Argumentative Essay On Child Brides

When I was eight, my friends and I spent our days imagining lands in which dragons and fairies ruled. When I was nine, my mother and father taught me how to protect myself from the foes that lurked in every dark corner. When I was ten, I developed my first childhood crush. However, in some third world countries, young girls are given away, sometimes even sold to much older men. Child brides are forced to mature and develop in the span of just a few short years and after their wedding they are expected to take on roles that were meant for young women. Some countries have passed laws that are supposed to protect girls from being married off to older men. However, these laws also allow the government to make exceptions and ask the parents to sign a waiver stating there are aware
According to the World Health Organization child marriage “denies a girl her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her possibilities, and increases her risk of violence and jeopardizes her health” (NCBI, Paragraph 7). Young girls are forced to marry elderly men to help their families pay for basic necessities or pay off a family debt. In many countries, the marriageable age for women is abnormally low due to the fact the government set two different legal ages for men and women; in some countries the legal age of consent for girls is as low as sixteen. The leaders of such countries attempt to justify these legal limits of girls by saying—stating that girls mature faster than boys. However, I believe that girls should be allowed to mature and live with their parents until they are old enough to marry a suitor of their