Amplify Issues - Childmarriage

Child Marriage

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

As a 25-year-old young woman living in Namibia, it really upsets me that girls are still forced to marry against their will. I know there is culture in the world but the culture of parents forcing girls to get married should end. Knowing that there is HIV in the world and that those types of things are happening -- it’s sad to all of us young people. If we talk of rights for all, then girls should have their right to choose their husband when they are ready.

I know that in Africa we are poor but that should not make it okay for our parents to choose a husband for us. Before they do that, people should always think of the happiness of that young person. How does a young person enjoy that marriage when the girl cannot even ask the husband to go for an HIV test? Men treat their young wives with no care and respect because they know they can always replace her with a new one. This will only end if we all hold hands together to fight this child marriage and support the young people who are disowned by their family because they refuse to marry a man who has been chosen for them.

There are a lot of young people who do not have families anymore because of being disowned by their family. They might not have their biological family but we are all there as one big family that will stand for each other no matter what. I am proudly writing this story because I managed to walk away from the marriage people wanted me to go in. I could not stand letting myself get married against my will and in my case, I hated the reason that people used that I should get married -- because I am infected by HIV. I made it clear to everyone that with my HIV, I still have my full rights and I am still the driver of my own life no matter what. Young people, we should not let anyone drive our own life because then we will be unhappy for the rest of our lives.

Young people, seek for help and support were you can get it. Some people might not care about how we feel or what we want but there are those who are willing to help and support us. Life can be hard and challenging but we should not let the challenges put us down. Make the best decisions when you have to and be who you are. Sunday candy writes this story but I am writing on behalf of millions of young women and girls who face this challenge in life. We all know it’s hard to be disowned by your own family trying to do the best thing for yourself but we have got to be strong and face life with its challenges. Child marriage is happening in many part of the world. As we read this, please let’s do something positive that will help girls in this situation. We want people to recognise the right of these young people and respect their decision no matter what. We must be the driver of our own life.

Weekly Round-Up: 10/30 - 11/5

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:00:00 -0500

Women’s access to birth control could be severly limited by Initiative 26 because this measure considers a fertilized egg as a human life. However, many forms of birth control prevents the implantation of fertilized eggs, therein creating a conflict. Maybe if our politicians had received better sex education they might understand this more thoroughly…

Young feminism is thriving!- by ashthom

Inside this post:

USA Today ran an article claiming young women are no longer interested in the feminist movement. This is my response.

Child Marriage and its effects on SRHR- by srijanna1

Inside this post:

A comprehensive look at the physical and emotional effects of child marriage in Nepal.

Let’s Make History: Congress’ New Vision for Sex Ed- by AFY_Deb

Inside this post:

Today, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) are introducing the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act, a new bill that lays out a comprehensive, age-appropriate, and holistic vision for sex education policy in the United States.

Thank you to everyone who posted a blog this week! You are part of what makes this community great!

~ Samantha
Community Editor

-----------------------------------
My post this week:
How Herman Cain can help us talk honestly about abortion

Weekly Round-Up: 10/2 - 10/8

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:48:00 -0500

The fight for reproductive rights is just as much a fight for men as it is for women! It after all takes two to procreate. That being the case both of the individuals involved should have correct, informed, scientific based information about what they are doing, what could happen, and what are their options. It is only when all parties involved are informed that factually based decisions can be made.

The Latest Victim of the House Republican Assault on Women: UNFPA- by AFY_Janine

Inside this post:

Janine shames House Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Committee for voting along party lines 11 times in one day against UNFPA funding, which would have gone to things such as the prevention and treatment of obstetric fistula, reproductive health care in the aftermath of natural disasters, survivors of gender-based violence, efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation, and efforts to prevent forced marriage of girls.

Today 3 women won the Nobel Peace Prize- by AFY_Julia

Inside this post:

According to the New York Times, they were the first women to win the prize since 2004 and three out of only 15 women to ever be awarded the prize during its 110 year history. The decision to award 3 women is not only unprecedented, but sends a clear signal from the international community that women play an integral role in creating peace around the world.

