The UNICEF Photo of the Year – 2007 portrays a sad reality.
My heart and soul cry for these little girls.
Eva Luise Köhler honors Stephanie Sinclair for her picture taken in Afghanistan
The American photographer Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the international photo competition “UNICEF Photo of the Year”. Her photo shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan who could not be more opposite. The groom, Mohammed, looks much older than his 40 years. The bride, Ghulam, is still a child; she just turned 11. “The UNICEF Photo of the Year 2007 raises awareness about a worldwide problem. Millions of girls are married while they are still under age. Most of theses child brides are forever denied a self-determined life”, says UNICEF Patroness Eva Luise Köhler at the award ceremony in Berlin. According to UNICEF, there are about 60 million young women worldwide who were married before they came of age, half of them in South Asia.
1st Prize for Stephanie Sinclair
Child brides
He’s forty, she’s eleven. And they are a couple – the Afghan man Mohammed F.* and the child Ghulam H.*. “We needed the money”, Ghulam’s parents said. Faiz claims he is going to send her to school. But the women of Damarda village in Afghanistan’s Ghor province know better: “Our men don’t want educated women.” They predict that Ghulam will be married within a few weeks after her engagement in 2006, so as to bear children for Faiz.
During her stay in Afghanistan, it consistently struck American photographer Stephanie Sinclair how many young girls are married to much older men. She decided to raise awareness about this topic with her pictures. Particularly as the official minimum age for brides in Afghanistan is sixteen and it is therefore illegal to marry children.
Early marriages are not only a problem in Afghanistan: worldwide there are about 51 million girls aged between 15 and 19 years who are forced into marriage. The youngest brides live in the Indian state of Rajasthan, where 15% of all wives are not even 10 years old when they are married. Child marriages are a reaction to extreme poverty and mainly take place in Asian and African regions where poor families see their daughters as a burden and as second-class citizens. Already in their younger years, girls are given into the “care” of a husband, a tradition that often leads to exploitation. Many girls become victims of domestic violence. In an Egyptian survey, about one-third of the interviewed child brides stated that they were beaten by their husbands. The young brides are under pressure to prove their fertility as soon as possible. But the risk for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 not to survive pregnancy is five times higher than for adult women. Every year, about 150,000 pregnant teenagers die due to complications – in particular due to a lack of medical care, let alone sex education.
For her project, Stephanie Sinclair also traveled to Nepal and Ethiopia. She wants to do research on the topic of child marriage in other regions as well and then publish a book on the issue.
Photo: Stephanie Sinclair, USA, Freeleance Photographer
Forced marriages do NOT include consensual sex. Each and every time a husband who married due to a forced marriage arrangement, has sexual relations with his so called wife he rapes her!!!!!!!
Forced marriages = rape
Family authorized rape, child molestation and incest.
Sex slavery disguised as marriage.
Young girls treated as chattel, bartered and sold, into what turns into life as a sex slave.
Rather than a willing union between a man and woman, marriage is frequently a transaction among families, and the younger the bride, the higher the price she may fetch. Girls are valuable workers in a land where survival is scratched from the grudging soil of a half-acre parcel. In her parents’ home, a girl can till fields, tend livestock and cook meals. In her husband’s home, she is more useful yet. She can have sex and bear children.
Afghanistan is not alone in this predilection toward early wedlock. Globally, the number of child brides is hard to tabulate; they live mostly in places where births, deaths and the human milestones in between go unrecorded. But there are estimates. About 1 in 7 girls in the developing world (excluding China) gets married before her 15th birthday, according to analyses done by the Population Council, an international research group.
Stephanie Sinclair for The New York TimesRoshan Qasem, 11, will join the household of Said Mohammed, 55; his first wife; their three sons; and their daughter, who is the same age as Roshan.
Unfortunately, there are no reliable data about the age of Afghans at marriage. Husbands are not ordinarily old enough to be their wives’ fathers or grandfathers, but such February-September couples as those pictured here are hardly rare either. In such marriages, the man is likely to view the age difference as a fair bargain, his years of experience in exchange for her years of fecundity. At the same time, the girl’s wishes are customarily disregarded. Her marriage will end her opportunities for schooling and independent work.
