Outrage as photos emerge of Egyptian 7 and 4 year old children ‘engaged to be married’.

Outrage as photos emerge of Egyptian 7 and 4 year old children ‘engaged to be married’. (AA).

News of the ‘engagement’ of two Egyptian children – announced by the seven-year-old boy's father - has sparked uproar for what could potentially be among the youngest victims of child marriage.

The issue of forcing young children into engagement or marriage is an ongoing problem in Egypt as the government claims it is to enforce harsh penalties to counter the practice.
The engagement ceremony photos of Zain, a 7-year-old second grader, and his 4–year-old cousin Faridah hit the internet by storm and provoked a debate on social media over the ‘rights’ and wrongs of the practice.

According to some tweets from sources close to the children's family in the al-Qalyubia province, Faridah’s father selected his nephew as the future husband for his daughter as an “incentive for excelling academically at school,” a decision that apparently received the backing of the family.

According to other sources, a dowry of $,1000 (18,000 EGP) was paid to the girl’s family with the agreement that both children would wed when they reached legal age.

Video - Lebanese Man Takes His ’12-Year-Old Bride’ in Public, Watch How People Reacted.

Video - Lebanese Man Takes His ’12-Year-Old Bride’ in Public, Watch How People Reacted. (Egyptianstreets).

In a renewed attempt to raise awareness about the prevalence of child marriages in Lebanon, nongovernmental organization Kafa (meaning “enough” in Arabic) staged a photoshoot with a middle-aged man and a 12-year-old girl in a wedding dress.

While some passersby did not react and others were visibly disturbed but kept their opinions to themselves, a large number of those who appeared in the video were outraged at the setup.

One woman demanded to know where the young girl’s parents were, exclaiming, “She’s 12! I was jogging but my feet froze when I saw her.”

Another bystander reminded the woman that “the law allows it.”

Child marriages continue to be an issue of great concern in many countries in the region.Read the full story here.

Related: Too young to wed.

Video - Syria's child brides - 'She's 13 years old and she's about to get married'

Syrian refugees are increasingly turning to marriage to protect their daughters from rape and assault. Photojournalist Lynsey Addario talks to Dan Damon about those as young as thirteen forced to wed at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Download the free World Update podcast: http://bbc.in/1tAGpCb

Video - Human Rights Watch documentary: "Child Brides in Tanzania"

Child marriage in Tanzania limits girls’ access to education and exposes them to serious harms. Human Rights Watch documented how child marriage severely curtails girls’ access to education, and exposes them to exploitation and violence – including marital rape and female genital mutilation (FGM) – and reproductive health risks. HT:

Compelling work by @marcusbleasdale @hrw on the plight of child brides in Tanzania, must watch http://t.co/35fjmIMtVc

— Peter Bouckaert (@bouckap) October 30, 2014

Pakistan - 16-year-old girl attacked with acid for turning down marriage proposal.

Picture is illustrative, Source of picture here

Pakistan - 16-year-old girl attacked with acid for turning down marriage proposal.(ED).

A 16-year-old girl was attacked with acid on Saturday in Jhang by two men, one of whom was allegedly rejected for marriage by the victim’s family, Express News reported.

The victim was shifted to a hospital, where doctors say she is in critical condition and has sustained 90% burn injuries. Further, doctors say she has lost 95% of her eyesight.

“One man, Tauseef, has been arrested. And we are very close to arresting the second attacker, Asmatullah, and are hoping to do so today,” said a police official.

“Tauseef confessed to the crime,” the DSP said, adding, “We have lodged an FIR, and the criminals will be tried in an anti-terrorism court.” The men staged the attack after Asmatullah was denied marriage by the girl’s family. Later that night, they climbed the wall of the victim’s house, managed to break in and throw an entire bottle of acid on the girl.

Iraqi women protest against draft law to permit child marriage.

Iraqi women protest against draft law to permit child marriage.(NCRI).

A group of Iraqi women have demonstrated in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls. The draft now goes to parliament..

The group's protest was on International Women's Day on Saturday and a week after the cabinet voted for the legislation.