Thank you to everyone who posted a blog this week! You are part of what makes this community great!

~ Samantha
Community Editor

Dear sweet seller

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:12:00 -0500

I still cannot believe what I did. How could i be so mean? She really loved to be around me and was proud to call me her friend. I mean, she’s just too young for such a trauma and I shouldn’t have betrayed her. She trusted me for everything.........
My family and I were used to moving from one state to another and this time, it was time to move to the north. Though my siblings and I were used to not being stable in a school but this movement came all of a sudden.
Hadiza happened to be the daughter of mallam Hamza the sweet seller who owned a mini, tattered and smelly kiosk across our house (but it didn’t bother him – it was just to make ends meet). Hadiza was pretty ma age mate or I was a little older. She seemed to be very fond of me that whenever I returned from school she always came out of their kiosk with so much eagerness and expectant to hear an interesting gist that happened in my school (whether fabricated or not) since she attended an Islamic school very close to the house and to her there was barely anything new happening each day that passes. Lest i forget, Hadiza loves beads. She actually inspired my love for beads because no matter how torn and smelly her clothes looked, there was always the right bead for it and she was willing to make some for me whether I was in the mood for it or not. She also was good at filling her hands with sweets from mallam Hamza’s shop all for me. Humm...I loved her. We got used to having her around my house and that prompted the idea of letting out my clothes especially dresses, which I dreaded to wear except for Sundays or when my mother enforces them on me. On the other hand, Hadiza loved to wear dresses; easy way to let go of my dresses and truth was she loved me more for letting them go.
As time went on, she became my best friend but one day, I had a couple of my school friends come around to sleep over for the weekend. Hadiza came around but this time she really needed to talk to me but I was ashamed to show her to ma friends for fear of them making fun of me. She left ma house sad and so I was. Sad because i made her less important in my life; I never knew I may never have an opportunity to see her again. How could I have sent out a girl who knew me for who I was? I was eagerly waiting for the weekend to be over for me to find out what or why she came around.
The new week began and i couldn’t wait to see her. I really was burning with guilt and I needed to make every wrongs right; but unfortunately her mom gave me the shocker of my life. In her words, she said: Hadiza e go husband house for kano. WHAT!!!! She’s just 12. She can’t be married!!! I guess that was what she wanted to tell me before leaving. I also heard the wedding was that afternoon she came around.OMG! I guess that was what she needed me to know- I really felt I sold my friend out for no cause.
Few years down, I gained admission into the university which meant I had to be away from home for a while but at that, even while I was at school thoughts of her kept coming to me, how she was fairing. The holidays came and I just couldn’t wait to find out about her were about. I got home and her mom again told me she was already with kids but she has been ill for a while due to the complications she faced during delivery. And she was going to be the 8th wife of this so-called business man! I was not able to see my friend but i ponder on when the problem of early marriage would end in Nigeria. There are many people like Hadiza who never survived their first child. It’s about time we stand up to defend these young girls from untimely death. It’s about time.....