On the day she witnessed the engagement party of 11-year-old Ghulam Haider to 40-year-old Faiz Mohammed, Sinclair discreetly took the girl aside. “What are you feeling today?” the photographer asked. “Nothing,” the bewildered girl answered. “I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?”
Be sure to click on the link: Photographs: Child Brides
Special Report: Muslim Forced Marriages In Europe
Women under Islam: Forced marriage – Part 2 of 4
This really makes my blood boil. I’m at a loss for words.
I cringe down to the core of my being when I think of young girls suffering through such a fate. Pedophilia does not exist in Islam does it? Ha!
Sanctioned and perpetuated by the holy scriptures of the Islamic faith. Sick.
I should point out that, although pedophilia can be found in all parts of the globe.
Parents willingly handing over their children to men who are old enough to be their grandfathers. Or at the very least their fathers. Is WRONG! Making them willing perpetrators to a heinous crime.
Making it all the more harder to fathom. Or excuse. I am not singling out Muslims. But facts are facts.
They are just little bitty girls.
I have debated the Muhammad is a pedophile topic with a group of Muslims
Their explanation. That was long ago and times were different.
I replied, well child marriages still occur.
Their answer, Oh well that is extremely rare. Not quite…
But if only one child in all the world had been forced into marriage (by her parents) with a full grown mature man then that is one to many! The vicious circle needs to be broken.
How? Sigh…IDK
The reason for the child brides is, as the article states extreme poverty, and not religious doctrine. As an example from a non-Muslim country, young girls are sent to become prostitutes in Thailand because they can earn money and send it back to their families, or the families are paid a one time fee for the girl. This is true in sub-saharan Africa as well.
Forced marriages are not Islamic. In fact, a bride (or groom) must consent explicitly to the marriage. It cannot be thrust up on them by their family or parents. Unfortunately tribal and local customs tend to overrule explicit religious rules, and combined with extreme poverty, high illiteracy, and general ignorance, this is what results.
I will give you the Thailand point. With the exception that it does not cross continents. Actually it would be great content for a future post.
Why is it that although it is not ‘Islamic doctrine’ it happens across the Muslim world. Including Muslims that have immigrated to the West. So the argument of “extreme poverty, high illiteracy, and general ignorance” does not always apply. With all due respect. There are loads of Muslims that did not get the memo.
Quotes taken from one of the articles I had linked to in my post.
Saeed,
You do understand that customes and traditions of 7th century Arabia were crystalized in the Qur’an and given the status of being the infallible word of God, don’t you? Muhammad’s marriage to 9 y/o Ayesha is cited by perverts who want to “live as the prophet lived,” and thus consumating marriage with a child in sanction by Islam.
If you’re from the West, do you understand what Statutory Rape means? Look it up.
These are little girls, children, who have not even reached puberty and most likely have no idea what sex is!
I notice you didn’t say that a 50 y/o man having sex with a 9 y/o girl is un-Islamic.
Scarlett,
I’m really amazed at how far the denialists will go to twist words in order to defend the barbaric practices of Islam. Western Muslims have no shame when it comes to separating the obvious connection of Islamic doctrine to horrific deeds perpetrated by Muslims.
You’re right, pedophilia is not just an Islamic phenomenon. But as you point out, it is embraced by Muslims all over the world.
Firsthand experience.
I know a 22 year old woman of Pakistani heritage.
Knowing she had lived in the US since she was a young child. I asked if she ever thought she would visit her relatives in Pakistan.
She answered.
“Hell no! I have no desire to be forced into another marriage. I would be stuck in Pakistan the rest of my life.” Her first marriage was arranged. She was 17 and the man she married was around 10 years her senior. Pleasing her parents and being so young and naive were her downfalls.
Luckily she was able to gain a divorce, I am not privy to the details. Guess who has the child? Not her…
Edit: I’ll add your link to my blogroll tomorrow konservo. Time got away from me. I am going to bed! lol
Thanks all for the stimulating convo.
Good night
The wonders of Freedom. I’m happy she has the choice, and I pray for her child.
