The Harrowing Secrets of Child Marriage Still Unknown to the World

Today I read an article about child marriage in Thailand and how it effects the young girls both physically and mentally. Girls that are around the age of 12 are forced to get married with a Malaysian man who is usually many years older than she is, sometimes the men are 20 years older or more. These men tend to already have one or two wives already.  

The latest case of child marriage is with a girl called Ayu 11 years old and a man Che Abdul Karim Che Hamid 41 years old with two wives. After going through the marriage process in Thailand, the imam, who is the person who confirms the marriage is legal under laws of the sharia, gave Che Abdul Karim Che Hamid a warning not to have any sexual relations with his teen wife. But after medical inspections, it was clear that he did not do as told.

This is commonly seen in South Thailand, where a young child is married to a man much older than her and eventually gets raped by her husband. They continue to get pregnant and give birth to a child. In 2016, a total of 1100 teenage girls were recorded to give birth to a child, this doesn't include the children that were born in private clinics or at home but it is already an alarming number. Many of the girls find themselves with a child and divorced before the age of 18.

This is extremely unfair to the young girls, the are not only underaged but they are also not supported by the government, which don't seem to plan taking action any time soon. This topic alone violates many of the human rights such as the freedom to discrimination and social security as these children are being brought to a foreign country to live but end up getting treated in a gruesome way. Not only that, but they are losing their right to being seen as a person before the law because they are being married and sexually abused when they are still teens and the international law is that anyone before the age of 18 isn't allowed to be married or give birth.

If this keeps on happening, more young girls will be mentally and physically damaged as these memories will continue to haunt them throughout their lives. Wannakanok who is 34 this year, now runs a children's shelter in Thailand talks about her own expriences. She is still haunted by the experience of her husband raping her and added that many of her friends also had the same experience.

Being a child around the same age as them, I feel a lot of sorrow. I can't imagine myself being forced to marrying someone that I don't know at all and tens of years older than myself, having children and even worse, completely stopping my education. 

At the same time I find this very irritable. It's frustrating how no one is taking action to stop child marriage from happening, not the public who know that this is going on daily, not the imam who confirm the marriages, not even the government. It makes me question if they believe that child marriage is allowed or they have no sympathy for the young children who have to face the harsh reality?

News Article (The Guardian)