imprisoned by the will of another

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:10:00 -0500

A beautiful day had begun as usual as students on campus moved about for their daily lectures. i had just come back from school just before dusk to the hostel and of course i settled in to the ever noisy environment full of girls chattering away, others braiding their hairs while the others just idled away. I got into my room and i heard shouts from my room, people from other rooms had gathered. I ran to my room to get the full story of what was happening in fact to get into my room seemed almost impossible as I had to make my way past a crowd that had formed at the entrance of my room.
'' what’s happening?'' I asked
'' you mean you don’t know? Came a voice
'' its oyiza, she is getting married next three weeks''
oyiza? The voice repeatedly spoke in my head. How can oyiza be getting married? Then suddenly it struck me! Oh! oyiza of course she is getting married, I mean, she was old enough for that. We had two oyiza's and the one I thought of was of course ready for marriage in everything. So I heaved a sigh of relief and put up a happy face. In fact I took over from the noisemakers and made my way to oyiza's bed and hugged her.
'' oyiza am so happy for you''. I said. oyiza looked puzzled and asked
''why?''
''Because, soon you will be married''
she looked at me and then smiled. '' Oh! Am not the bride to be, its baby''
''baby!''. I was horrified and I couldn’t see any reason why people should fill our room in excitement and for the second time I wanted to convince myself that they came here to console her for she was travelling down a path that would eventually become unfamiliar.
''Yes, its baby why the shock?''
Well- I started to speak then stopped and screamed, because baby is baby!''. For heaven's sake this baby as she was fondly called was baby because she was just fifteen! How dare her parent consent to that! I was furious within me and even as I write I can still feel the anger rising within me.
I left the room for a while, and then came back at night when all had taken a calm position. The first thing that came to my mind was baby! Oh I needed to talk to her. So I quickly went in search of her and found her alone under the tree, she looked very depressed. I walked up to her and watched her for a while before walking up to her. She was sobbing quietly not wanting to draw attention to herself and as soon as she saw me she quickly cleaned her eyes and tried to put up a smile.
'' hi''
''hello''. I said. then I walked up to her and told her I had heard of the ''GREAT NEWS'' but obviously the news wasn’t great to her as she broke down in tears and said
'' I don’t want to be married to that man! He is old enough to be my grandfather! Then she held on to me and cried all the more. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity on the stand of her parent on the issue. Her mother was a single parent with two daughters. And so I asked.
‘’what is your mother’s take on it?’’. with teary eyes she looked at me and said coldly
''she swears by my father's grave that if I don’t marry him that she would send me away from the house and so I have no choice. You know my religion permits it and so I can do nothing about it except yield.
Two years on and I still see her on campus, she is forced into a marriage of which she has no interest in and now at seventeen, oyiza is pregnant and can barely manage herself. For me, this was a case of a child pregnant for another child, a lamb taken to the slaughter house to be slain and religion as opium of the masses.
While in a bus the next day, I could still see her face as she spoke that night while we were under the tree. It struck me and I wished I could tell her to defy her parent and take a stand against parental blackmail and forced child marrige. But a second thought crossed my mind yet again, for her, she had come to a point where her power of choice had been snatched away but for me, I had just stepped into a world where I had gained the power to choose whether to TAKE A STAND AGAINST FORCED CHILD MARRIAGE or to DO NOTHING!

ESTABLISH GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE:

Wed, 25 May 2011 06:44:00 -0500

ESTABLISH GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE:

Bangladesh consists in the most traditional background that gender discrimination is common feature, less job opportunity; economic dependency and abuse of women’s right and illicit trafficking of girls and women are major reasons leading to increase discrimination against women. Women are disproportional infected with HIV/AIDS for biological, social and economical reasons. Adolescent’s girls are much more oppressed. The low social status women in many poor countries encourage gender discrimination, domestic and sexual violence and psychological abuse. In Bangladesh, women constitute almost half the total population (48.5%), 85% of them live in the rural areas and are usually kept apart from men other than their family. Here the men dominate women in both rural and urban areas, regardless of their class identity. Gender awareness and women’s legal right activities under Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation are initiated with the objectives of increasing social awareness on gender related issues and to extend the legal supports to its target beneficiaries to establish women's legal rights for eliminating all types of discrimination against women. The economic, gender discrimination, social and physical right imbalance between men and women contribute to the luck of safety in sexual relationships and the difficulty for many women in negotiating safer sex. The right differentiates between men and women. Compounded by age differences, subordination in education, employment, social and legal status makes women more vulnerable to any infections. Women who have limited access to financial resources are more likely to become economically dependent on men, relegated to the subsistence sectors or forces into commercial sex works.

