Marriage is a formal and legitimate contract between two people to bond their lives together. In other words, it is a moment of celebration that should be filled with delight, an exceptionally special ritual for every human being. Tragically, the act of early marriage might not frame any happiness at all. In fact, early marriage might be one of the greatest human rights infringements in this world. Southeast Asia has the highest rate, compared to another area in the world with practically half (45%) of all ladies from 20 to 24 years old will be married before the age of 18 (UNICEF, 2017). In Malaysia, a report by the United Nations in 2010 demonstrated that, above 82,000 married ladies were young ladies between the ages of 15 and 19 (Voice of the children, 2013). To exacerbate the situation, the Deputy Minister for Women uncovered that, for that equivalent year, about 16,000 young ladies underneath the age of 15 were married (Voice of the children, 2013). There are several reasons why child marriage occurs in Malaysia. In the first place, plenty of youngsters are not literate enough in terms of sexual and reproductive health guidance that leads numerous of them to an unwanted pregnancy, since the majority of the country banned abortion, they have no other choice, but marry at an early age. Subsequently, early marriage is a result of the social perception that devalues girls as they might not have equal value as the opposite gender. Furthermore, the majority of the women from underprivileged families marry when they were young, for them, marriage could be a solution to settle outstanding payments. Child marriage is a delicate issue and it is strenuous for the organization to assemble a movement due to the close relationship with the Islamic religion, and the discussion about this topic is also limited among the non-Muslims. Therefore, the Malaysian government should ban children that are 18 years old and below to get married in order to avoid sexually transmitted diseases among children, to improve the prosperity of Malaysia, and to protect children’s rights in terms of health, wellbeing, and education.
According to Victoria Brown (Star Online, 2018), it is said by Dr. Easwary, who is a public physician by profession, that child marriage jeopardises a child’s physical health. Child marriage throws their victims into a sea full of domestic violence. According to Fox L. (2019, p.12), victims of child marriage also experience sexual violence where their older partners usually take control of their bodies since the victims themselves lack in knowledge of sexual relationships as they are underaged. Child marriage is also commonly abusive. Girls who marry before they are 18 are likely to experience domestic violence than their peers who marry later. They are also more likely to believe that a man is sometimes justified for beating his wife than women who marry later. All this physical abuse may cause some bruises and cuts in the beginning, but in the long run, it can cause some serious nerve damages, internal bleedings, and inflammations.
Furthermore, child marriage victims are also dangerously exposed to all sorts of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV or AIDS, cervical cancers, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, deaths by childbirth and malnutrition in children. Contributing to this problem is the fact that these victims are less likely to be equipped with information about protecting themselves from all these STDs and unwanted pregnancies since they have dropped out of school. Moreover, child brides are more likely to become pregnant while their bodies are still immature which increases the chances of both maternal and newborn deaths (Brown, 2018). All in all, child marriage subjects its victims to consequential health issues.
Furthermore, underaged girls are presumably to experience deteriorating mental health. Since the girls often feel isolated and have cramped freedom, they will often feel disempowered and deprived of basic human rights. Not only that, the familial pressure to satisfy the groom’s family will invade the little minds of the children. Therefore, the married underage girls usually quit education and be a housewife to their husbands in order to appease their husbands’ feelings so that they would not get abused. To add salt into injury, the high probability of the children to experience physical health problems like HIV will cause the girls to live in fear that could develop into a more serious psychological trauma. Thus, child marriage devastatingly disrupts the children’s psychological and emotional development. Not only that, teenage girls are notably emotionally weak and susceptible. In the event of them getting forced married, it will make them unfit to deal with heavy romantic relationships, forget marriage. According to Fox, L. (2019, p.11), women who married young are prone to mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and psychotic disorder throughout their whole lives. Being cemented in a stagnant condition of terror, the children will find other sources to release their congested stress. These mental health problems could lead to major issues, such as the children will be dependent on drugs, nicotine and, alcohol.
Besides, children will be facing many types of social consequences. According to Victoria Brown (Star Online, 2018), young brides are often isolated, with their freedom curtailed, and they may feel disempowered and deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education, and safety. They will not have the freedom and courage to mingle around like a normal teenager. Thus, they will eventually lose confidence in themselves and will not have the willpower or mindset to think and fight back for their rights. Hence, being socially and educationally lacking, the child bride is under an unpredictable and immeasurable amount of pressure.
