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Early Marriage Must be Banned from Bangladesh

Jihan Alam
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, BRAC University
ENG102: English Composition I
Farina Haque
August 25, 2021
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Early marriage must be banned from Bangladesh

According to UN report Bangladesh is in the eighth from the bottom in South Asia in terms of
early marriage and the rate of child marriage is 51% (Sakib, 2021). So, our country is on top ten.
Is it really a good news for us? No, it is not. The rate is alarming for us to take steps against early
marriage to protect our children. Early marriage must be banned from Bangladesh as early
marriage changes one’s life in terms of facing hardship, affecting emotional health and violating
fundamental right.

Firstly, the major effect of early marriage is facing hardship in both economic and social stage.
Being a newly married couple, they have to overcome their financial need to support each other.
For instance, a newly married boy have to take the responsibility of his wife. In order to fulfill
her needs, he have to work hard to get a job at a young age. On the other hand, he also need to
take the responsibilities of his parents. As a result, it becomes harder for him to support both his
wife and parents unless he gets a job with suitable salary or wait for promotion. Besides, being a
newly married couple they do not have enough experience to handle unexpected social issues.
Nowadays, girls prefer wearing western dress like tops, jeans, skirts etc on parties or a family
functions. But it can be an issue as their in-laws may prefer traditional saree to wear as a
daughter-in-law. As a result, the girl have to face difficulties from in-laws.

Secondly, early marriage have effects on one’s emotional health. Many psychologist describes
that this phenomenon dramatically changes one’s life. Forcefully marring someone they do not
like lead to unhappy relationship which directly affects their emotional health. In a survey, child
bride in Ethiopia reported emotional distress and depression due to handling marital
responsibility at early age (John, 2019). On the other hand, early pregnancy can mostly impact
on girl’s emotion. Just after getting married, a bride may not be emotionally and mentally ready
for any sexual activity. But soon groom’s family starts to force them to take babies. To prove
brides fertility, they are exposed to frequent unprotected sexual activity (King, 2018). Therefore,
the bride have to accept the situation and participate in sexual activities without being ready.

Lastly, early marriage must be banned as it violets one’s the fundamental right. Often after
marriage, the girls are forced to leave school in order to do house hold work. 13886 girls from 21
district were victim of child marriage between April and October of 2020 and 48% of them were
between 13 and 15 years old (Sakib, 2021). The girls of this ages are most likely to be school
going teenagers who haven’t even passed secondary schools and now they are not allowed to go
to school. Not only this violets their educational right but also they lose the opportunity work
outside and contribute to family’s expanses. Moreover, being pregnant at very young age
hampers their health condition. The bride may not be physically ready to bear the pregnancy.
Besides, they do not even get proper treatment during pregnancy due to poverty. Furthermore,
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there is a high chance of contracting HIV as girls of this age have very few knowledge about
HIV. Early sexual activity within early marriage is associated with increased lifetime of HIV
infection (King, 2018). This way, early marriage violets fundamental rights of education and
treatment.

One may argue, from social and religion point of view, early marriage may prevent pre-marital
affairs. Some parents believe that marriage can protect girls from sexual violence (GIRLS NOT
BRIDES, 2020). To refute, marriage is not a solution to protect girls from sexual violence as
they can still get abused after marriage. A man due to his social ideology can force to his young
bride who is not ready for any sexual activity. Forcing her to do so is considered as abuse. Men
abuse their young wives in order to hold their traditional masculine ideologies. On the other
hand, due to young age and limited power over relationship, child bride cannot refuse sex
(Kidman, 2016). Another point here is that, an unhappy relationship may lead to divorce as a
result. According to wf-lawyers 48% of those who marry before the age of 18, are likely to get
divorced within 10 years.

In conclusion, early marriage must be banned from Bangladesh for these reason. There are laws
against early marriage. All we have to do is to enforce the law strictly. Still there will be some
parents who might think that early marriage will protect their social honor. For them we have to
create social awareness. We can publish articles on newspaper, advertise on television, post on
social media and launch campaign to prevent early marriage. Thus, the rate of early marriage
will be reduced in our country and we can get out of top ten.
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Reference

Sakib, S. N. (2021). Bangladesh: Child marriage rises manifold in pandemic. LIFE, ASIA -
PACIFIC. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/bangladesh-child-marriage-rises-
manifold-in-pandemic/2184001?fbclid=IwAR23SxhXJcz4TO-
7w9E6NeJdkLgjCFD6eFIu-crzRc5mRQFFHNAwIkNo0Sk

Girls Not Brides. (2020). Child marriage and humanitarian contexts. Girls Not Brides.
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/learning-resources/child-marriage-and-humanitarian-
contexts/

King, E. B. (2018). Three things you need to know: child marriage and HIV. Girls Not Brides.
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/articles/child-marriage-and-hiv/?
fbclid=IwAR2aYOcADsTtfFOn4kb3-Tj1wb9cft_tYaMomCFFKL3IwH0rLm3sjjEqIKc

Kidman, R. (2016). Child marriage and intimate partner violence: a comparative study of 34
countries. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(2), 662-675.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw225

John, N. A., Edmeades, J., & Murithi, L. (2019). Child marriage and psychological well-being in
Niger and Ethiopia. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7314-z