(Institute/University/College)
Executive Summary
Marriage is often defined as among some of the most memorable and joyous occasions in a person’s life. However, in a number of countries in the Middle East, forced marriages have become a facet of life that many in the Western world find repugnant and abhorrent. Much of the digression attendant to the issue stems from the different concepts that the West holds as right in the area, and comparing that with that in the Middle East and in the tenets of Islam as practiced in the communities in the latter region. Aside from this issue, the issue of acknowledging the rights of the child brides and grooms is also a subject of debate in this area, as well as the destructive social, economic and physical effects that child brides can be subjected to. Here, the governments of these communities, international organizations, and religious leaders must be engaged in combating what is turning to be a growing social malaise in the Middle East and other regions in the world.
Key Words: Child marriage, Forced marriages, Middle East
Introduction
Readers and audiences in the West will be shocked and sickened coming across news of children being married off to men in the Middle East who can pass for their grandfathers. People will tend whether authorities are doing anything to stem the practices in the region; in the case of Saudi Arabia, the nation’s law does not set a minimum age for the child to be married off; in fact, one can marry a child even after its birth. In addition, parents ‘sell’ off their children to get the financial aid from the grooms; children brides often fetch up to $40,000 in dowries from the groom.
Three Saudi agencies are being chided for their role in facilitating and even supporting this practice. The health department is charged with conducting “genetic testing” for prospective pairs contemplating marriage; the law in the country stipulates that the prospective couple give “certificates of genetic testing” before the marriage ceremony can proceed. The justice department facilitates and releases the licenses for the couple; the interior ministry records the families and lists the relationships between the members of the family. In addition, this is also the most cogent department as all the members are under the ambit of this particular agency and can order the implementation of policies in their respective areas (al-Ahmed, 2011).
In the Middle East, child marriage practices are prevalent in the region. Many of the brides are predominantly from impoverished families. The parents of the girls ‘earn’ by marrying off their daughters in order to support the family. In particular, in the last three years, such arrangements have become an integral part of the “fight for survival” being conducted by families in the wake of the onslaught of civil war in Syria. Majority of the families that engage the practice for their daughters are faced with the possibility that their daughters will be sexually attacked in a state where the concepts of law and public safety are considered as part of its history rather than parts of the present society.
Information released by human rights groups in Syria evince the finding that more than 100 contracts are facilitated and processed between child brides and older prospective grooms, with most of these arrangements concluded informally and with no security that the girl’s rights will be exercised and protected. In order to skirt around the laws in Syria, parents often coach their children to be able to qualify for a formal marriage rather than just be satisfied with a traditional function (Bar’el, 2015).
Definition and cultural holdings
Parrot and Cummings (2008, p. 58), in establishing the practice, define “child marriages” as a “form of forced marriage because children are unable to understand the nature of marital relationships and what is expected of them.” The authors also proffer that there are a number of reasons why children are being married off. One, the children are given or pledged in marriage for a number of reasons-ensuring the chastity of the child at the conclusion of the contract, to establish family, political or business ties, to prevent the child from getting pregnant, to get money by way of the dowry, to secure the compliance of the parties involved in the marriage, and to maximize the number of children that will be ‘produced’ in the union. However, whatever the motivations engaged in consummating the “child marriage,” the child will have to perform ‘conjugal duties’ to the husband, even though the child is not ready and oftentimes the act is forced upon the child al through the time the bride will reach adulthood.
In the context of the Middle East, women are generally accorded an extremely low station in society. These are expected to be blindly subservient to the males in the family, particularly to their fathers and spouses; widows rank lower in the family compared to the position given to the sons. Moreover, Saudi laws give the fathers the right to marry off their daughters commonly to men who can pay large dowries for the bride. Farrell (2011, p. 29) avers in the context of the culture of the Middle East, the dowry is the amount or items that are given by the prospective husband to the family of the bride. If the family of the bride is poor, the fathers will seek to marry off their daughters for them to obtain the financial rewards from the dowry. Many of these child brides are aged seven to nine years old; withal, there have been cases that the child brides have been younger.
