs around the house. Sometimes when we think of the term “slavery” we think of cooking, working in fields, etc but it could also mean ” slavery was rape, involving violent non-consensual conjugal arrangements.”(Sapoznik). Child brides can also be forced into sex-slavery and either it’s physical labor or rape it’s still tragic and needs to end.
Girls are beingforced into sex slavery with 60 -70 year old men and sometimes, if the girl was at puberty she could become pregnant. In most Foreign, debt is very common especially with the economy these days. Poor families with younger daughters will actually pay off there debt by selling the girls to men. ” Poverty is usually a factor, either because marrying off a daughter means one less mouth to feed. In some cases, fathers give their daughters away to settle debts”( Nordland and Rubin), Some men depending on the girls look and talent will pay 50,000 dollars for the girl.
These girls are being sold off and shipped off like packages. “Men pay anywhere from RMB20,000 to RMB40,000 (US$2900 to $5800) – or even more – to a broker for a trafficked woman to be their wife, depending on the woman’s looks and age. They even have a wedding ceremony in their village. However, if this happens without the consent of the woman, it is clearly a trafficking case,” (Gaung). Debt is a big problem in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and that is where forced marriages are at the highest. “Victims of forced marriages often experience physical violence, rape, abduction, torture, false imprisonment and enslavement, sexual abuse, mental and emotional abuse, and at times, murder.
” (Forced Marriages). It might not be the prime time story of the news but it is out there and it its accumulating. 8 year old girls are marrying 70 year old men. Girls all over the world are being imprisoned and kept in cells in harsh conditions with little food, while some girls are complaining on how they didn’t get the right color juicy bag. I don’t think you could ever escape the haunting memory of being forced into enslavement, being abused daily, and being sold off to pay debt.
Appreciate what you have because some girls have to deal torture day in and day out.
