The different ages that girls are getting married all around the world

Almost all little girls dream of growing up and getting married. They think about their prince charming, the big white dress, the gorgeous cake, and the guests there solely to dote on them and tell them how beautiful they are.

With heads full of chiffon and frosting, they make veils out of nightgowns, and wedding guests out of teddy bears, hoping that their magical day will prove to be as dazzling as the pictures they have painted for themselves.

Unfortunately countless young girls all over the world barely have time to think up their dream weddings, as they are prematurely forced into a marriage they have no interest in. Any girl under the age of eighteen who is legally entered into a marriage is considered a child bride, and it is happening all over the world.

To show the huge differences between the life of a child bride and the life of someone like myself, I put down the lowest age that a girl can be legally be married in these different countries, and then compared it with what I was doing at that age.

Belarus, 14

Fourteen was not a great year for me. It was the eighth grade, and I was a late bloomer. All my friends had already gotten their periods and I was just waiting on mine – so ready to become a woman.

Of course I got it at my father’s house, while I was having a friend for a sleep over, and I was wearing her pants. I rounded out that day by crying and begging mother nature to take back this so called ‘gift.’

Fourteen was the year I realized womanhood was not all it was cracked up to be. I’ll be a kid thank you.

Colombia, 12

Twelve was the year I had my first kiss. It was with a boy I met at camp behind a barn. Of course it was awkward and gross and very much made me think of slug sliding into my mouth.

I’m pretty sure I had to lean down to match his height. Ahh, romance.

Denmark, 18

When I was eighteen, I was graduating high school and packing up my things to go to college. On one of my first class days I walked into the wrong room; It happened to be a 200 person lecture, and I sat in the very front.

I quickly realized that instead of being in my Comm lecture, I was in some sort of geology class. I was sitting in the front, the room was full, and I couldn’t leave without being noticed. So I did what any sane person would do, I just sat through the first lecture and acted like I was supposed to be there.

I really played the part, too. I took notes, weighed in on the clicker questions, I even worked with the kid next to me to find the right answer.

Iran, 9

With a parent’s permission, a girl as young as nine years old can be married off in Iran. When I was nine I was in the fourth grade wearing Keds and pigtails, and having dance parties in the kitchen with my mom.

I believe that nine was the year that some loud mouthed older kid tried to tell me what sex was. I was utterly shocked. You put what in where?? 

I decided that the kid was a total nut job and ignored what they told me for years until I had ‘the talk.’ At nine boys still had cooties and dirty fingernails.

Libya, 20

I’m 20 now and all I do is galavant and struggle my way through lectures. Just last semester while walking down the green at the University of Delaware my skirt blew up, causing me to spill my coffee all down the front of me and drop my book on my toe while I tried to push it back down to cover my ass.

Of course in a panic I screamed “FUCK” and drew more attention to myself. So I flashed my bright green boy shorts to about thirty people and one of them was in my Spanish class.

Definitely not marriage material.

Nauru, no minimum age

There are many countries where there is no minimum age to get married. Girls can be married at any age to any man, and oftentimes girls as young as twelve can be married to, and be forced to have sexual relations with, men as old as forty.

Something that would be considered rape in the United States is considered a legal and acceptable marriage in many places around the globe.

Russia, 16

At 16 years old I was just getting my braces off. Fun fact: I couldn’t get braces until high school because it took me until I was fourteen to lose and grow back all of my teeth.

Late bloomer.

Thailand, 17

At seventeen years old I just got my license. I was a pretty terrible driver and truthfully I still sort of am (praise cruise control). About two months after I got my license and my first car, my Dad’s old SUV that I loved, I got into a car accident while driving to go spend my Saturday volunteering at a wildlife refuge. I was pissed.

The universe couldn’t have thrown me a bone there? I was going to go volunteer on my Saturday night instead of drinking in the woods like the rest of the hooligans that plague Haddonfield. Like shit, how unfortunate.

Clearly it could have been worse.

All jokes aside, my ‘problems’ are the kind of problems young girls should be having.

They should be worrying about school, they should be going to camp, they should be daydreaming about their future husband. Experiences like these are too often taken away, and instead replaced with rape, abuse, and fear.

Child brides have gotten the most attention in places like India and Bangladesh, but it happens all over the world – mostly in third world countries. These lowered ages can affect young boys as well, but it affects girls on a much greater scale.

Oftentimes countries will have separate ages for boys and girls to get married, and the boys age is higher.

All young girls deserve to live as young girls. No girl deserves to be forced into a marriage when they are too young to decide for themselves, and when they have not even discovered who they wish to be.

These girls have endless potential. They could be doctors, human rights activists, heads of governments, or business moguls. Instead, they are oppressed and deprived of the option to go to school and have a career and a life of their own.