(no subject)
I just watched a report on child marriages. I've watched numerous documentaries on the subject before but this made me think 'what can I do to help?'
I don't know. I want to help. But what can we do? It's a hideous, sickening custom. There are 1m women in Bangladesh alone who are entirely incontinent due to giving birth in poor conditions when they were under a healthy age for childbearing. Many of these women are abandoned by their husbands and families.
I'm not going to swear here but if anything has ever made me want to swear, it's this.
Many of the families say they have to marry their girls young because dowries get more expensive the older the girl is (the older they get, the less desirable they are as wives which is why the dowry goes up). However, I was thinking - would it not be possible to create a charity/fund to pay to the husbands' families when a girl over the legal age of marriage is getting married? That way, poor families can keep their daughters in education and allow them to live out their childhoods.
I realise this isn't the only cause for child marriage but it's one of the most common ones in some parts of the world and gah I just want to help so much. Why is this form of slavery not acted upon? These children are given to people who rape and beat them and forced to perform menial chores and give them children. They have no education or opportunity to leave. How is this not slavery?
Sob.
I don't know. I want to help. But what can we do? It's a hideous, sickening custom. There are 1m women in Bangladesh alone who are entirely incontinent due to giving birth in poor conditions when they were under a healthy age for childbearing. Many of these women are abandoned by their husbands and families.
I'm not going to swear here but if anything has ever made me want to swear, it's this.
Many of the families say they have to marry their girls young because dowries get more expensive the older the girl is (the older they get, the less desirable they are as wives which is why the dowry goes up). However, I was thinking - would it not be possible to create a charity/fund to pay to the husbands' families when a girl over the legal age of marriage is getting married? That way, poor families can keep their daughters in education and allow them to live out their childhoods.
I realise this isn't the only cause for child marriage but it's one of the most common ones in some parts of the world and gah I just want to help so much. Why is this form of slavery not acted upon? These children are given to people who rape and beat them and forced to perform menial chores and give them children. They have no education or opportunity to leave. How is this not slavery?
Sob.