A review of the Council on Foreign Relations’ launch of the Interactive Guide on Child Marriage
Most reflect on childhood as a time of carefree existence—a time when days, weeks, years were spent in the protective care of school, community, and family. However, there are many children, particularly girls, who will be called out of the sanctuary of childhood to take on the role of adults through forced early marriages.
Child marriage traverses continents, religion, language, and caste. In India, girls will traditionally be committed to boys four or five years older. In Yemen, Afghanistan, and other countries with high early marriage rates, the husbands may be young men or middle-aged widowers; and in some cases, elderly men well into their 70s. Some of these marriages are business transactions, hardly embellished with additional justification. A debt repaid in exchange for an eight year-old bride perhaps; a family conflict resolved with a promise of matrimony to a 12 year-old cousin. These horrific illustrations, when they happen to surface publicly, amplify the outraged demands for change from the international community.
The Council of Foreign Relations is one of the many voices pleading on behalf of the millions affected by child marriage. On January 9, 2014, CFR launched an interactive guide specifically addressing the gross atrocities of child marriage.
The statistics presented in the interactive guide are appalling.
Across developing countries, an estimated one in three girls is married before turning 18, and one in nine before the age of 15. Research projects that if this trend continues, 142 million girls will marry before adulthood within this decade.
The practice persists to varying degrees around the world. The highest rates of girls married before the age of 18 are found in South Asia and in West and Central Africa, where approximately two out of five girls are married as children. However, India exceeds other countries in terms of absolute numbers by an extensive margin, with 40 percent of all child marriages taking place there.
What is the Value of a Bride?
Cultural norms, poverty, and low societal views of women and girls are key forces that fuel early marriage, although clearly, the comparative significance of each varies by community.
In areas where women have few precious paths to earning an income, families often view daughters as an economic burden. Poverty stricken parents may decide to betroth a daughter early to avoid costly education and ease financial burdens tied with caring for a child. Dowries and bride prices also play a role in the timing of child marriages. In some cases, youth is seen as enhancing the worth of a bride: a younger girl has more time to dedicate herself solely to family and child bearing. Also, in many parts of India, dowries can be lowered significantly if the bride is younger.
Cultural norms also play a prominent and horrifying role in child marriage.
The CFR guide’s launch includes a seven-minute video of shocking stories by young women affected by disturbing cultural practices occurring prior to marriage. Nice Nailantel Leng’ete, an anti-FGM (female genital mutilation) advocate and escapee of child marriage, describes having to confront the gross preparation of early marriage at the age of eight. “When I was eight and my sister was ten, my uncle came to our grandfather’s place and told him ‘I think now these girls are big enough for circumcision.’ Fortunately, my sister and I were able to run away and escape this horrific fate.”
Many cultures place an emphasis on a girl’s virginity, which is closely tied with a family’s honor. In Northeast Africa and parts of the Middle East, in preparation of marriage, many women such as Nice are faced with female genital mutilation—a practice often justified as advocating virginity and preventing sexual assault.
The Toll of Child Marriage
Along with the severe psychological trauma and isolation brought on by early marriage, severe health problems, with side effects up to including death, are often linked with this practice.
Girls under 15, whose bodies still developing, are five times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women over 20.
The vast majority of those deaths are in the developing world, where a lack of pre- and post-natal care and advanced technical procedures such as C-sections makes pregnancy and childbirth far more precarious than in affluent countries. Globally, 70,000 girls aged 15 to 19 die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. Analysts considers pregnancy the leading cause of death in that age group, naming complications of childbirth and unsafe abortions as primary factors.
Children of child brides are also at risk. Babies born to mothers younger than 18 are more likely to be underweight or stillborn.
Girls forced into early marriage are also at a heightened risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and HIV because a young bride is usually unable to negotiate safe sex with her husband.
Child Marriage is Not a “Soft Issue”
Isobel Coleman, CFR senior fellow and director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy initiative, stated that child marriage “for the individual girl, can be a time when her life changes dramatically. But when you magnify that across a whole country, you can see the impact it has at a macro level.”
Girls who marry early are left without the knowledge, skills, and social networks to financially support their households, which continues their low societal status—making their families vulnerable to a generational cycle of poverty that stifles the development of their communities. Numerous studies have linked the investment in girl’s education and development to larger economic benefits. Increased education for girls is associated with higher female participation in the workforce, which in turn increases a country’s GDP and per capita income.
Donald Steinberg, CEO of World Learning, emphasized that “issues related to human security such as child marriage can affect the stability and economic development of countries.” He also boldly claimed that these issues “are as every bit as dangerous as wars over natural resources, or wars that result from cultural differences. The international community not only has a moral interest in protecting young girls, but have their own security at heart.”
Curbing the Practice of Child Marriage
There are numerous ways the international community has sought to address the issue of child marriage from sanctions to “naming and blaming.” However, the most effective route seen by human right activists is educating and empowering local actors such as legislators, government officials and traditional leaders to promote proper schooling for young girls. Access to primary and secondary education is crucial to developing a women’s self-reliance, critical thinking, social skills, and ability to establish a support system.
Spreading awareness through community-based programs has also played a major factor in shifting public attitudes about the role of women in society. In their interactive guide, CFR promotes informational campaigns that initiate conversations among community leaders, educators, and parents on social expectations—highlighting the negative consequences of child marriage.
Laura Laski, Chief of Sexual and Reproductive Health United Nations Population Fund, summed up the challenges facing the issue: “Child marriage is not a disease, it is a social condition. We are talking about social engineering that will require many things in place to eradicate this; and I think it can be done within a generation.”
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's March/April 2014 print edition.
Photo copyright Akanksha Mehta.
