Stop Child Brides: February 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Afghanistan's Opium Child Brides

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

"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

Sunday, February 5, 2012

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

Child Brides = Child Slavery

Save the Children considers child brides to be one of the most prevalent forms of child slavery :
Forced child marriage – Forced marriage occurs when at least one partner does not give consent and is coerced into marrying. Save the Children (2007: 9) says that: “the forced marriage of children takes place in many different cultural, political and economic situations, and involves boys as well as girls. However, girls are undoubtedly the most affected and suffer the most severe consequences. They are frequently intimidated, but also abducted, raped and sometimes murdered. A girl or woman who is forced to marry is usually a slave, forced to live and sleep with her husband, and often physically confined indoors.” Forced marriage is most common in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and sub-Saharan Africa, including Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Uganda.

Videos

Ujeli: A Child Bride in Nepal
Production Year: 1992
Length: 59 minutes
Language: English subtitles
From UNICEF

Ten-year-old Ujeli lives in Nepal with her parents and brother. Against the advice of her teacher and a doctor, who warn about the dangers of early childbearing, Ujeli’s parents arrange for her to get married. Nepal has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, and 40 per cent of the women are married before the age of 14. Marriage at a very young age excludes most women from the school system, and as in Ujeli’s case, children take on adult responsibilities.
Note title, code and click here to order.

Child Brides Are The Backstory In Die By Wire

All of my thrillers have some sort of non-fiction historic, cultural or scientific backstory to underpin the action and help offer another dimension for the reader.

In my latest novel, Die By Wire's Heroine Mira Longbow is sent to Amsterdam to end a global child-smuggling ring. But discovers an even more diabolical plot.

The descriptions of global child bride smuggling described in the book are well-researched and accurate. So are the horrible physical and psychological consequences. And the shameful difficulty in stamping it out.

Stop Child Brides