GAC Supports the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007
April 2008 brought shocking news of the eight year-old Yemeni girl, Nojoud Mohammed Ali, who had been forced into marriage and was recently granted an annulment. She ran away from the man in his 20s whom she was forced to marry and confirmed that she had in fact been raped by her "husband". At 8 years old, Nojoud had signed the marriage contract believing she would be allowed to live with her mother and father until she reached the age of 18, though was forced by her parents to move in with her husband within a week.
An April 2008 issue of Newsweek detailed the heartbreaking stories of several Afghan families who were forced to sell their daughters to drug lords in order to pay off debts, referring to the girls as "opium brides." Families whose livelihoods depended upon the poppy harvest have been struggling to make ends meet due to Taliban restrictions upon poppy crops and U.S. campaigns to eradicate poppy fields as part of the war on drugs. Farmers take out loans with the local drug lords in order to pay for seeds and to feed their families until harvest. Once the crops have been confiscated or destroyed, the only option remaining is to sell their daughters in order to repay the debt. One 16 year old bride interviewed for the story noted that "my heart is still with my parents, brothers and sisters," she says. "Only my body is with my husband’s family." She says she personally knows of two opium brides who killed themselves. "One of the girls had been badly beaten by her husband’s brother, the other by her husband," she says. Ghoti says she’s considered suicide, too, but Islam stopped her. "I pray that God doesn’t give me a daughter if she ends up like me."
Child marriage is a practice that is pervasive throughout many of the world’s most impoverished countries. Because of the devastating effects to young girls and their families, GAC supports H.R. 3175, the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007. TAKE ACTION
For further resources on child marriage, please see the following links:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/129577
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/07/06/magazine/20060709_BRIDES_SLIDESHOW_1.html
