Unfortunately in our world it happens. Girls who are not women are forced to marry adult men, have sex with them, and satisfy their desires. In our society the 11-year-old girls you see go to school, have goals, illusions and go out with their friends. In other parts of the world the reality is quite different and 11-year-old girls marry men against their will.
It is heartbreaking to know that there are parts of the world where the dignity of women and also of girls is violated. Where anything goes and the female sex seems to have no value. When in fact the female sex is the most important since thanks to women there is life in our species, although this is another issue.
The Sherry Johnson Story
Sherry Johnson was 11 years old when she suddenly discovered that she had to marry a 20-year-old in a church. She was forced to do it. That boy had abused her and got her pregnant (according to investigations by child welfare authorities) and their families decided that the simplest way to avoid a crime of rape was to get married by organizing a wedding.
This happened in Tampa, Florida although the wedding was held in a nearby county and when the marriage license was made they looked at the age of the young woman and no one objected to her age so young. As expected, the marriage did not work out. A state law is currently being created to stop the marriage of minors and end the marriage of children in the United States. Although 16-year-olds can still get married in Florida.
Child marriage seems to be something that happens in other less socially developed countries, but as you can see, it also happens in places like America.
Too many girls marry as minors
In North America there are too many cases of girls marrying as minors, so much so that it is even alarming. In fact, more than 167.000 young people under the age of 17 were married in 38 states between 2000 and 2010. This data is known thanks to an investigation of data on marriage licenses that are available by a group called Unchained, which aims to ban child marriage. The search found cases of 12-year-old girls married in Alaska, Louisiana and South Carolina, while other states simply had categories on their licenses of '14 years and younger ', without specifying the age exact.
Although exact data are not available for every state in the United States, it is believed that there would be nearly 250.000 child marriages between 2000 and 2010. Some of this data comes from the United States Census Bureau, which says that at least 57.800 Americans ages 15 to 17 reported being in marriages in 2014.
Among the states with the highest rates of child marriage were Arkansas, Idaho, and Kentucky. The number of child marriages has been declining, but all states in the United States still allow underage girls to marry, usually with the consent of their parents, a judge, or both. Twenty-seven states do not even set a minimum age by law for marriage.
A vast majority of child marriages are of adult girls and men. Although having sex between adults and minors is illegal, if they are married it becomes legal ... In New Hampshire the legal age for marriage was changed from 13 to 18, although there are still marriages that are performed with less than 15 years .
In New Jersey, a bill was passed to prohibit marriages between persons under the age of 18 but it did not pass and a bill is being considered to increase the age to 17, from the current minimum of 14 years.
There are opponents who do not want the age to be increased with the excuse that there will be births outside of marriage ... Worldwide, a girl marries before the age of 15 every seven seconds, according to estimates made by Save the Children. As in Africa and Asia, the reasons for these types of marriages in the US are often cultural or religious. American families often follow a very conservative Christian religion, Muslim or Jewish traditions… and judges sometimes feel that they should not meddle with other cultures.
Sherry Johnson continues the fight
Sherry Johnson is currently fighting for the state of Florida to establish a minimum age for marriage as there is currently no minimum age. She claims that she was married in a conservative Pentecostal church and that other 11-year-old girls get married periodically. He affirms that on many occasions it is done to hide violations by the elders or adults of the church from the girls.
She herself affirms that she was raped by a minister and a parishioner as a child and that she gave birth to a daughter when she was 10 years old, and married at 11 years old so that the investigation for rape could end. She was a girl when she had to raise her children, she did not go to school and had up to 9 children and her husband regularly abandoned her. She got married without knowing what she was doing or going through. When you are a child, you cannot work, or have a driver's license, or have a rental contract… how can you allow a girl to marry so young?
Girls are afraid to oppose marriage even if they don't want to because they think it is the right thing to do. Justice should intervene on behalf of girls, girls should not live the life of an adult, they are not prepared for it. Also, how can they force girls to marry their rapists when they should be in jail?
In Spain the minimum age to marry is 16 and in Europe only Romania and France are stricter in this, that they can only marry after 18 years (the most reasonable minimum age). Child marriages should end all over the world.