Early Matrimony is Ineluctable Mistake Essay Example for Free

Early Matrimony is Ineluctable Mistake Essay For certain countries such as the poor countries of the Middle East and Africa, their young women are traditionally made to believe that only by marrying young can they get out of the quagmire that their current life has placed them in. The men of these countries do not have much to fear, but the women, most of whom are married off as early as the ages of 10 and 12 years old, they sometimes pay with their lives for such a mistake. The women of these countries are most often trained to accept that early marriage is an inescapable part of their lives and they cannot do anything but accept it. Such early marriages are an acceptable tradition in these countries and is most often done using only the tribes specific traditions and therefore are not registered by the state thus making such unions illegal. But because the women do not understand any of these things, they stay in what they believe to be a life long commitment. In the United States, early marriages occur within the youth of the country between the ages of 15-17 with less harsher outcomes, although still with ineluctable mistakes. I will discuss that in the latter part of this paper. For now, I would like to concentrate on the unfair practice of early marriages in the Middle East and certain countries in Asia. Most of these so called child marriages happen in the outback countries like Nigeria, Central African Republic, Nepal, Uganda, and Bangladesh to name but only a few of these countries. A recent UN report entitled â€Å"Child Protection from Violence, Exploitation, and Abuse† noted that such early marriages occur in the rural settings possibly because of the way those of little or no education equate female youth with fertility. A part of the report indicates that â€Å"Child marriage is associated with high levels of fertility. For example in Colombia, 1 per cent of women with no children, 35 per cent of women with one or two children, 72 per cent of women with 3 or 4 children and 87 per cent of women with 5 or more children were married by age 18 (UNICEF estimates based on DHS 2000). â€Å" A family’s finances play a major part in the decision to turn their daughters into a child bride. The simple minded folk of these nations believe that by marrying off their child early, they are rid of an economic burden since in their culture, there are certain activities women simply are not allowed to perform even if they are capable of doing so. For such young marriages, the unions signify that the child will manage to survive even away from the family. Such marriages may also be orchestrated by the family of the girl because they believe that by marrying off their daughter at an early age, she will be protected from sexual abuse because she already has her husband to protect her. Sometimes, the reason for the marriage is also as simple as trying to insure that the child will grow into womanhood without the possibility of having a bastard child. Although the family of the female child has good intentions for marrying off their child at an early age, their lack of formal education limits their knowledge of the highly life threatening aftermaths of such early marriages. A child trapped in an early marriage no longer has a future ahead of her as she is expected to comply with the tradition wherein the married child no longer attends school and instead tends to her family. These countries also have very poor sanitation and healthcare facilities, hence the high rate of sexually transmitted disease in the area. The child brides are faced with a constant stream of premature pregnancies and infant deaths. Reports say that these women also most often than not test positive for HIV/ AIDS. Perhaps the saddest part of these young marriages in Asia and the Middle East is that the little girls are often abused by their pre-arranged spouses. This is not to say that the little girls who choose their own spouses do not get punished once they marry a man who is not the choice of their parents. In such cases, once a spouse or family senses that their family honor has been tarnished, they are most often killed by â€Å"honor killings† which hope to restore their family names. Indeed, for such countries, early matrimony, early marriage is indeed an inescapable mistake. The repercussions of such marriages see the under aged women paying for their mistake with their lives. For death it seems, is the only way out of such marriages in that part of the world where females are valued more as a property than a person. Nobody tries to inform the women that they can get out of their current situation simply by getting an education and using it to get out of their early marriage before they commit any more serious mistakes. Over in our part of the world, The United States also has its own share of early marriages. But there is a marked difference between the Mid East and African problem and ours. Mainly because even though early marriages are sometimes entered into by the youths of the land, they do not have to choose to remain in the marriage if it is not working for them. That is an option that I can only wish for the rest of the world to leave open for the mistakes of youth. In our country, such early marriages are deemed illegal by law and is therefore prohibited. Although, marrying young with a duly accomplished parental consent form is allowed. An early marriage in our country is one that is entered into by parties within the 14-19 age bracket. Even though both the young man and young woman have the support of both sides of the family, the marriage still fails with some inescapable and life changing results. In the article â€Å"Marrying Minors: Are They Making a Mistake? † staff writer Elizabeth Alvarado discusses the reasons as to why marrying young, even for American youth, is a big mistake. Using actual early marriage experiences as related by those women who were at one time or another involved in such a relationship, she explains how the law known as Dissolution of Marriage more commonly known as Divorce, allows the parties to leave the marriage but forces them to face the life long mistakes that decision to marry young has placed upon their young shoulders. There was a time in the past 40 years that young men and women often married even before they completed their high school education. When the Brigham Young University conducted a study related to the issue, they discovered that there was an 80 % divorce rate among those youths who married at the age of 14. Such statistics can be considered very high when compared to the 45 % of failed 20 year old marriages and 30 % of the 23 year olds. Such mistakes may be attributed to the follies of youth. At such ages, teenagers are not yet mentally mature nor emotionally ready to handle the big responsibilities that come with married life. They are still in their selfish stage and think that everything in life is a game. Which is why as the maturity begins to set in, so do the changes in attitude and perspectives of the mates involved in the marriage. Most of the youth involved in early marriages also run a very high risk of never completing their college education because of the way decisions have to be made differently when a couple is married. There is also that foreseeable outcome of the couple having children. Children are the most inescapable mistake of marrying young. Children suffer the most because their parents were not ready emotionally, socially, and financially to deal with the presence of a child. In such events, the mother most often has to quit school and care for the child. In this respect, she becomes no more different than her Middle East and African counterparts who sacrifice themselves in the name of motherhood. Although, unlike the men in the previous scenario, who are usually twice the age of their wives and therefore more mature and able to handle the situation better, their American counterparts are barely out of short pants themselves and find themselves lost when it comes to dealing with the reality of a family and fatherhood. Once the mistakes begin to pile up in this scenario, both parties become disillusioned and wish for nothing more than to end the nightmare of a marriage they so willingly entered into at first. Leaving behind the most irrevocable, real mistake that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. The fact that they brought a life into this world and that living person will be the constant reminded to them as to why early marriage most often than not fails to survive. After hearing the facts and supporting arguments I believe that you will agree with me that marrying young does not have to be an inescapable mistake for the youth involved in such marriages at the moment. It is true that there will be inescapable results stemming from the marriage, but with proper education, nobody has to remain in an early marriage that is proving to be disastrous for them as individuals.