An under-aged bride holding flowers. 

 

Take Action Now !

 

 

Many say that Child Marriage only exists in the third world countries and those many fails to realize that it’s not only found in third world countries, but on developed countries as well. U.S have legal pass on which it allows a young girl to marry someone who can be twice her age if there is some form of consent. The problem with consent is that we don’t always know what is the “real” reason behind those concents. In other word, do the parent really want their child to get marry or is it because of the society they live in?

 

“In the state of Virginia, a 13-year-old child can legally marry an adult twice her age, and all that's needed is a clerk's consent, provided she is pregnant and has parental consent”. An early pregnancy should ring an alarm, but not a wedding bell. These kind of misunderstanding of pregnancy still exists in the 21st century and this is also one of the reason why we still can not get rid of childhood marriage. Yes, I do understand how strict the U.S government is and how formally they look over incidents but I believe they are not making child marriage a big issue in their eyes. As long as their parents are fine, we should just led the child get marry to someone whose double their age? We are forgetting the fact that many of us is uneducated on this matter and how much child marriage can affect a child's mental and physical growth.

 

Although these all are frustrating to ear, I feel happy knowing that steps are being taken in order to stop these kinds of inhumane behaviors. Knowing that the the exemptions that give permission for child marriage to take place are coming to an end, I can be a little assure that some group out there is actually carrying about a matter that always goes untalked about. “Many US states set marriage age limits set at 16 to 18 years old but allow exemptions with parental and/or judicial consent or pregnancy. Child advocacy groups hope to end these exemptions.”

In future, I hope to not only see Virginia being the only state with this action in place, but all place around the world taking this kind of actions in place. I believe as humans, we always try to ignore the current complications and leave problems to face in the future. But if child marriage is not something that fully comes to an end, no matter how developed as nations we are, we’ll still count as being inhumane to those poor childs who are only getting married because their adult “forces” them into it. Every child should deserve the right to live freely and not controlled by someone who they were forcely tied with.