The objective of this project is to establish gender equality, women human rights and local level good governance involving local people. They were imparted series orientation and training to work on the 6 issues: Increase Birth Registration, Increase Marriage Registration, Protect Early Marriage, Protect Violence against Women, Reduce Family Violence, Increase Women Participation in decision making process. All these activities contributed to women empowerment and protection family violence and violence against women as a whole.

Good governance is necessary to keep balance in gender equality, rights, health and nutrition etc. if it is possible to scale all women and men with same consideration then it must be possible to eradicate the gender discrimination from our society. Imbalance attitude towards women must lower their latin skill to bloom. So it is necessary to have good governess in every sector. We have to look and keep consideration on women legal rights; they should not be deprived from the advantages that come out from our society, country and from the world. So we should maintain good governess to keep balance status of a nation.

Weekly Round-Up: 3/6- 3/12

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:45:00 -0500

Each week, I’ll be posting a list of the most news-worthy and/or inspirational, informative, well-written, thought-provoking, and/or unique posts of the week. While every post and every contributor is valuable to our community, these are the blogs that I feel are must-reads.

March 6- March 12

Stats for this week: 71 posts by 42 writers
(Our second highest posting week ever!!)

Girls need 100% equal access to education from Governance!- by kiki

Inside this post:

Kiki talks about the challenges faced by young women in Nigeria that make access to equal education difficult.

Student Activism Victory at Dickinson College- by altafmysistahs

Inside this post:

Altaf writes about students at Dickinson College who successfully protested on campus in order to get the administration to “[agree] to notify students about sexual assaults via a campus ‘Red Alert’ system, and to expel students found to have committed rape…”

What Motivates You To Remain A SHRH Activist?- by papavic

Inside this post:

Abongwa shares what motivates him to be a sexual health advocate, and passes on some motivation to us:

There are times when people don’t see the importance of what you do but it is that inner gratification that you have that will keep you going when that bill is not passed in Congress, when that Minister will not allow for a “Condomize” campaign or when those funders will not cease abstinence only sex education funding. That gratification is what will get you going as it has for me all these years!

International Women’s Day: Equal Access to Meaningful Education- by judithavory

Inside this post:

In this amazing post, Judith lays out several flaws in the broad institution that is education that makes it difficult for access to learning that is not only equal, but more importantly meaningful.
[More]

Early Marriage - LETS END IT!

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:20:00 -0500

Editor's Note: This post is part of the 2011 Amplify International Women's Day Blogathon. Click here to learn more about how you can join this week of action.

“No Early Marriage! She wants Education, Not wedding! We won’t let it! No Early Marriage! No Early Marriage!” Marriage process Stops. Police arrests the parents and relatives. Everybody Claps!

This was the picture a few days ago in one of the rural parts of Nepal. The Early Marriage of Rita, who is under 18 (legal age of Marriage at Nepal with permission from parents is 18) was stopped when the community school children protested and informed the local police about the incident. Those students were just given the education on Human Rights and SRHR issues in their classroom. When they got to know that one of their friends was forced to get married at the very early age, they decided to go against it.

In Nepal, 21% of women have their first pregnancy at the very early age of 10 to 15. One of the main causes of this is early marriage. Even in this century of science and technology, women are forced backwards because of this social problem. They are forced to leave school and get diverted from further education. We need to be aware about the changes that are happening. When the older generation is finding it difficult to cope with the changes, youth are fighting for them.

In a country where 37% of population is youth, we can see its future in whatever education we give them. Youth-friendly approaches should be taken. Still, very few education and skilled based knowledge is given about SRHR in schools. This should be changed. And I believe change must come from us! Let us be the change that our community and country are lacking.

As the community students did for their friend, we should do for every citizen of this world. We are linked one way or other. The splendid example set by those children is admirable. Do we have that confidence and courage to fight against early marriage? If yes, Lets’ do it! Let us unite and fight for the rights of every citizen of this beautiful world. And lets’ hope our future generations will not even know the term ‘early marriage’. :)

Weekly Round-Up: 12/19-12/25

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:55:00 -0500

December 19- December 25

Stats for this week: 40 posts by 20 writers

“…and what have we learned today?”- by KarachiYWOCLC

Why I chose this post:

Karachi writes about the kind of sex education she received in Nigeria, and explains why it’s important for parents to make sure that their children know all that they can about safer sex.