"On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning," the protesters shouted."We believe that this is a crime against humanity," said Hanaa Eduar, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist."It would deprive a girl of her right to live a normal childhood."

The United Nations's representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, also condemned the legislation.
The legislation recognizes girls at nine fitting for marriage.

The draft was put forward by justice minister Hassan al-Shimari, a member of the Shiite Fadila party, and approved by the cabinet on February 25.

Religious parties with close ties to the Iranian regime first attempted to pass a version of the law in 2003 under United States occupation, angering secular Iraqis and prompting protests.Hmmmm.......Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!.........Yup coming soon 'Succes' story II....Afghanistan.

130,000 girls under 18 married in Erdogan's "Islamist" Turkey in last 3 years.

Source:  END CHILD MARRIAGE.

130,000 girls under 18 married in Erdogan's "Islamist" Turkey in last 3 years.(TZ).

The drama of “K.E.,” a young girl who was married off at the age of 12, became a mother at 13, had a miscarriage with her second child at 14, and was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in her house in Siirt's Pervari district on Jan. 12, has brought the shame surrounding “child brides” in Turkey to the spotlight once again.

Stating that there have been 130,000 girls who married under the age of 18 over the last three years in the country, Dr. Burcu Donmez of Yaşar University's law faculty notes that forced marriage must absolutely be covered as a part of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

She says: "It is definitely inhuman to force anyone under the age of 15 to marry. In fact, the United Nations defines forced marriage as a kind of modern slavery.”

Data provided in June 2013 from the Interior Ministry illuminates the situation of child brides in Turkey. While there have been a total of 134,629 marriages involving persons under the age of 18 over the past three years, the number of males under the age of 18 married was just 5,763, while the number of girls under the age of 18 married off was 128,866.

In other words, the number of underage girls married off in the past three years is 21 times the number of underage males marrying.

Should be counted as a crime

Dr. Dönmez, who stresses that marrying off children under the age of 15 needs to be seen and defined as a violation of children's rights, says: "For anyone to be forced into marriage -- whether they are under the age of 15 or not -- is an inhuman and a terrible thing. In fact, the European Union produced 11 directives between the years of 2002 and 2006 aimed at preventing forced marriages. 

Turkey must also move to make forced marriage an injustice that calls for punishment and define it as its own category of crime. Forced marriage must be defined as a solid crime.

This is why not only forcing someone into marriage, but forcing someone to continue a marriage, must be made a crime.”'

Children that are targeted for marriage should be taken from their families'Dönmez notes that if a law on this subject does get passed, the important thing is that in addition to seeing that courts hand down punishments to those guilty of trying to force young people into marriage, sanctions such as the state-backed removal of youngsters from their families are implemented.

She continues: “Sometimes we see girls married off from agreements made at the cradle, other times they are sold like goods. We hear about these dramas every day. What is important is increasing families' awareness and their education levels. This should become state policy.”

'They lose their identities'Dr. Ilgın Başaran from Yaşar University notes some of the more disturbing psychological effects of forced marriage at a young age, saying: "To marry off children who are still in primary school is to exploit them on both an emotional and physical level. These are children who are at risk of losing of their identities. For example, a young girl who becomes a mother at an early age might play with her babies as though she was playing with her dolls in his childhood. If her baby dies or she experiences a miscarriage, this child bride might feel sad as if she lost her doll and might lose self-confidence very easily.”

Hmmm.......“Thank God Almighty,” said Mr. Erdogan in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.”.   KEEP TURKEY OUT OF EUROPE.

Third of marriages in eastern 'Islamist' Turkey involve child brides: NGO.

Third of marriages in eastern 'Islamist' Turkey involve child brides: NGO.(HD).

A third of marriages in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces involve brides of minor age, with a significant proportion under the age of fifteen, a study by an NGO in the area has shown.

The study, conducted by KAMER, an NGO focusing on the improvement of women’s conditions and rights, is based on interviews with 60,000 women across 23 provinces.

The results paint a worrying picture of the extent of child marriages, particularly in rural areas, and were announced following the tragic death of yet another child bride in Siirt province made headlines across the country, after she gave birth to her second baby. 

