Before their wedding ceremony begins in rural Afghanistan, a 40-year-old man sits to be photographed with his 11-year-old bride. The girl tells the photographer that she is sad to be engaged because she had hoped to become a teacher. Her favorite class was Dari, the local language, before she had to leave her studies to get married.

She is one of the 51 million child brides around the world today. And it's not just Muslims; it happens across many cultures and regions.

Photographer Stephanie Sinclair has traveled the world taking pictures, like the one of the Afghan couple, to document the phenomenon. Christiane Amanpour spoke with Sinclair about a book which features her photographs called, "Questions without Answers: The World in Pictures by the Photographers of VII."
Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Afghnanistan on Sept. 11, 2005.

Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in rural Afghanistan in 2005.

Amanpour asked Sinclair if the 11-year-old Afghan girl married in 2005, and others like her, consummate their marriages at such an early age. Sinclair says while many Afghans told her the men would wait until puberty, women pulled her aside to tell her that indeed the men do have sex with the prepubescent brides.

Sinclair has been working on the project for nearly a decade. She goes into the areas with help from people in these communities who want the practice to stop, because they see the harmful repercussions.
Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him," Tahani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Hajjah.

"Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him," Tehani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Yemen.

In Yemen, a similar picture. Tehani and Ghada are sisters-in-law photographed with their husbands, who are both members of the military. Like most of the girls, Tehani didn’t even know she was getting married, until the wedding night. She was six years old.

Tehani describes how she entered the marriage, “They were decorating my hands, but I didn’t know they were going to marry me off. Then my mother came in and said, ‘Come on my daughter.’ They were dressing me up and I was asking, ‘Where are you taking me?’”

Sinclair says, “This harmful, traditional practice of child marriage is just so embedded in some of these cultures that the families don't protect them as they should.”

The subjects do know they’re being photographed and Sinclair tells them the topic she is working on. She does tell them that there is teen pregnancy in places like the U.S., but for the societies she’s photographing it’s even worse that 13-year-old girls are pregnant and unmarried.
Nujoud Ali, two years after her divorce - when she was only eight years old - from her husband, more than 20 years her senior.

Nujoud Ali, two years after her divorce in Yemen – when she was only ten years old – from her husband, more than 20 years her senior.

Another one of the photographs Sinclair took is of a Yemeni girl named Nujood Ali. In a rare turn of events, Ali managed to get a divorce at age 10.

“A couple months after she was married, she went to the court and found a lawyer – a woman named Shada Nasser and asked her to help her get a divorce, and she was granted [it],” Sinclair says. “It's definitely rare and Nujood became kind of an international symbol of child marriage, because she was able to do this. And I think she's inspired a lot of other girls and other organizations to support these girls, to have a stronger voice.”
Leyualem, 14, is wisked away on a mule by her new groom and groomsmen in Ethiopia.

Leyualem, 14, is wisked away on a mule by her new groom and groomsmen in Ethiopia.

Sinclair has documented the practice outside of the Muslim world. In a Christian community in Ethiopia, she captured the image of a 14 year-old girl named Leyualem in a scene that looks like an abduction. Leyualem was whisked away on a mule with a sheet covering up her face. Sinclair asked the groomsmen why they covered her up; they said it was so she would not be able to find her way back home, if she wanted to escape the marriage.

To read more click link :  link  (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/05/11-year-old-girl-married-to-40-year-old-man/?hpt=hp_t3)

By Samuel Burke


I am always horrified when I read stories of predators seeking young people for their sexual pleasures.  The other day, I read an article about men from all works of lives who were into child pornography but fortunately, the police was able to track them down and apprehend them.  I shook my head, thankfully, that in some society, the concept of childhood and ‘innocence’ still remains supreme.   But, then I go back and read articles like the one above and I am hit with horror that child marriages are culturally accepted practices in various parts of the world and those who defend and push forward these practices are parents whose sole responsibility should be protecting their children.  What gives?  I’ve often wondered, if it is an issue of finances - in that many of these young people are extra mouths in the house so by going into the new home, responsibility gets shifted, or could it be the bride price or groom price the family gets from the sale and purchase of these young children? Or could it be something simpler, that culture and man’s inability to dare to be different could be at work here.

I am sure that many parents have seen young girls, get married, get pregnant and go through complications of birth that leaves them unable to function as full members of society. In fact, in some societies, these young ladies with these complications are ostracized.  So, why would a mother put her child up for this knowing that the likelihood that this could be her daughter’s story ?  But, even though some mother’s think these in the dark of the night, the fear of being different, of being socially ostracized, of her lineage being discontinued is one that keeps these systems in place.

I could go on and on about these greedy people and their need to suck the youth out of young people but why should I?  You’ve probably said the same.  I think this is a wake up call to women.  The change that we seek in terms of our placement in society and the bargaining power that society gives us begins with us.  If you cannot dare to stand alone when you see something wrong, if you cannot dare to speak up when you know that what your society deems normative is actually wrong then we, as women, will remain stuck in the place that we’ve been placed. We will remain at a point in which we write posts like this one, add facebook pages and pass on images, shake our heads at the horror or maybe cry or pray for the young one whose innocence is gone. It starts from us.

It was with great joy that I read the part of the article that showed that more young women are stepping up and speaking up for themselves since their culturally blind family members are unable to do so.  They are seeking a divorce.  They are seeking a redress of past injustices.  They are seeking their voices and crying out for a return of their innocence and I applaud them.  I hope that religious organization do not decide that this is the point in which they start quoting passages that favor systems that hurt rather than build.

Questions:

What are your thoughts on child marriages?

Do you think that religious organizations should get involved in fighting this issue?

Do you think that there there is a way in which culturally accepted traditions can be changed?

What are your thoughts on culture and childmarriages?