In “Shameful Act,” Republicans Kill Bill to Prevent Child Marriage- by Amplify Staff

Why I chose this post:

Jodi Jacobson, Editor-in-Chief of RH Reality Check, writes this guest post about the untrue claims that House Republicans claimed for why they rejected an anti- child marriage bill.

Next time you see John Boehner cry, it will clearly not be for the plight of the young girls being forced into marriage.

Save a Life, It May Be Your Own: An NLAAD Blog- by acerrud

Why I chose this post:

…getting to meet this young man who in many ways was just like me, was life changing. In many ways I saw myself in him. We match every perceivable demographic yet our lives were very different in one way: our statuses . Getting to meet him and know him humanized HIV/AIDS. Getting to hear his story and know who he was allowed me to see how real and significant HIV/AIDS is in our community and in our lives.

[More]

In "Shameful Act," Republicans Kill Bill to Prevent Child Marriage

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:45:00 -0500

Editor's Note: The following article was originally published on RH Reality Check.

By Jodi Jacobson

In an act that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said "brought shame to Capitol Hill" last Thursday, the House Republican leadership banded together at the last minute, and on purely specious grounds, to defeat a piece of legislation six years in the making aimed at preventing child marriage worldwide. The bill was supported by a wide-ranging coalition of groups including the International Women's Health Coalition and CARE-USA.

An estimated 60 million girls in developing countries now ages 20 to 24 were married before they reached the age of 18. The Population Council estimates that the number will increase by 100 million over the next decade if current trends continue.

Child marriage, noted Durbin, is often carried out through force or coercion.

It deprives young girls — and sometimes boys — of their dignity and human rights. In some countries, it is not uncommon for girls as young as seven or eight years old to be married. These young victims are robbed of their childhoods. In addition to denying tens of millions of women and girls their dignity, child marriage also endangers their health. Marriage at an early age puts girls at greater risk of dying as a result of childbirth. Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death for women 15 to 19 years old in developing countries. Their children also face higher mortality rates.

Ending child marriage is an important human rights goal in and of itself. It also is one of the key factors in reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS, reducing maternal and infant deaths, improving family health, and encouraging economic development. In the words of Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN):

No girl who is 11, 12, 13 and 14 should be forced to marry a man years or decades older. Yet, millions of young girls in the world’s poorest countries are forced into marriage every year — sold and traded like a farm animal, raped by their husbands, and forced into lives of servitude and poverty.

With the goal of eliminating this practice worldwide, Senator Durbin joined with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) to introduce the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act, requiring the U.S. government to develop an integrated, strategic approach to combating child marriage by ensuring more effective us of existing resources. The bill also seeks to promote the educational, health, economic, social, and legal empowerment of women and girls.

As we reported earlier this week, the bill, S. 987, passed unanimously in the Senate (all 100 Republicans and Democrats), and was sent on to the House yesterday for final passage.

And as soon as it landed there, the Republican leadership set out to defeat it.
[More]

Urgent Call to Action: Ask the U.S. House of Representatives to Pass Child Marriage Legislation Now!

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:35:00 -0500

Congress is wrapping up its work for the year and we need you to make sure they don’t leave town without taking action to eliminate the harmful practice of child marriage. I recently wrote about Senate passage of the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act. This groundbreaking legislation would require the president to develop a strategy to combat child marriage, integrate the issue of child marriage into relevant U.S. development programs, and require the State Department to report on the practice in its annual Human Rights Report.

In order for the Act to become law, we need the House of Representatives to follow the Senate’s lead and pass this legislation before Congress adjourns for the year. This is where you come in! Your voice is an important and powerful one—please make sure you use it to let your Representative know where you stand on child marriage.