“The civil authorities should make partnerships as soon as possible with teachers, imams, the gendarmerie and mukhtars to raise awareness on the issue of child brides. Preventive measures must be adopted in every province, district and village,” KAMER’s Van branch director, Esra Gürcan, said in a written statement.

Among the women interviewed by KAMER, 4,711 were married at 16 or 17 in the last 10 years. Some 2,217 were married between the ages of 13 and 15, while 54 were married at the age of 12 or below.

Referring to the harrowing story of the child bride shot to death in Siirt, Gürcan said this matter represented a big test of women’s right and gender equality.

“If we are talking about a girl married at the age of 11, who died at the age of 14.5 after giving birth to two children, this should be shame for us all,” Gürcan said, urging the authorities to carry a thorough investigation.

“The family that marries the [child bride] off at 11, the man who marries her, whether she gave a premature birth, everything should be questioned,” she added. 

The legal age for marriage in Turkey was recently raised to 17 from 15, but many families still change the date of birth of their daughters so they can marry legally.

Experts highlight that laws lack persuasive power and are not enough on their own. Instead, many say, the importance of raising awareness on gender equality should be stressed. Hmmmm.....Please Lord keep Turkey out of Europe.

Related: End Child Marriage.

Child brides in Turkey again in focus thanks to movie 'My Aunt came'.

Child brides in Turkey again in focus thanks to movie 'My Aunt came'.HT: AlAlaam.

A new movie,“Halam Geldi” (“My Aunt Came”), addresses child brides in Turkey. (trailer above)

A majority of analysts predict a tough and tense immediate future for Turkey in 2014. In such an environment, it might seem necessary to momentarily put aside seemingly less pressing matters. Yet, watching the Turkish film “My Aunt Came”  (“Halam Geldi” in Turkish, directed by Erhan Kozan), released on Jan. 3, served as a sober reminder that there can never be a bad time to continue raising awareness about child brides — one of Turkey’s deepest bleeding wounds.

Child marriage is defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18, and the impacts, primarily for girls, are disastrous. The main reasons for child brides are poverty, lack of education, religious belief, perceptions of gender roles in society, insufficient laws or belief that a girl is safer once married.

In the film, “My Aunt Came” refers to a code, used specifically in Anatolia to symbolize the arrival of a young girl’s first menstrual period. Unfortunately, instead of a new, natural phase in a young woman’s life, this is also recognized as a harbinger of doom; To begin her period signifies that a girl is fertile, which suggests she is of an age permissible for marriage.

The film's characters Reyhan and Huriye, who live in a border village in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, are more than just characters, as they represent myriad victims in real life across Turkey and the world.

According to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, in the last three years 134,629 persons below 18 years of age were married in Turkey, with 5,763 boys and 128,866 girls — meaning 20 times more girls than boys. 

The trend of a disproportionally higher number of underage girls is especially worrisome considering that “there is an increase of 94% in application to courts by families to ... get marriage permit[s],” according to Gulten Kaya, head of the female lawyers commission of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations.

Though the shining lights of posh Istanbul neighborhoods might blur the reality of many parts of the country, the facts remain striking and scary. 

Research, recently presented by Erhan Tunc, an assistant professor at Gaziantep University, studied child marriage in various Turkish regions. Researchers found that 82% of child brides in Turkey are illiterate.Hmmm....Another reason (As if we needed more) to keep Turkey out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

Child marriage a taboo for Turkey, Dutch Princess Mabel van Oranje says.

Child marriage a taboo for Turkey, Dutch Princess Mabel van Oranje says.(HD).

Child marriage is a fact in Turkey, with 28 percent of all marriages involving children under 18, but it remains taboo and laws restricting it are not implemented, the International Girls Not Brides head and Dutch Princess Mabel van Oranje has said.

Oranje’s comments were made yesterday at a meeting titled “Challenging Impossible” held by the Sabancı Foundation in Istanbul.

The contentious issue of child brides in Turkey is not getting any better, according to Oranje, who blasted the current situation in Turkey and the lack of headway being made in policy on the matter.
“The Turkish Parliament’s Committee on Equal Opportunity for Women and Men wrote a report in 2009.

