Saturday, November 1, 2014

Arranged Marriages

In a perfect world, everybody would marry for love. But it isn’t always that way as reality makes its way through. In some parts of the world, young girls, not even teens, are whisked off to be married to a completely unknown man. Child bribes are striped to their childhoods, education, health, future and their basic human rights as they a forced to be wedded to a stranger.  “Child marriage happens because adults believe they have the right to impose marriage upon a child. This denies children, particularly girls, their dignity and the opportunity to make choices that are central to their lives, such as when and whom to marry or when to have children.” (Too Young To Wed). These young brides aren't able to achieve anything as they are already married, never experiencing the feeling of falling in love or going to school and hanging out with friends.

Being married at such a young age, they don’t know how to do anything besides cooking, cleaning, taking care of their children and serving their husband. They won’t have the chance to go to school and get an education, learning about math or history. From childhood, their fate has already been decided, as they have no control of their lives, being nothing more than a puppet of the parents who arranged the marriages.  “A child bride often enters a marriage with feelings of fear and powerlessness.” (Too Young to Wed). Their lack of control over anything can create great emotional and philological damage. 

Being married to a complete stranger, having no say will leave the young brides to be emotionless, living as if they were stuck inside a dead corpse where they are able to feel nothing. Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.” Young brides shouldn't be forced into marriages in which everyone should be able to pick the one they love, the one they are going to marry.

Examples include the young girls of Afghanistan.17-year-old Humaira Taiba who is soon the be in an arranged marriage with a 45-year-old man, causing her to want to commit suicide. “I don’t want to marry the man who is 45 years old, the same age as my father,” says Humaira. From a young age, women are married off to honor promises made by their fathers and/or grandfathers. Women are married and traded off to be owned by males, treating them as if they were property.  Young brides shouldn't be forced into marriages because everyone should be able to pick their spouse as we the people have the right to choose who we will marry.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that having arranged marriages at such a young age isn't right and should be stopped. I like how you included different places around the world that still practice arranged marriages. However,the problem with wanting to stop arranged marriages is that it's practiced by many cultures and they have been doing arranged marriages for centuries.

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