Need a reason to take action? How about 60 million reasons? That’s the number of young women between the ages of 20 and 24 who were married before the age of 18. Let that sink in for a minute…and now do something about it!

Please take action TODAY!

Weekly Round-Up: 11/28- 12/4

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:51:00 -0500

I'm writing this because Notre Dame is sending an even more dangerous message, one that's inaudible if you're not tuned in to the right frequency. The venerable university is sending a clear, high-pitched warning to all of its female students: your bodies, your lives, your right to an education? Not as important as our football team.

Video: “Drink the spit.”- by AFY_Will

Why I chose this post:

Oh, abstinence-only education, how funny and frightening you are. Watch the video, share it with your friends, and tell Congress to end all funding for this epic waste of tax dollars.

Why Advocacy Matters- by jackie_mysistahs

Why I chose this post:

Jackie writes about her experience of a friend coming out to her as gay. She talks about the importance of allies supporting our LGBTQ friends, but also creating and supporting a society that realizes that “normal” for the gay community is more than just “rainbows and pride parades.”

Does the ring mean a thing?- by AFY_EmilyB

Why I chose this post:

Emily writes about a recent episode of “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” in which Kim Zolciak buys a $3,000 “abstinence ring” for her 13-year-old daughter. The show, however, seemed to miss a good opportunity to have a conversation about sexual health and safety and address how Kim’s daughter should decided for herself when she’s ready for sex.

That ring was pretty enough, but it is not going to help Brielle make complex decisions within a sex-obsessed culture or grow into a sexually healthy woman.

Bling doesn’t exempt you from “the sex talk,” no matter how expensive.
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U.S. Senate Passes Child Marriage Legislation

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:22:00 -0500

Sixty million girls aged 15-19 are married worldwide. If present trends continue, in the next decade, 100 million girls will be married before they turn 18. Earlier this year, we heard the courageous story of Nujood Ali, a 12-year-old girl in Yemen who successfully sought a divorce at the age of 10. In April, another 12-year-old Yemeni bride, Elham Madhi, died of internal bleeding following intercourse just three days after her marriage to a man twice her age. Sadly, these are just two instances among thousands around the world.

During my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa, I met several young girls as young as 12 or 13 who had become brides to men in their 40s and 50s. Before they had even developed their bodies and minds fully, they were having babies of their own due to rigid laws regulating access to contraception, inadequate information and education, and insufficient resources. Time and time again, I saw them come to the hospital too late, after they were already in obstructed labor and dangerously close to death. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed that complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for young women ages 15 to 19 in low- and middle-income countries. Few people outside the developing world realize that these girls are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth as those over age 20 and girls under age 15 are five times more likely to die. And it’s not just the mothers whose lives are in jeopardy—babies born to mothers under the age of 20 have mortality rates 73 percent higher than those born to older mothers. Two of the contributing factors to this disproportionate newborn and infant mortality rate are the higher risk of premature delivery among adolescent girls and the higher likelihood of obstructed labor due to adolescent mothers’ bodies not being fully developed and ready for childbirth.

In addition to my work volunteering at the hospital and the regional health director’s office, I also spent several days a week mentoring young girls at an afterschool center. Whether conducting computer trainings, discussing human rights, or providing sexual and reproductive health lessons, my main goal at the center was to encourage these young girls to stay in school, delay marriage and childbirth, and fulfill their dreams and aspirations. They understood that early marriage often meant dropping out of school, having babies before they were ready, and putting their very lives at risk with increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, as well as death or injury during pregnancy and childbirth. Furthermore, early marriage limits a young girl’s economic resources, social support, and autonomy, making her more vulnerable to gender-based violence, abuse, and abandonment than women who marry later in life.

