A child, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife and above all a Mother! So many names with so much of responsibilities and so much of sacrifice; yet, she is deprived of her sole desire-Freedom…
The soul acting as the backbone of the nation is
shockingly, being crushed each and every day! And knowingly or unknowingly, we
ignore it!
In this segment I’ll try to bring forward one of the
paralyzing issue of our society: "Child Marriage", through a shocking story of an 8 year old, which was
not even a teenage girl, yet was turned, to a woman and in the most brutal way!
A tribal girl of the north-western Yemen area (near Saudi
border) named 'Ravan' was forced to marry a man 5 times her age. Naive 8 year
old, didn't know that she was going to see her parents for the last time on her
wedding. On her wedding night, her 40 years old husband asked for his conjugal
rights. Being young and totally unaware of the process, her under-developed
body suffered deep injuries that led to tear in her genitals which ultimately and
most obviously led to her death!
Shocking? Indeed it is. But to many, it is not! As child
marriage is not Illegal in Yemen, and so, it is just another case of just another girl in
Yemen.
Tribal leaders of the town denied to any such
mishap, though Yemen and Kuwait activists called for the police to arrest the girls’
husband and family. European Union foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton remarked, “The
case should be investigated without delay and all those responsible for this crime, should be prosecuted”. But is this the only justifiable solution?
Let us have a glance on some of the statistics behind:-
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The Legal age for marriage is 15 years in Yemen.
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According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), in Yemen nearly
52% are married before age of 18 and 14% before the age of 15 years.
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HRW urged Yemen in December 2011 to ban
marriages of girl under 18 as it deprives her from education as well as face
health difficulties.
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Report also says that, child brides-to-be are
kept from school when they reach puberty.
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According to International Center for Research
on Women, girls below age 15 are 5 times more likely to die while giving birth
than the ones in 20s.
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And most importantly, under HRW norms every
person regardless of their age must give their consent before marriage.
The Causes that lead to early girl marriage are more shocking. The most
common answer which activists get to hear most frequently, is: “It is the
customs we follow”!
Now do we really call ourselves modern with such a hypocritical and
superstitious belief?
Reports suggest that many poor families in Yemen force their daughters’ to
marry or sell them so that, they could be saved from the costs of bringing her up, in addition to the extra money they get in the form of dowry from boy’s family.
That is the reason when crops fail and families become poor, the rate of child
marriages also tend to go up.
While some reports also reveal that the parents believe that their
daughter’s ‘circumstances’ would improve and she would be protected from the
risk of rape.
But does the barbarism her body faces, after getting married, is less than
being raped?
As their bodies’ remain under-developed, neither does their body support the process nor is able to bear the pain, while giving birth; which ultimately
leads to death of the girl.
The most obvious and
devastating truth of Early Pregnancy is one of the leading causes of
deaths worldwide for girls aged between 15 to 19 years.
Besides this, they suffer high risk of contracting HIV. Due to getting married young, girls often face
domestic violence, just because they have no say. Few are even deprived of 2 meals a
day!
Now here, I want to ask their parents, what improved circumstances do
they talk about?!
“Nobody was interested in my complaints, as I was legally a wife!” this is
the torture a girl has to face, if she dares to protest.
And this is increasing in nations having dense population. According to
UN Population Fund, higher rate of child marriages are in Sub-Saharan Africa. India
known as the 'capital' of child marriage, holds a share of 40% of 60 million child
marriage!
Change is the new word. And I hope, that this Change is not just on papers... but, also show its move in the mind and culture of people!