Good night, Scarlett.
If we really and sincerely want to help these people then someone must teach them the truth about their own faith – they are misguided and actually believe that their faith sanction “forced marriages.” If you want to see justice in that part of the world, teach the women their rights, not just rights to marry whom they want, but to teach them the fiqh (religious law) of their faith, for only then will we see a better Afghanistan. Unfortunatley, if these people were actually living the faith, they would not be in such a hole. We cannot force our (Western) grown democracy on another people.
what can we do for them?
Thanks for the article and resources. I understand that this is a cultural issue, but it is not just a Muslim, or even an Asian issue. The recent conviction in the United States of Mormon leader Warren Jeffs for arranging underage marriages in his sect raises the issue here as well. Many rural areas of the U.S. have long had the traditions of young marriages. However, in all states, if under the age of eighteen, there must be some sort of parental or legal approval.
http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united_states/teen_marriage_laws/index.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage
The parallel issue here is due to the cultural desire to have sons instead of daughters, by some estimates, there is a shortage of girls in India of around 70 million and in China of 100 million. This is not limited to Asia or Africa though. Any reading of Western European history reveals that girls were long considered a *burden* and in the higher classes, arranged marriages and weddings at age 13 or younger were quite common. The very gradual and long term growth of woman’s and children’s rights in the West have greatly reduced child marriages.
However, child abuse and rape are rampant in Western countries, so before casting stones, look to your own community.
Domestic abuse, rape, statutory rape, child molestation, are problems no matter where they occur. And if the vast majority of this abuse happens to occur in the Middle-East/Asian countries that are prodominately Muslim, it is absurd not focus on those problems there.
In the West, any of the above abuse is, of course, not to be ignored. It is to be exposed and punished to the full extent of the law, and if the law is not strong enough, it should be made stronger.
(Scarlett, I know you don’t need me to tell you this but, feel free to delete my words below. I don’t want to cross the line by coming down too hard on other commenters, but Brian’s comment is very upsetting.)
Pathetic.
Guess what, I’m casting a stone at the abuses that happen in both! This isn’t about “my country is better than yours,” it’s about atrocities that are being done around the world!
And, by the way, you’re wrong about the “cultural desire” theory. These girls are bought and sold like cattle, sometimes they are bought with cattle! And their purpose, once bought, is to work for the man of the house, who, if he can afford it, has several other “wives”! You don’t have a clue, do you?
Brian, why would you even try to defend these pedophiles from any stones cast at them?
Konservo,
Your comment is exactly why I spoke up. As a child abuse survivor I find the notion that Western countries somehow are doing a better job to be ludicrous. Yes we don’t have child brides traded like cattle, but the abuse of children and the rape of woman of all ages is a national disgrace in the United States. Guess what, I do have a clue.
How dare you call me pathetic when you know nothing, nothing at all about me. If you had any interest in solving problems rather than hurling stones at someone else’s comments, perhaps we all could work together to make children’s lives better. I rarely comment on a post like this and your attack only re-enforces my decision to stay away from blogs like this.
The only mistake I made here, was thinking that open and honest dialog took place on these posts. I won’t be back.
Sorry if I misunderstood you, Brian. But perhaps you could clarify what you meant when you said:
Nobody was trying to use this to negate the problems of abuse in our communities, in fact Scarlett specifically said “I should point out that, although pedophilia can be found in all parts of the globe.”
I called you pathetic, as I would have called anyone pathetic, because you tried, pathetically, to prevent people from “casting stones” at the common practice of pedophilia and child abuse in a country that isn’t our own. Why should that matter? Don’t you care as much about the abused children in Afghanistan as you do for the victims of child abuse here in the States? By the way, you still didn’t answer the question as to why you would even defend these perverts from stones in the first place.
Thank God, UNICEF doesn’t agree with you.
Also, you need to do more research into what actually goes on in these countries. For starters, look up at those pictures. Do those look like everyday wedding pictures you’ve seen in the West?