Children and economics
However, Bradley (2010, p. 121) notes the obvious problem in these situations; dowries, normally several hundred dollars, cannot be reasonably assumed to be able to fund all of the needs of the children that will be born into these fixed unions. Further exacerbating the situation, the girls are often traded like commodities wherein the prospective ‘buyer’ would proceed to physically inspect the ‘merchandise’ and then trade with ‘shop owner.’ In the Middle East, girls that are married off to wealthy spouses will often be treated as slaves in countries where the incidents of abuse of servants are high. Worden (2012) avers that the practice of child marriages is reflective of societal values of childbearing even in the childhood years and increased rates of fertility; endeavoring to alter these patterns may infringe on highly emotional areas of tradition and family, and at times also conflict with religious tenets.
Child marriages impacts millions of children, but the impact is more pronounced on young girls. Nonetheless, this is not to state that boys are not impacted by the practice but in smaller frequencies and with lesser negative impacts on their educational opportunities and welfare. For many of these child brides, the continuing reality of sexual attacks, arranged marriages, stopping their education, and the end of any opportunity in the future to improve their lot has effectively been snuffed out. Child brides also face heightened risks for death during delivery, with child brides fifteen times more at risk than women who are twenty years old or older. In this right, it can be said that child brides are among the most exposed people groups; seldom given any substantive rights and expected to carry the responsibilities given to adults at such a young age, these are often exploited, disenfranchised, and often times excluded from the affairs of society. In addition, many of these child brides are not reached by development programs designed to help them as these are commonly ‘detained’ at home (Worden, 2012).
However, Bradley (2010, p. 131) posits that children getting pregnant and delivering children themselves and the anticipated rapid succession of babies for these girls are exposed to a high threat of contracting “obstetric fistula,” a break in the genital urinary tract that commonly arises during the labor stages of the delivery when the baby pushes against the birth canal that the flow of blood is cut off to the surrounding areas to the point that the affected tissue decays and then eventually will be corrupted. If the condition is left untreated, this can lead to a number of other conditions such as kidney illnesses, nerve damage, and mental anguish on the part of the child bride.
Lemmon and Elharake (2014, p. 4) avers that aside from the physical risks posed to girls in these situations, marrying off the child will interfere or even deprive the child of the educational and economic opportunities that would have been available to them if these were not forced into the marriage. Aside from these deprivations, child marriages threaten the welfare of the wife and that of the children in the marriage, and in the end blocks the progress of the country to accomplishing nearly all global development agreements, including the UN ‘Millennium Development Goals.’ Children who are married off at a young age oftentimes will be forced to stop schooling; this will not only damage their educational opportunities but also place a significant hindrance on their families’ economic opportunities to rise out of their economic quagmire.
When the girls are married, these women are faced with enormous challenges in trying to land a job, preventing them from being able to supplement the income of the family as well as contribute to the expansion of the local economy. In addition, child marriages are areas that open large avenues for domestic abuse and sexual assaults, as seen in literature that girls who are married off at a young age have a higher risk at being attacked. In a community setting, the areas where these child brides are located are often characterized by economic instability, perpetuating the cycle of societal progress that a large number of impoverished nations are trapped in.
An amalgamation of complicated elements contributes to the slow pace of the process geared at eliminating the problem of child marriages in the Middle East. The prevailing cultural and norms aggressively seek to maintain the ‘normal’ order, and the parallel evils of poverty and educational deprivation fuel the practice. A dearth in educational opportunities greatly hinders the progress of these child brides; worsened by gnawing paucity, these will significantly amplify the reality and necessity of child marriages. However with the improving access of women to education and economic possibilities that help in lifting the women out their economic and societal quagmires, states with deeply ingrained religious and societal practices that tolerate child marriages will likely fight any initiative to end child marriages in their country.