Girls who marry are likely to have a high chance of splitting up and partition in some circumstances. Some studies have proven that when a girl marries before passing their puberty stage, they face challenges in attempting to hold the relationship and in focusing on the marriage. Young ladies disintegrate or invalidate their relationships because of the huge age difference between partners, abuse and physical maltreatment through spouses, and husbands’ over-dominant of power. Separation and partition can prompt bigger issues, as young moms experience the responsibility for childbearing and childrearing with the exception of monetary help from their families or society (Noor & Mohd, 2018, p.16).
Besides, while it is no longer clear if early marriage motives girls to drop out from school or vice versa, early marriage potentially stop a girl’s formal education (Noor & Mohd, 2018, p.15). When a girl gets married, she is often told to drop out of school. Girls tend to drop out of college during the preparatory time before or after the marriage. Her new role as a wife or mother frequently comes with the expectation that she will take care of the home, the young people and the prolonged family. It is also said that when a girl is out from the school, she becomes more vulnerable. Many females are not in school because it is inaccessible and expensive, and also due to the fact it is viewed as something that irrelevant to their lives. With few alternatives, mothers and fathers often see marriage as a nice choice for their daughter. Moreover, girls who have dropped out of school are likely will get married at the age of 18 compared to ladies with secondary or higher education. Returning to school can be difficult for married girls; this is the reality for them. Girls who marry young are no longer capable to resume their education because the community could not accept their situation. For instance, the stigma of pregnancy keeps girls from returning to school. Some nations also forbid pregnant girls and younger moms from returning to school. Education is a powerful strategy to end child marriage. Education can be one of the most effective equipment to enable girls to keep away from child marriage and fulfill their potential. The longer a girl stays in school, the less probable she is to be married before the age of 18 and have adolescents throughout her teenage years. When females have gotten entry to safe, satisfactory secondary education, the benefits are widely felt. Educated females improve skills, understanding and confidence to make informed choices together with if, when and whom to marry. Being in school additionally helps the perception that women are nevertheless teens and are consequently not of an appropriate age to marry.
Despite the fact that child marriages are a big concern for the community, some of the families in the country who are in favour of child marriage argued that marrying off one’s child can be their escapade from poverty, especially in poverty-stricken areas (Brown, 2018, p.10). Indeed, child marriages may allow families to reduce their general expenses. Admittedly, these families have fewer options because of not enough opportunities and resources so through marrying their child off to another family, they will have one person less to feed, clothe and educate. Additionally, parents and families were also offered economic incentives in the form of the bride dowry in the trade of marriage. In such cases, the parents will quickly marry their daughter off because the other family would offer a high price in exchange.
Regardless of the fact that some parts of the community believe that child marriages will benefit them, child marriages actually will foster poverty as the young child will not be properly educated or play a role in the workforce. Fox, L. (2019, p.13) had stated that child marriage has been determined as the source of ‘cyclical poverty’. Due to pregnancy at a young age, the girls have to quit school to focus more on their baby rather than their education. Due to improper education, girls who married young tend to have more children, thus, they are not able to meet basic survival needs. Since the young girls have no qualifications to enter the workforce, they are not able to provide for the family, only depending on the community surrounding them to donate and give help in terms of staple food like rice. Supposedly, the nation needs all the children to stay in school until they graduate in order to prepare for the work field so that the country can maximize its resources and labour. Therefore, families should empower their children and bring them to their full potential to overcome their economic difficulties instead of resorting to child marriage.
However, there are still people out there who believe that child marriage is not a problem. In their perspective, marrying a child off protects the family’s honor and safety. The victims, majority girls, are arranged or forced into marriage so that they can get protection from the family they are married into. Most child marriages happen in poverty-stricken communities. Individuals in this community usually end up in gangsterism. Children in this community are dangerously exposed to getting involved in crimes like drugs, murder, and violence. So, parents in this community feel that it is better to get their kids married off so that they start having responsibilities and not get involved crimes. In certain cultures, marrying a girl young assumes that the girl’s sexuality, therefore the girl’s family’s honor will be protected (Noor & Mohd, 2018, p.13). There are also some cases where the girl is rxxxd and impregnated. Families often cover up the whole incident by marrying the girl to her rapist. This is so that the family does not get discriminated by the society they live in.
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