I could make a very good case of how depraved Christianity is by digging into the practices of Appalachian snake handlers and the inbreeding of the same. I could paint you into the same horrid light using the “Christian” identity movements and the KKK as exemplars, making the same bogus claims you make for Islam. Your small minded bigotry is appalling, you know nothing of the second largest faith in the world. You repeat lies, fabrications and distortions fed to you by fear mongers. Have you looked into your OWN Bible, have you really read it? Do you realized that it recommends death for some of the most insane and trivial infractions? Do you realize both the New and Old Testaments can be used to support slavery? Do you realized the the Bible flatly contradicts itself within the first Chapters of Genesis? Do you realize that none of the four gospels tell the same story for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus? That would be the most central story or good news of the Bible and not Mark,Luke nor John can get the particulars straight. I would definitely look to my own back yard, how does that go? Oh yes, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,’ when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? ..”
Forgot the earliest of the gospel writers Mathew. That is a totally different can of worms for the Christian faith : The earliest Gospel Writer, Mathew 70 CE ; the earliest known surviving Canonical writings, late 3rd and early 4th Century C.E. The first “Bible”, the Vulgate, completed in 405 CE. The absolute earliest “Christian” writings were the letters of Paul, a man who never met Jesus in the flesh and only “met” him once on the road to Damascus. From my recollection it was a rather one way conversation. Not that Islam is not without it’s difficulties: is it 70 virgins or is it 70 White Raisins ? If it is raisins there are some not so happy campers in the Islamic “paradise.”
Thank God, UNICEF doesn’t agree with you either, James.
Leftists
I think this is disgusting, do these countries not know what paedophidlia is i have alittle girl and would never dream of putting her in harm i think something needs to be done, its wrong and it will just carry on.
How do we stop this filth form happening? if anybody has any ideas or can give me any information then please email me:
marianne.taylor24@yahoo.co.uk
Yes it is marianne, yes it is!
They skirt the pedophilia issue by marrying the little girls. According to how they look at pedophilia, (as warped as it is) it is only pedophilia if the perpetrator is not married to the young victim. Other than that it is fine and dandy. Sick!
How do we stop it? Completely I have no idea. A good start is to expose it and spread this news.
I feel sick at the thought , and I am a muslim ! , this is not allowed in islam , teh girl has to agree , and it her who decides her dowry and it all comes down to wether she is mature enough , ewww what a pervert.
i am afghani and these photos which is shown above has no realaty .that is all because of the american how wants to show muslim unjustis .i am ask one question that what about those girls how get raped in 13 14 12 years aged by american army in afghan and iraq no photo has been taken from that . the actualy didnt get married but that man is father of that girl it show in photo that they are hasband and wife
amir
You know the men and girls in the photographs? If you do not, you are not able say what the relationship between them is.
The photographer Stephanie Sinclair was there and spoke to the 11-year-old Ghulam Haider.
This is a vile advertisement for Islam and a shocking justification of child molestation. And women in these countries have to wear berka’s to not tempt men? It’s about time more people with standards refused to be intimidated by religious groups that go out of their way to be offended by westerners.
This website reveals a sickness in people that has not a shred of spirituality about it, let alone religion. Has the world gone completely crazy???? I congratulate this site on publishing this hideous practice. Vita
I don’t get how you people relate this to the islam!! The islam does not allow this. NEVER. A long time ago, when times were different, it was allowed, because there was no such thing as school. The prophet Mohammed was engaged to Aisha when she was 9 years old. She was okay with it though, it was not against her will. Anyway, he waited until she was ready. HE did NOT MARRY HER WHEN SHE WAS 9. What’s wrong with you people? Learn something about a subject before talking bullshit!! And the islam does not allow a woman to marry against her will. This is not Islam. Hope I made myself clear, because you people are driving me insane with comments that show you don’t know a thing about the islam.
Luna
It is related to Islam because it happens under Islam. So keep your lies to yourself. Mmmkay…
People like you make me sick. There are those of us who are trying to spread the word in hopes Muslim women and young girls can be saved from such barbaric disgusting practices. And you think you can come here and try to cover it up. As a women (I assume you are by your name) you should be ashamed of yourself. Though I doubt you are. Blow off.