Child Marriages: Alive and Well in Today's World

When we hear about child marriage, it's common to think of it as being something from the long-distant past. However, child marriage still occurs in today's world. For the sake of definition, child marriage refers to the marriage of children fifteen or younger. While it's limited and illegal in the United States, child marriage is a part of everyday life in many nations. The recent case concerning the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) has brought the matter to attention.

The FLDS split off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the early 1900's. This split occurred because the Mormon church had ceased practicing polygamy and was excommunicating members who practiced it. Today, the FLDS and LDS have no formal relationship with each other. Warren Jeffs, considered to be the prophet of the group, was believed to have arranged a marriage between a 14-year-old-girl and a 19-year-old man. The girl, Elissa Wall, testified against Jeffs. Despite claims that the marriage was completely consensual, Walls testified that the marriage was forced. She has since left the group and her husband, has remarried, and has written a book, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun.

Texas' Child Protective Services raid on an FLDS compound in Eldorado, TX this past April happened due to a phone call from someone who claimed to be a 16-year-old girl being abused by a much older husband. While this call turned out to be a hoax, CPS' action was taken due to fear that the children of the group were in danger of being forced into marriages. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist, testified that the FLDS girls only believe they're agreeing to the marriages because of how they're raised, according to CBS 42 FLDS members insist that underage marriage is not a religious belief of theirs, and that the children aren't forced into marriage. Regardless of how this case turns out, it helps show that child marriage is not some relic of the past. Indeed, one other notable case in recent history involved 12 or 13 year-olds being "married" to and having children by an adult-David Koresh of the Branch Davidians, as was discussed on PBS' Frontline and in a book titled Why Waco? by James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher.

Child marriage is quite common in Africa. The Centers for Disease Control cite child marriage in this area as a cause of high HIV and HPV rates, cervical cancer, and pregnancy and delivery-related problems. The rate of girls married before the age of 15 is very high in Sub-Saharan Africa. One factsheet from UNFPA estimates that the rate of girls married before 18 can be as high as 88% in this area. A recent news story from the BBC indicated that people in much of Sub-Saharan Africa believe that girls will become promiscuous if they do not marry early. Obedience to their husbands is taught, and their society is generally against abused wives who seek protection against their batterers. In Mali, according to an IRIN report, there has been a partial decline in early marriages due to efforts on the part of UNICEF. Hopefully UNICEF and similar organizations will continue to reach out in this way.

Child marriage has long been associated with India, even though a law in 1929 made such marriages illegal. In India, a man must be 21 and a woman must be 18 to marry. It is commonly thought that child marriage became common in India about 1,000 years ago, when parents would marry off their girls to protect them from seizure by raiders. An essay by Sudheer Birodkhar also mentions that child marriages are less expensive for many poor parents. A recent story detailed the marriage between a 4-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy. According to the Asian Tribune, many teenage and younger brides often end up divorced shortly after the marriage and left to raise their children alone. An 11-year-old bride interviewed by CBS News described her anger and disgust at being married off. Some activists are raising awareness of the problems associated with underage marriage.

A subject of controversy is whether Islam actually sanctions the marriage of underage girls or if Muslims were following the customs of their local cultures. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is believed to have been married to his youngest wife, Aisha, when she was only 9 or 10. A Hadith in Islam speaks against forcing one into a marriage. An essay edited by Zafar Khan states that women have the right to annul any marriage that they are forced into. Many Muslims feel that child marriage is a reflection of local cultures that they live in. An article in the Yemen Times about a married 8-year-old recently sparked discussion about child marriage in some Muslim countries. The girl sought charges against her father for forcing her to marry a 30-year-old. According to Yemen's laws, children under 15 can enter into a marriage contract, but the marriage cannot be consummated until the girl is older.

From the examples given, child marriages still occur in some parts of the world largely due to cultural and economic reasons. Marriage of children in the U.S. is very rare. It's the hope of many that conditions in many places can be improved so that children never have to marry early out of necessity.