Unhappily Ever After: Child Brides And Sex Slavery
. Mail-order brides and child marriages support the historical, social, and cultural belief that marriage is nothing more then an economical transaction between two parties and women are objects to be sold and exchanged. This article examines sex slavery and solutions to preventing these destructive marriages, as well as the women whose lives revolve around sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.
The idea of marriage did not originate from love and free will, but rather were economic transactions between men and families for purposes of wealth, power, and alliances. This history has promoted enormous inequalities between men and women, perpetrating that women are the property of men and relations with husbands are their most important duty and responsibility. Sex slavery in the form of child bride practices are derived from remnants of past marriage notions and historical, social, and cultural assumptions. To this day, these practices inflict harm upon women, depriving them of their youth and putting them in a marriage of slavery.
Today, the United Nations Convention defines child marriage as any marriage of a child younger than 18 years old. These marriages come about today due to coercion, deception, and emotional pressure by the victims own family in some instances. Women also face abduction and imprisonment. Today, there are many countries that participate in child marriage, namely West and East Africa and South Asia, and they force millions of girls into slavery. Although its nearly impossible to know the exact number of child marriages that occur a year, there are approximately 50 million child brides worldwide and in the next ten years, an estimated 100 million women who will be married before they turn 18.
What are the causes of child marriage and sex slavery?
Regarding child marriage and sex slavery, poverty is the major factor in child marriage. This is due to families regarding young girls as economic burdens and believing that their marriage is an economic survival strategy. In many cases, young girls are used as currency to settle outstanding debts. Men pay brides families for their labor and fertility. Where slave labor is no longer practiced, child brides are a viable replacementboth for sex slavery and slave labor.
For illiterate women with a lack of education, their families see them with no future alternatives but marriage.These young women lack the life skills and self-confidence to be independent, so they accept their fate. Their children are similarly uneducated, contributing to the cycle.
The consequences of child marriage are numerous. After a child bride is married, she will very likely be forced into sex slavery and have to perform unwanted sexual activities with her husband. Forced sex is damaging to female genitalia and can result in tissue damage, disease, infection, and Sexually Transmitted Infections. The women has little to no say in these situations and rarely any safe method of protecting herself from unwanted pregnancy or diseases. Often times, husbands are unfaithful and remain sexually active outside of the marriage, transmitting HIV/AIDS to their young wives. This is evident in Africa, where the number of young girls whove contracted HIV/AIDS is significantly higher then that of young boys.
Child brides are usually neither physically or emotionally capable of giving birth, but if they do become pregnant, the resulting childbirth can be life threatening. Research has found that young women have a higher risk of delivering a premature infant with dangerously low birth weights. Pre-teen girls are also 5 times as likely to die during childbirth then women aged 20-24. These young wives also rarely receive any prenatal care.
As mentioned, these child bride practices revolve around existing gender stereotypes, traditional marriage views, and/or the belief that a woman must be rescued, protected, and provided for and supported by a man in exchange for complete obedience. This obedience entails forced labor, sex slavery, and often goes hand in hand with domestic violence. Much progress needs to be made regarding these gendered and sexual crimes, educating both young men and women about healthy and consensual relationships. Legally, the economic exchange of women should be held accountable. But until there is a societal shift away from the subordination of women and greater focus on men and women as equal partners in life, its likely that the practices of child marriage and sex slavery will continue.
Learn more about Sex Slavery and Child Brides: Read Unhappily Ever After: The Plight of Child and Mail-Order Brides.Download the PDF to learn more.
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