Arranged Child Marriage

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Girls and Arranged Child Marriage The definition of arranged child marriage is forced marriage under the age of eighteen; it is a traditional custom that is a commonly practiced all around the world, especially in Latin America, Africa, The Middle East and third world nations in general. This practice is a violation to human rights and many organizations such as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) are trying to fight this phenomenon. The main issue at hand is not arranged underage marriage in general. It is precisely when girls are forced into marriage during their childhood. A research done by UNICEF in Sub-Saharan Africa shows that “husband’s of 15 to 19 years old girls are on average 10 years older than their wives” (Child Marriage). This means that it is the young girls who are the victims in these arrangements, as they have not yet reached neither adolescence nor adulthood as their husbands already have. Thus it is more essential to focus on the female aspect of the issue. One might think that forced child marriage has no positive aspects, but many believe that there are benefits to it. An article written by John Zhang points out those benefits, it says that “It is easier for the child-bride to adapt to her husband’s house and therefore have better chances for a happy marriage” (Zhang). He goes on to say that an early married girl is “Protected from evils such as rape and casual sex” (Zhang). Another good thing that comes out of child-marriage is that the parents of girls that marry early usually give less dowry than those that marry at an older age (Zhang). According to the author, this is very important because in places where these marriages occur, people live in extreme poverty, and giving less dowry, which is the money or goods the parents of the bride give to the husband, is a matter of survival for the family. In another
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