Each page, paragraph and photograph of a National Geographic
story, “Too Young to Wed. The Secret World of Child Brides,” is
more sad and more disturbing than the one before.
Writer Cynthia Gorney and photographer Stephanie Sinclair
describe the continuing practice in many countries — they focused
on India, short prom dresses short prom dresses Yemen and Afghanistan — of parents promising their
daughters as young as 5 to husbands the girls may not meet until
they are married at puberty, or earlier.
Girls are given away in what amounts to little more than a
business transaction to pay a debt homecoming 2011 , settle a feud or link a family
to one of higher standing. Gorney writes that child marriages span
continents, languages, religions and caste systems.
Child weddings are illegal in India discount bridal dresses discount bridal dresses, so the ceremonies in mostly
rural areas are in the middle of the night. Yemen marriages can be
fancy or little more than a ride from one home to another.
One Sinclair photo is of three Yemeni girls, ages 13 and 12, in
elaborate wedding gowns , large necklaces and high hairdos kept in
place with tiaras. They married each other’s male relatives.
In another, white dresses white dresses two tiny 8-year-olds stand on a Yemen mountainside
beside their adult husbands. One girl said that early in her
marriage, at age 6, she hid every time she saw her 25-year-old
husband.
In nearly every National Geographic photo, my eyes were drawn to
the face of a sad, scared, hopeless girl who should be enjoying
play dates with friends and finishing elementary or middle
school.
I stared a long time at the image of a young woman crouched on
the floor over a water basin bathing her newborn girl. Her
2-year-old daughter sits nearby. The caption says the 14-year-old
mother is bleeding and ill from childbirth, but has no education or
access to information about how to care for herself
Gorney’s story says there are few women’s health clinics in
areas most likely to have child brides. Clinic workers often must
explain to frightened girls that they are in labor, bridesmaid dresses which means
they are having a baby.
Baby girls will be the next generation of forgotten women from
communities and cultures where females are seen as little more than
property. Because they have little, if any, education, child brides
always will remain dependent on the men in their lives.
How can this happen in the 21st century? Even in strict
patriarchal societies, you’d think there would be more compassion
for children.
Twisted religious teachings often contribute to the terrible
legacy. My Bible says, simply, to treat others as you want to be
treated and love your neighbor (wife bridesmaid dresses cheap , daughter) as you love
yourself.
It’s a sad contrast that while girls in other parts of the world
are forced into adulthood, many American girls can’t wait to be
treated as adults, evening ball gowns and are allowed to wear makeup and clothing to
look older.
Parents ultimately make the decisions, actively or passively, in
both cases.
There was a TV news story this week about baby and toddler
beauty pageants. Seeing parents take their children to pageants is
a far cry from child weddings, bridesmaid dresses uk but it still sends a message that
little girls should look and act like adults.
The twist in this pageant story was that more dads are taking
the roles of costume designer, talent coach and choreographer. One
over-the-top pageant dad sews his daughters’ dresses for party costumes, and said his
girls dream about being Miss America. I suspect that it’s his dream
and his daughters would be just as happy playing dress-up at a
children’s museum and performing in school plays.
The dad of a 3-year-old blonde bombshell said he never thought
he’d get so emotionally involved in the weekend pageants for
toddlers wearing fashion model makeup and tiny tiaras. He said they
go to pageants because his daughter enjoys it.
She’s 3 years old! She’d enjoy playing in the park with her dad,
having pretend tea parties with friends, going swimming or doing
any of a thousand other things little girls should be doing.
Why are so many people in the world intent on stealing their
daughters’ white graduation dresses white graduation dresses; childhoods?
Lori Potter is a Hub staff writer.