It’s a very interesting report and it has a series of very good recommendations, but unfortunately little action is taking place to implement these recommendations,” she said.

The Dutch princess said the issue remained a taboo and that first of all acknowledgement that child marriage existed and was harmful for children and society was necessary.

“We need to break the taboo of not talking about this issue and we all need to have role in abolishing it,” Oranje added.

According to UNICEF, Turkey has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Europe, but the figures vary depending on the amount of data available and the region surveyed. For example, according to a national study, the average national rate of child marriage is 28 percent, but it reaches as high as 41 percent in the eastern and southeastern regions.

The philanthropy seminar took place in at the Sabancı Foundation headquarters with the attendance of Oranje and Dr. Tererai Trent from Zimbabwe’s Tinogona (Achievable) Foundation.

In 2012, the Sabancı Foundation became partners with the Girls Not Brides platform in the struggle to end child marriages in Turkey.

“Sabancı cannot do it by itself, we all need to be involved,” Oranje said, adding that a law against such marriages existed but was not being implemented.

“We don’t know very well [the real data]. There is a lack of info. Some 28 percent of girls marry before they turn 18. But we don’t know the exact data because these marriages are done through religious marriages, which are not registered. They are not legally recognized,” she said.

“It is happening more in the east of the country but it’s also happening in the west in cities like in Istanbul,” she added.

Meanwhile, Sabancı Holding Chairwoman Güler Sabancı said girls should continue their education until the age of at least 18 to demand their own options, as this was their most fundamental human right, in a message sent to the attendees.

“Sometimes the problem’s dimensions require a global organization and action, it is hard to achieve but not impossible. What we need is a social leader who can realize a radical change and challenges impossibilities,” Sabancı said.

Over one in every four brides is a child, as families are increasingly applying to the court to change the date of birth of their daughters so they can legally marry, an association of Turkish female lawyers warned on May 4.

The legal age for marriage in Turkey was recently raised to 17 from 15, but the commission members said this limit should be increased to 18.

On average, 14 million girls get married every year around the world, which means that every two seconds one girl under 18 gets married.Hmmm....Welcome to 'Islamist Turkey'

Video - How wealthy Saudi's are sexually exploiting underage Syrian female fugitives.

Video - How wealthy Saudi's are sexually exploiting  underage Syrian female fugitives.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan from their home country in light of the ongoing war in Syria. The distress in the hopelessly overcrowded refugee camps is great. Unscrupulous traffickers have recognized this and made ​​a business out of it. So-called 'matchmakers' sell Syrian refugee teenager girls to rich Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia.

This video is an extended (approximately 3 minutes longer) version of a video that has already been uploaded on LiveLeak (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d3_13...).

Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."

Yemen - Gynecologist: "Young Girls bleed to death on their wedding night."(YNet).

A backwards society, shoddy economy and Islamist terror – many difficult problems flood the country of Yemen, one of the worst is the phenomenon of young girls forced into marriage.

Just last month an eight year old, identified as Rawan, died of internal bleeding, apparently the result of being forced to have sex with her 40-year-old husband on her wedding night.

Dr. Arwa Rabi'i, a gynecologist from the capital city of Sana'a, talked to the i24news channel and called for raising the marriage age to 18. "When a woman marries before the age of 18, before the uterus and hips are fully developed, there are going to be many gynecological complications such as multiple miscarriages and life-threatening infections," she said. "We see it every day, not every month or week, every day! A lot of them, 10 or 20 sick girls."

Belkis Wille, an activist in Human Rights Watch, talking to i24news from Yemen via Skype, said that in rural areas, it is common to see marriage at the ages of eight or nine. Regarding Rawan's story, she said: "Unfortunately, this specific story is influenced by a lot of rumors; various local authorities are saying the story is not true, while the journalist who broke the story refuses to believe it's not true.

"Different human rights organizations are taking different position locally, but from every point of view, whether this story is true or not, it's irrelevant considering that this happening around the country all the time. I've personally come across two or three cases I've heard from gynecologists of girls who bled to death on their wedding night."Read and see the full story here.