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Child, Not Bride
March 18, 2014
A review of the Council on Foreign Relations’ launch of the Interactive Guide on Child Marriage
Most reflect on childhood as a time of carefree existence—a time when days, weeks, years were spent in the protective care of school, community, and family. However, there are many children, particularly girls, who will be called out of the sanctuary of childhood to take on the role of adults through forced early marriages.
Child marriage traverses continents, religion, language, and caste. In India, girls will traditionally be committed to boys four or five years older. In Yemen, Afghanistan, and other countries with high early marriage rates, the husbands may be young men or middle-aged widowers; and in some cases, elderly men well into their 70s. Some of these marriages are business transactions, hardly embellished with additional justification. A debt repaid in exchange for an eight year-old bride perhaps; a family conflict resolved with a promise of matrimony to a 12 year-old cousin. These horrific illustrations, when they happen to surface publicly, amplify the outraged demands for change from the international community.
The Council of Foreign Relations is one of the many voices pleading on behalf of the millions affected by child marriage. On January 9, 2014, CFR launched an interactive guide specifically addressing the gross atrocities of child marriage.
The statistics presented in the interactive guide are appalling.
Across developing countries, an estimated one in three girls is married before turning 18, and one in nine before the age of 15. Research projects that if this trend continues, 142 million girls will marry before adulthood within this decade.
The practice persists to varying degrees around the world. The highest rates of girls married before the age of 18 are found in South Asia and in West and Central Africa, where approximately two out of five girls are married as children. However, India exceeds other countries in terms of absolute numbers by an extensive margin, with 40 percent of all child marriages taking place there.
What is the Value of a Bride?
Cultural norms, poverty, and low societal views of women and girls are key forces that fuel early marriage, although clearly, the comparative significance of each varies by community.
In areas where women have few precious paths to earning an income, families often view daughters as an economic burden. Poverty stricken parents may decide to betroth a daughter early to avoid costly education and ease financial burdens tied with caring for a child. Dowries and bride prices also play a role in the timing of child marriages. In some cases, youth is seen as enhancing the worth of a bride: a younger girl has more time to dedicate herself solely to family and child bearing. Also, in many parts of India, dowries can be lowered significantly if the bride is younger.
Cultural norms also play a prominent and horrifying role in child marriage.
The CFR guide’s launch includes a seven-minute video of shocking stories by young women affected by disturbing cultural practices occurring prior to marriage. Nice Nailantel Leng’ete, an anti-FGM (female genital mutilation) advocate and escapee of child marriage, describes having to confront the gross preparation of early marriage at the age of eight. “When I was eight and my sister was ten, my uncle came to our grandfather’s place and told him ‘I think now these girls are big enough for circumcision.’ Fortunately, my sister and I were able to run away and escape this horrific fate.”
Many cultures place an emphasis on a girl’s virginity, which is closely tied with a family’s honor. In Northeast Africa and parts of the Middle East, in preparation of marriage, many women such as Nice are faced with female genital mutilation—a practice often justified as advocating virginity and preventing sexual assault.
The Toll of Child Marriage
Along with the severe psychological trauma and isolation brought on by early marriage, severe health problems, with side effects up to including death, are often linked with this practice.
Girls under 15, whose bodies still developing, are five times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women over 20.
The vast majority of those deaths are in the developing world, where a lack of pre- and post-natal care and advanced technical procedures such as C-sections makes pregnancy and childbirth far more precarious than in affluent countries. Globally, 70,000 girls aged 15 to 19 die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. Analysts considers pregnancy the leading cause of death in that age group, naming complications of childbirth and unsafe abortions as primary factors.
Children of child brides are also at risk. Babies born to mothers younger than 18 are more likely to be underweight or stillborn.
Girls forced into early marriage are also at a heightened risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and HIV because a young bride is usually unable to negotiate safe sex with her husband.
Child Marriage is Not a “Soft Issue”
Isobel Coleman, CFR senior fellow and director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy initiative, stated that child marriage “for the individual girl, can be a time when her life changes dramatically. But when you magnify that across a whole country, you can see the impact it has at a macro level.”
Girls who marry early are left without the knowledge, skills, and social networks to financially support their households, which continues their low societal status—making their families vulnerable to a generational cycle of poverty that stifles the development of their communities. Numerous studies have linked the investment in girl’s education and development to larger economic benefits. Increased education for girls is associated with higher female participation in the workforce, which in turn increases a country’s GDP and per capita income.
Donald Steinberg, CEO of World Learning, emphasized that “issues related to human security such as child marriage can affect the stability and economic development of countries.” He also boldly claimed that these issues “are as every bit as dangerous as wars over natural resources, or wars that result from cultural differences. The international community not only has a moral interest in protecting young girls, but have their own security at heart.”
Curbing the Practice of Child Marriage
There are numerous ways the international community has sought to address the issue of child marriage from sanctions to “naming and blaming.” However, the most effective route seen by human right activists is educating and empowering local actors such as legislators, government officials and traditional leaders to promote proper schooling for young girls. Access to primary and secondary education is crucial to developing a women’s self-reliance, critical thinking, social skills, and ability to establish a support system.
Spreading awareness through community-based programs has also played a major factor in shifting public attitudes about the role of women in society. In their interactive guide, CFR promotes informational campaigns that initiate conversations among community leaders, educators, and parents on social expectations—highlighting the negative consequences of child marriage.
Laura Laski, Chief of Sexual and Reproductive Health United Nations Population Fund, summed up the challenges facing the issue: “Child marriage is not a disease, it is a social condition. We are talking about social engineering that will require many things in place to eradicate this; and I think it can be done within a generation.”
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's March/April 2014 print edition.
Photo copyright Akanksha Mehta.