Not only does child marriage harm the young women and girls it touches, it also undermines U.S. foreign assistance. In 2007, for example, the U.S. spent over $450 million to support education, health and infant survival in the developing world. Yet, in many of the countries where this aid is directed, as many as 50% of girls are unable to take advantage of these programs because of child marriage. Communities and entire nations cannot progress economically or socially when the common practice of early marriage threatens the well-being of young women and girls, denies them their basic human rights, and prevents them from realizing their full potential.

Fortunately, this week, the U.S. Senate took a step forward in protecting young women and girls from early marriage by passing the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act. The legislation identifies child/early marriage as a human rights violation to be addressed in U.S. State Department country reports, 2) requires the U.S. Administration to create an action plan to combat child marriage, and 3) integrates child marriage prevention into existing U.S. development efforts. Advocates for Youth applauds Senate passage of the bill and urges the House to do the same before the end of this Congressional session. This is not about politics; it’s about recognizing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls around the world.

What Were You Doing When You Were 12? Watching Lizzie McGuire, Playing Kickball, or Getting Married?

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:04:00 -0500

Last week, President Ahmadinejad of Iran urged young girls in Iran to marry at the age of 16, and boys to marry at the age of 20, according to the Huffington Post and the Guardian.

Currently, the average age of marriage for a woman in Iran is 24, and the average age of marriage for a man is 26. To Ahmadinejad, waiting this long to get married is simply unacceptable.

CEDAW, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, recommends that the minimum legal age of marriage be 18. Unsurprisingly, Iran has not signed CEDAW. But oh wait, neither has the United States.

While 16-year-olds may not be children by some standards, this statement by President Ahmadinejad signals a disturbing trend in a country that has come far in the past forty years in regards to women’s rights to contraception and a later age of first marriage.

Child marriage hinders development in many countries in addition to restricting the rights of youth and women everywhere. Married children are robbed of their childhood. They are torn away from their family and friends and usually pulled out of school. Girls who are married at young ages are often married to much older men, putting them at risk for domestic violence and leaving them powerless over their own lives. They usually cannot say when or if they want sex, and they can rarely ask their male partner to use contraception. A young girl is powerless to bring charges against her husband if he abuses her.

Child marriage is also harmful to young girls’ health. Many girls become pregnant too early and too often. Pregnancy often occurs before a young girl’s is prepared for it physically or mentally, leading to higher rates of maternal and infant mortality.

News spread around the world earlier this year after a Yemeni 12-year-old child bride died from massive internal bleeding following intercourse with her new husband, who was at least twice her age. Her husband was later arrested and accused of rape. The government refuses to take action to prevent these occurrances from happening in the first place by enforcing a minimum acceptable age of marriage.

No better video sums up the consequences of child marriage than this one by the Girl Effect.

In the United States, we think that teen pregnancy is a scandal. 16, 17-year-old girls becoming pregnant before they finish high school? We watch “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” and sympathize with the young mothers. The stars of these shows fill the front pages of Us Weekly and OK!. But where are the 12-year-old girls in Afghanistan who are getting married to men twice their age, against their will? Where is the attention to the girl in this video, who is crying as she is carried to her own marriage ceremony – and they don’t seem to be tears of joy?

We aren’t doing enough to stop child marriage and protect the fundamental rights of girls around the world. If we don’t stop child marriage today, 100 million girls under the age of 18 will be married in the next decade. Luckily, there is something that we and Congress can do.

First, ask your senator to vote for the ratification of CEDAW. CEDAW encompasses everything that needs to be done to protect the rights of women, including protecting young girls from unwanted marriage.

Tell your representatives that HR 2103, International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009. Urge your representatives to remember that this bill needs to be brought into the House for a vote.

These bills will show support to the young Iranians today and will urge them not to follow President Ahmadinejad’s order. It will urge young women and men to preserve their rights and get married when they wish to get married, and not at the age that prevents from achieving an education and from seeing their wishes come true.

Sext411

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:42:00 -0500

Sext411 is a sexual health information hottline for teens in Mount Pleasant to get information on sexual health and to find a clinic in their area