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Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Education and Child Marriage

Havell Markus
Dr. Allison Parker
ENG 102
18 June 2014

A National Geographic article shows child brides.
Several decades have passed since many southeastern Asian countries — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka — passed the law against child marriage; however, the practice continues today.  In my previous blog posts, I have highlighted many faults of the government and their shorthanded efforts to fulfill the human right to education.  Today, I would like to change the pace, and shed some light upon another stakeholder that plays a primary and more important role than the government to ensure the right to education for every child.  I am talking about parents.  Today, many girls fail to receive education, as they become victims of child marriage.  These girls do not voluntarily choose to marry, but their parents do.  Even though the government of these countries does not do the best job of providing good educational means, the parents still hold a primary obligation to ensure their kids take advantage of the opportunities that are scarcely available.  If parents would not support their children, then who will?  Thus, today I will build on my previous blog posts arguments and show the parents are partially at blame for children not receiving education. 

The graph above shows Asian countries as second
 leading continent with highest prevalence of girls
 getting married before the age of 18.
For those who are not familiar with the concept of child marriage, let me give you a brief overview.  As Ashraf Uddin Ahmed points out in his article “Marriage and Its Transition in Bangladesh”, child marriage has been embedded into southeastern Asian culture since mid nineteenth century (52).  He further highlights the aims of child marriage as he states, “(1) it helps to maintain social stratification in general, (2) it affirms and strengthens parental power over the children, (3) it helps keep the family traditions and value systems in tact, (4) it helps consolidate and extend family property, (5) it enhances the value of the kinship group, (6) it helps young people from getting into the uncertainty of searching mate” (Ahmed 51).  Furthermore, Ahmed mentions the importance of the dowry system, as he says, “Girls are always an economic burden to the parents until their marriage because they cannot contribute to the household income like sons… The amount of dowry or bride price is usually significantly smaller when it is a child-marriage than a youth marriage” (52).  As Ahmed points out, child marriage serves as a dominant part of the culture.  It gives parents an advantage as they cheaply “sell” their daughters at the age of fifeteen or earlier before they invest more money raising them up.  Ahmed aims to inform people about child marriage and its history, and he does an effective job of building the logos of his paper, by providing credible historic facts and deriving logical claims for them.  His paper carries validity and successfully shapes the historican picture of child marriage. 

The graph above shows different southeastern Asian countries
their prevalence of girls getting married before the age of 18.
Now that we all have a general idea of what encompasses child marriage, let me show you why this creates a dilema for achieving the goal of global education.  In order to do so, I would like to higlight a true story of a Bangladeshi girls.  Humaiya Akhter, a 16 year old advocate for girls’ education and child right, presented her views in a meeting at a United Nation conference.  She said, “At the time when girls should be deciding on where to go to university, most girls in my country are deciding on a wedding dress… In my childhood I used to play with dolls. Sometimes I arranged marriages for the dolls. That is how parents treat their daughters — like dolls who have no voice” (Akhter).  She does not face the threat of child marriage since her parents support her and want her to gain an education; however, she fights for the rights of other girls as their voices are bottled up by their parents.  According to her, “Girls who become brides stay uneducated because they must become mothers, caretakers and homemakers, further driving the cycle of poverty and powerlessness… Education helps create opportunities for girls to contribute to family income. If a girl can feed her family, it will help parents rethink the idea that their daughters are a burden” (Akhter).  Akhter’s personal case does an excellent job of capturing the harm childhood marriage causes for not only girls but for the southeastern Asian societies.  Girls become part of a never ending cycle of child bearers, while the societies struggle in the past conservative thoughts.  With her personal testimony and first hand experiences she shows the hopeless state of young married girls, as they have no prospect to education.  Furthermore, she relates the problems of childhood marriage and education to parents and their selfish and uninformed will.  According to her, if other parents were as supportive and liberal as her parents towards their child, every girl would have freedom to gain education.  Education would give them a chance to battle the biases revolving around women and their incapability to survive in the world of men. 

The info-graphic above related different causes of child marriage, and shows education as one.
People say parents always think for their child’s best.  However, in southeastern Asian countries parents are holding on to their daugthers’ happiness by marrying them at an early age.  These parents drown in the ancient vews, and fail to meet the expectation of the modern world.  Through their selfish traditional motives, they choke their daughters’ childhood and education.  They have given up on their daughters’ future, before granting them a chance.  These parents fail to see women are on par with men.  As, Akhter’s persoanl testimony highlights, education is the key for these women to break the chains of traditional expectation.  The right to education these parents obstruct is the tool these girls need to prove and show their parents and the world their endless power, potential, and prestige. 

Works Cited:


Ahmed, Ashraf. "MARRIAGE AND ITS TRANSITION IN BANGLADESH ." International Journal of Sociology of the Family 16.1 (1986 ): 49-59.

Akhter, Humaiya. "Dreaming of More than a Wedding." CNN. Cable News Network, 08 Mar. 2013. Web. 18 June 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/08/world/iyw-dreaming-of-more-than-a-wedding/index.html?iref=allsearch>.

3 comments:

  1. Havell,
    Your blog post was very informative and I enjoyed reading it. I learned new perspectives about education that I didn't know about. I liked how in the beginning of your blog you stated that you were going to change the pace and shed some light on another stakeholder, parents, and their role to their child's education. To me stating that is a good idea because it gives readers a heads up on what you're going to be talking about. Also, it gives them insight that you're going to change it up and it's good, that way readers don't lose interest on the topic about education. As I was reading your post I learned that many girls don't receive education because their parents prefer them to marry. I had no idea about that, and I think by parents doing that it is really unfair. They don't even give them the opportunity to speak up if they want to attend school or not. Which comes to your statement about the girl from Bangladeshi. She said parents treat their daughters like they're dolls and I agree. You also did a good job giving background information about child marriage. Overall you did a good job and the pictures and data that you presented backed up your information. One thing I recommend is having more of an attention grabber. Other than that good job it was a good read, and I hope soon girls/children have the right to education.

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  3. Havell,

    Your blog on the effect of child marriages in education was interesting. You are absolutely right in focusing on the parents, they are one of the key factors in children getting and education. Many of these parents don’t know the limitations they are passing on to their children by marrying them off so young. If they only understood how beneficial it would be if their daughters received an education and how this would give them a more promising future.

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