Early marriage.

   According to the Oxford online dictionary  marriage is : " the formal union of a man and a woman , typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife". While a true marriage needs a full and free consent of both parties, many parents force their daughters to get married even if they are under the legal age which is eighteen years old. Statistics has shown that child marriage is very common in developing countries like  sub-saharan Africa  and the Asian sub-continent ( India,Nepal , Bangladesh).Child marriage is also very common  in some countries in the middle east such as Sudan,Yemen and Bahrain  where girls are getting married at a very young age. 

Poverty is the main factor and cause that pushes some parent to marry their daughters so that they can improve their financial and social status , so those girls are obliged to do so and to drop out of school . Also, in some cultures marrying a girl in an early age preserve both her reputation and her family's honor, lack of education is also a critical cause of early marriage especially in the rural word. Moreover, some families consider their daughters as a burden, so they want to get rid of them by marrying them.

Early marriage has several negative and harmful effects on women:

1- Illiteracy since a girl drop out of school at an early age.

2- Severe health problems because of pregnancy.

3- stress and severe depression because a young girl cannot cope  with  maternal and marital problems.

4- High rates of divorce since there is a lack of maturity and experience.

A report on a child marriage,Nepal: "

"I was married to a nine-year-old boy when I was three. At that point of time, I was unaware of marriages. I don't even remember my marriage event. I just remember that as I was too young and was unable to walk and they had to carry me and bring me over to their place. Getting married at an early age, I was destined to suffer a lot of hardships. I had to carry water in a small clay-pot in the mornings. I had to sweep and swap the floor everyday".

To sum up, gouvernment has to sensitize people about the negative effects of early marriage. Furthermore, strict laws and measures must be taken in order to stop the spread of this phenomenon.


Sources:
http://marriage.ygoy.com/early-marriage-problems/
http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/child-brides.htm
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/recommendation.htm