Video - Yemeni Child Nada who Fled Forced Marriage and Egyptian Cleric Debate Child Marriage.

Video - Yemeni Child Nada who Fled Forced Marriage and Egyptian Cleric Debate Child Marriage.HT: Memri.

Ontario: "Hundreds of Women living in forced marriages."

Ontario: "Hundreds of Women living in forced marriages." (Yahoo).

"I think the reality is that number is just a tipping point of all those cases we know are not getting reported,"

Hundreds of women in Ontario are in marriages against their will, with a quarter of them married when they were just teenagers, according to a three-year study looking into the practice.

The South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, or SALCO, released its findings today looking at 219 cases of forced marriage that were identified in the province between 2010 and 2012.

The report, titled Who/If/When to Marry: The Incidence of Forced Marriage in Ontario, found that both men and women in the province are coerced into marriage, but 92 per cent of those affected are women. In 25 per cent of the cases, the people involved were just 16 to 18 years old when they were married.

It’s the first study to provide a closer look at these non-consensual unions, which are defined as marriages where individuals are forced to wed against their will, under duress or without full, free and informed consent from both parties.
"I think the reality is that number is just a tipping point of all those cases we know are not getting reported," said Shalini Konanur of SALCO.

"And you have to remember our collection was just in Ontario, so the national picture would be much more, I think, bigger." The study found that the majority of the people affected are Canadian citizens and permanent residents, with people in 31 per cent of cases living in Canada for more than a decade before being forced into marriage.

“This is a Canadian problem,” said Konanur,” and it does transcend communities, religion and ages.”

One woman, who goes by the name Haya and does not want to be identified, had been living in Ontario for several years before her father took her to Pakistan to force her to marry her cousin.

“I thought, ‘Yay, we’re going to go back home for a vacation,’” Haya told CBC News.

“It turns out my dad ends up taking my passport, telling me I can’t go back home to Canada and I’m just going to have to end up getting married,” she said.

Haya managed to escape from Pakistan and is now living in Mississauga, Ont., but said she was disowned by her father. The report lists a variety of reasons people are pressured into marriages — usually by family members, community elders or religious leaders — including upholding cultural tradition, family reputation and honour.

The report says shame and fear are common themes in many of the cases it examined. In some cases, victims were threatened with violence.

“In our society, we are fairly good at understanding issues of violence, particularly violence against women,” said Uzma Shakir, a former director at SALCO. “But this is an aspect of that violence that we are not quite familiar with.”

The report lists several recommendations on how to deal with forced marriages across the country, including a national public awareness campaign, building a better framework for assessing cases and providing legal and social support for victims of the practice.Hmmmm........Medieval laws and traditions don't belong in a modern society.

Video - Father of 13-Year-Old Egyptian Boy Married Off to 10-Year-Old Girl: "You're Never Too Young for Marriage"

Video - Father of 13-Year-Old Egyptian Boy Married Off to 10-Year-Old Girl: "You're Never Too Young for Marriage"

One in every four marriages in Turkey involves child bride: NGO.

                                                      HT Video : To Young To Wed.

One in every four marriages in Turkey involves child bride: NGO.(HD).

One out of every four brides is a child as families are increasingly applying to the court to change the date of birth of their daughters so that they can legally marry, warned an association of Turkish female lawyers May 4. “There is an increase of 94 percent in application to courts by families to show their daughters age older, in order to get marriage permit,” said Gülten Kaya, head of the female lawyers’ commission of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, during a meeting of the group in Kuşadası.

The legal age for marriage in Turkey has been raised to 17 from 15, however the commission members said that the limit should be increased to the majority age of 18.

Istanbul bar’s women commission head Nilüfer Ay said that the increase in the number of child brides showed the lack of awareness of women’s place in society.

Ay also said that despite the enactment of a law on violence against women, shelters for victims existed in only 8 provinces out of 14. “So laws are not enough; Awareness should be raised,” she said. Hmmmm......Obama's BFF Erdogan's Turkey.Read the full story here.