In religious terms, writings attributed to the Prophet evinced the command that marriage was not allowed unless the girl reaches puberty. In the early history of Muslim Arabia, puberty was solely considered as “the end of childhood” with regards to biological factors. In this light, there are those that hold that the most significant issue in this light is not whether the girl has reached a certain age requirement for her to be legally given in marriage, but whether the girl has already attained the physical capacity to bear children.
If there are no adverse physical effects that can be determined that will impact the girl from the ‘performance’ of the conjugal act with her spouse, then the authorities will allow the marriage to be conducted even if the bride is under the age of nine. However, if the girl is feeble and weak, then the marriage will not be allowed to be consummated even if the girl is older. There are those that hold the age of nine as the benchmark; however, if the man consummated the union before the bride reached the limit, then the two must be divorced.
Though there are a host of traditions and norms that aver the benefits of marrying at a young age, traditionally done with other children in a primarily symbolic ceremony to be able to “defend the child’s chastity,” there are those that aver that marrying children to each other will inevitably “lead to trouble.” Within the narrower interpretation of the Hanbali school, there is also a high level of resistance in extensively accepting the practice of child marriages. In the holding of Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the founder of the most rigid schools in the 9th century, marriages that involve minors are strictly forbidden. On the other hand, there are commentators within the Hanbali that are against this position, but scholars aver that boys can be married at a young age, but only out of extreme necessity.
Islamic academics and commentators are the ones tasked to resolve the growing impasse regarding the issue of child marriages. However, the ‘battle lines’ are deeply drawn between the philosophies of liberal Islamic tenets and extremist Wahhabi beliefs. The ‘grand mufti in Saudi Arabia,’ Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, believes that the issue of child brides must rather be framed in the domain of feminism rather than in the legal arena. Al-Ashiekh avers that even with the extensive criticism of the practice being generated in the media, Islam cannot be said to have inflicted an injustice on women. Scholars aver that it is false to state that Islam does not permit the practice of marrying off girls fifteen years old or younger (Bradley, 2010, pp. 139-140).
Hence, can religion play a factor in the operation of the practice? No recognized religious group officially practices child marriages; there have been instances in the Orthodox Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities in different regions. There are also scholars that oppose the practice. Nonetheless, at the community level, religious and community leaders often sanction child marriages in keeping with local and regional traditions in the community.
Stopping child marriages is a complex obstacle that cannot be ended in the short- or medium-term. Individualistic efforts will not resolve the dilemma; what is needed is a sustained, community wide effort first to educate the people, and then to initiate dialogues with the members within and outside of the community, and then to facilitate the pace of reform in the society. These are done with the establishment of legal structures within the county that will reflect the international norms in the global community; withal, these laws must be strictly enforced than merely crafted.
Many of the countries that prohibit these practices have the necessary legal basis; what is lacking is the political will to implement these laws. Education for girls must also be pushed; actively supporting education programs and granting incentives for the parents must be adopted to empower women and girls to be able to have a better chance at alleviating their station in life. Lastly, there is a need to initiate dialogues within and outside the community regarding the destructive effects of child marriages. When the communities themselves decide against the practice, then and only then can change start to be hoped for (Worden, 2012).
References
Al-Ahmed, A (2011) “Why is no one protecting Saudi Arabia’s child brides?” Retrieved 12 March 2016 from <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/08/saudi-arabia-child-brides-marriage
Bar’el, Z., (2015). “On child brides and other Syrian horrors” Retrieved 12 March 2016 from <http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.660219
Bradley, J. R (2010) Behind the veil of vice: the business and culture of sex in the Middle East. London: Macmillan Publishers
Farrell, C., 2011. Human trafficking. Minneapolis: ABDO Publishing Company
Lemmon, G.., ElHarake, L.S., 2014. Child brides, global consequences: how to end child marriage. New York City: Council on Foreign Relations
Parrot, A., Cummings, N., 2008. Sexual enslavement of girls and women worldwide. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group
Worden, M., 2012, The unfinished revolution: voices from the global fight for women’s rights. New York City: Seven Stories Press
