9-Year-Old Child Brides: Headed For OK In Iraq

Child brides are the worst of abuse all rolled into one beastly, immoral package: pedophilia, child abuse, slavery and the dehumanization of women.
And now this disgusting and unholy practice is heading for legal approval in Iraq in the name of religion.
According to Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education:
"It is a descent into barbarism. This month’s plan by Iraqi parliamentarians to legalize girl marriage at nine follows the Pakistan Islamic Council’s demand last month that Pakistan abolish all legal restrictions on child marriage, the revelation that Syrian refugee girls are being sold into marriage against their will and the increased pressure in many African countries to ease the restrictions on selling child brides."

Read the rest of the statement here: Drive to end child marriage stalls, but fightback begins.
Right now, my thriller Die By Wire is getting a lot of attention these days because of the plot's similarities to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

But the fight against child brides was the original inspiration for writing it. I created the airliner disappearance plot because I understood that most of the world was run by people who don't really care about child brides or because they are afraid to speak up for fear of offending Muslims.

But child brides are an offense to Islam and  primitive practices left-over from humanity's the dark ages.

Some of my previous related posts:

• Stop The Global Horror Of Child Brides

• Radical Egyptian Clerics Seek to Legalise Child Brides

The plight of Afghanistan's opium brides

 

From Deutsche Welles

While opium trade might be lucrative for some of those involved, many find themselves at the losing end. Daughters of farmers who find themselves desperate and indebted are used as little more than currency. 

To provide for their families, many Afghan farmers turn to the relatively lucrative practise of poppy cultivation.

Initial capital costs for items such as seeds, can be high. Many are forced to take loans from unscrupulous lenders, the drug lords and the Taliban among them.
But growing the poppy plant is no definite route to success. There are risks. While the government's eradication program may not be far-reaching, those farmers that do feel the brunt are left with bare earth and no way to settle their debts.

Some resort to bartering their daughters in marriage to settle the loans. These daughters are known as the "loan brides" or even "opium brides."

Read the rest of the article

Man Sells Six-Year-Old Daughter As Bride To Settle A Debt

A man in Afghanistan says he was forced to sell his six-year-old daughter to settle an old debt. The child, Naghma, was sold to a family member as a child bride. Her fiance is 16 years old.

Naghma’s Father, Taj Mohammad, states that the sale of his daughter was a necessity. Mohammad had borrowed money from a distant relative. He stresses that he needed the money to feed, house and protect his family.

Read the rest.

Kidnapped 'Virgin-Brides' Believed To Be Cure For HIV

The CNN Freedom Project tells the story of young women being kidnapped as child brides by those who believe that having sex with a young girl can cure their HIV. In many African villages, girls as young as 12 years old are kidnapped and forced to marry older men.

They speak of the term “Ukuthwala,” which translates to “pick up,” which justifies the abduction of young women. In some cases, the kidnappings occur with parental consent.

Read the rest of this article.

Saudi child-bride hides on wedding night to avoid 90-year-old "husband"

Pedophile slave-owners seem to have no age limit:

"A 90-year-old Saudi Arabian is suing his 15-year-old child-bride's family because she hid herself in the bedroom on their wedding night. The terrified teen locked the door from the inside so that her new husband could not enter on their first night as a married couple. Two days later she fled back to her parents’ home, Daily Mail reported. The elderly man now wants his money back as he claims he paid the parents 10,767 pounds (about $17,500) for the teenager for the marriage."

READ THE REST: 15-year-old Saudi child - bride hides on wedding night to avoid 90-year-old ...

Afghanistan's Opium Child Brides

From The Atlantic

A 40-year-old Afghan man sits next to his 11-year-old bride, Ghulan / AP/UNICEF

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"She was a 12-year-old girl, with fiery green eyes and defiance on her face. Her father had promised her hand to a stranger from Helmand province who didn't speak her language, was more than 30 years her senior, and already had eight children. Her father had borrowed the man's money for his poppy venture. And now it was up to her to repay that debt.

"Darya, as she was called in a new book by Fariba Nawa, Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman's Journey Through Afghanistan, represents a growing trend in Afghanistan, a trend in which families marry off their daughters to settle debts originating from the opium trade. 'Opium brides," they called them."

Read The Rest: Afghanistan's Opium Child Brides

Modern lifestyles can fuel child labour scandal

Modern lifestyles can fuel child labour scandal, says UK charity

UK children’s charity World Vision International which advocates against child brides and the trafficking in and exploitation of children warns that ordinary people are often unknowingly complicit in today’s global trade in children.

"I’ve just come back from Niger where I saw girls as young as eight being treated as items to be bought and sold for marriage," said the charity’s chief executive Justin Byworth. "12-year-old Zainab fled her home with her grandmother to escape being a child bride having seen her big sister die in childbirth after an early marriage."

Read the rest of the article