Child marriage is horror not an institution

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Submitted by DA on Sunday, 18 January 2009View Comments

Marriage is an institution, a binding relation, a beautiful experience, a God’s commandment, and a life long commitment. Child marriage on the other hand is a horror, a disease, a taboo, a despicable act, a torture, and a truth in many countries / societies around the World and nearby.

There can be absolutely no justification for this nefarious act, even if it dictated by the learned and revered institutions of a nation. Recently this topic has taken the Arab nations with shock and awe after a prominent cleric condoned child marriage by saying that girls from age 10 onwards can be married.

I am not sure if this dictate is based on a particular school of thought or by and large self assessed circumstances. But in all cases it is absolute nightmarish to think of a child to be put through such a tumultuous mental and physical torture when the child is ought to be learning about growing up in such a delicate age.

Consider this that when you were in the age of 10, you would be out and about playing with friends, would be learning about forming relations we call as friendships with other children of your age, irrespective of your gender. This tender age is for children to be carefree of all the exhaustion of day to day life, but rather be exhausted by running from school to home, to be tired mentally by remembering the lessons taught at school.

Yes marriage involves mental and physical capacity to actually carry it till the end. How would a 10 year old know the difference between a beast and human being when she is put thorough the sexual ravage? How do you expect the 10 year old to differentiate between a maniacal behaviour of a partner demanding attention and psychological imbalance caused by anxiety and depression that she would endure trying to satisfy the demands?

Its unbelievable that this issue is actually being preached and practiced without any interventation from the government(s), those that demand a standing in the league of First World.

Article context [LINK]

abu Hilal

Oh not this again.

It depends on the view of this life, marriage's position in this life & the expectations.

You shock seems to be a result or effect of 'western' hypocratical influence.

Not so long ago, such marriages where a norm and many of our grandmothers were wed early. So, there is nothing intrinsically bad/evil in this permissable contract. What happens is the negative changes in the society affects the perception. One blogger the other day tried to apply scientific studies in psychology about the horrific effects of 'pedophile' victims. I objected: you cannot equate an evil sexual crime with relations in a legal and permissable act of marriage! That's like arguing that all marriage is evil & should be banned because of studies of rape victims! What the!!

I'm not arguing that every ten year old is marriagable by default today, but what this guy was saying that with proper upbringing they can be (on the other hand, we could argue that many 25 year olds are not exactly fit for marriage today, but that doesn't mean we should ban them by law).

Back to the western hypocracy: many teen and even preteen PREGNANCIES in some of these societies and not all as a result of a violent crimes, rather from 'boy friends'. Also if an 18 year old has sex with an 'underage' then it's statutory rape, but if he's not yet 18 then it is not!
This shows that even at such young age there can be courtship. It is then the responsibility of the parent/guardian to see what is best. That's not to say there could be 'abuse' as with any other legal matter, but the end result here is always a legal & permissable marriage.

Many of the issues yu mentioned a ten year old should be enjoying (playing,etc) do not automatically go away by marriage! You assume she would be handed full responsibility of a household overnight which is not the case.

Your other arguments about beasts & sexual ravage are not really applicable in a marriage setting. You are thinking about rape which is without consequences and responsibilities as opposed to marriage.

This particular clergy by the way was responding to a question and was merely pointing out the verdit. You should note his point about being 'marriagable' in the sense of being well prepped. Your fears will be addressed by for example 'marriage education' instead of the 'western' Sex-Ed classes for example. That's with regards to prepping. As for your other concerns, they can be alleviated by taking the mind out of the gutter and not assuming that every man is a sexual predator, although I can't see this term being applied in a marriage setting at all?

Thanks.