ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: family

Communication and discipline problems between parents and children are very common and can lead to marital problems as well. Divorce and the creation of stepfamilies also create difficulties. Often, the partners themselves are the problem because of poor communication, continuous conflict, sexual problems or even in-law problems. If a low income mother and child had counseling how do you think it would affect them? I think that not only would the child benefit from it, but it may even teach the mother what is possible for her: a better job, how to find a stronger more secure relationship, and how to teach her child.
Topic: family

The child would learn skills, and by doing so, set goals for future achievements. With the help of a counselor and a well taught mother, the probability of the child may doing crime, selling or using drugs, participating in a gang, or living in prison, is significantly lower. Strengthening communication skills is also important, often time teens can be to out spoken and not think before they say something that can hurt someone feelings. Other times teens can be really shy and not open up to anyone. Communication skills are fundamental, and should be worked on.
Topic: family

Communication is a skill that will have to be worked on throughout life because in different environments different communication skills will be needed. The biggest negative about family counseling is the cost. There would probably be families or certain people in the family that did not contribute in the experience, which means that the counseling would have little or no effect on their lives. Another downside is that it is possible in the environment to focus on one person and blame them for certain family problems. I am sure that there are other negatives about family counseling but in my opinion nothing really significant.
Topic: family

I think that the government can use add to schooling tax dollars and use some of it for this program. Regardless if all families and all family members use the program to benefit, I think many people Family counseling relates to the narratives in many ways. Some of the families experience a death, others have parents get divorced, or teens getting pregnant and having a baby. I think counseling could help with these major emotional distresses, and also help with the everyday problems that some of the other narratives experience as well.
Topic: family

The narrative represent just a few people in our society, but I believe that they, like most people, could use a little more guidance to stay on a stable, successful path with strong relationships and a positive knowing belief in themselves. I think this program should be financially supported from the government. It should become a law in which I think will ultimately preserve our rights and freewill. Laws are being passed all the time that conflict with our constitution and with crime and fear spreading epidemically it’s just a matter of time before most citizens will give the government complete control in order to stop the chaos.
Topic: family

The foundation of this country is crumbling and I think it is time to reinforce it, so that we can continue to follow the path of our dreams, and not fall like every great kingdom in the past. I believe to stay as a free country, and a prosperous nation thing have to change, in fact many things will probably have to change. I think my idea of a professional guiding both, parents to raise their kids and to help lead kids to overcome difficulties is a good starting place for a significant change in this country.
Topic: family

I think that counseling could help with every family, even if it is just to bring them closer together. Whether it is a stable family, or a family with stepparents and stepsiblings, that need to learn that these people are now someone that is going to always be around, and are in the same situation. They can learn from one another and become close like real family. From family counseling our society maybe better educated, more responsible, less violent, more dependable, and have a stronger sense of belonging.
Topic: family

Yet, there is still a need for a law which protects the marriage itself. This law states that it recognizes husbands of inseminated women as the real fathers and denies parental rights to donors or step-parents. Although, we still leave room in this law for things known as adoption, foster parenting, or informal care by other relatives. This is where blended families begin to show. Blended families seem to be considered the result of a previous divorce.
Topic: family

Blended families then seem to become less of a family simply because of the creation of these terms, and their specific meanings. For example, it seems to be less meaningful to be step-brothers rather than actual biological, blood related, brothers. In the article, Toward Revels or a Requiem for Family Diversity? , Judith Stacey states that “the social scientists seem to have presumed that well into the twenty-first century dad and mom would remain singular and unproblematic concepts” (Stacey 390).
Topic: family

Unfortunately, they were wrong. Although they predicted that the traditional family would remain unchanged, they seemed to have overlooked the fact that in time, marriage would not be as final as it used to be. There was no such thing as a proper divorce, once you were married, that was it. But in today’s world, “until death do us part” is not seen as often as divorce. Another overlooked remark of the social scientists is the fact that the family tree did not remain so “firmly rooted.
Topic: family

On the contrary, the family tree has been split, blended, mixed, crossed, and spread throughout several generations of families. The word Family, in today’s American society, has so many different meanings that it is hard to distinguish one from another. Being able to categorize every single definition of the word is a task that no one has yet completed. Although, each and every meaning has one little difference, it all comes down to the same thing. A family is a family.
Topic: family

Many social scientists reject the idea that ‘families can be defined only by blood ties. ’ Discuss. The Oxford Dictionary meaning of family is noun (plural families) 1 [treated as singular or plural] a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit. There are many different ideas about what makes a family, and is this idea of what a family is universal and the children’s perspectives. There is a lot of debate with social scientists about the family.
Topic: family

Sociologist Murdock suggest that each family has for functions in order to be classified as a family. They are, a common residence, however there are many cases in which families do not share a common residence for example if a child is at boarding school or a parent is in the armed forces. (Murdock, cited by Gittins, D, p. 2). (Gutman 1976) found that it was common among black slave families in the USA for a husband and wide to live on different plantations and see one another for a few hours once or twice a week.
Topic: family

(Mudock cited by Gittins p. ) next family function is economic co-operation, it’s a broad term and can encompass a wide range of activities such as sleeping and cooking, it occurs between households as well as between individuals within the household (Murdock cited by Gittins p. 4) third is his definition of sexuality is heterosexuality, even though this is only one of many forms of sexuality. They say that this is the most important function of a family because it leads to reproduction. He also suggests that they get pressured into thinking that’s heterosexuality is a ‘socially approved relationship’ between two adults.
Topic: family

However there are critisms of Murdock as he doesn’t take into account the diversity of the ways in which co-residence, economic relations, sexuality and reproduction. Many sociologists say that they are simply western values and ideas of what a family should be like and assume that everyone will agree. (Jessie Bernard 1973 cited by Gittins pg. 3) Another criticism is that families do not need adults of both sexes, or a heterosexual couple, as same sex couples can adopt or can use medical advances (e. . IVF or surrogacy) to become a biological parent. (Edholm 1982 cited by Gittins p. 4) Anthropologists prefer to use the term kinship rather than family, “the ties which exist between individuals who are seen as related both through birth (descent) and through mating (marriage). ” This theory is concerned with the ways in which parentage us assigned, attributed and recognised, descent is traced, relatives are classified, rights are transferred across generations and groups are formed.
Topic: family

Unlike the functionalist approach the kinship theory stresses the fact that kinship is a social construction and also it emphasises on the variability of kinship depending on how it is defined. There is a debate about whether kinship is biological or social, many of us believe that its biological because of we know who are parents are and they made us so we simply think that kinship is biological but there are cases where children are brought up by parents who they believe to be their biological parents and then find out that they have been adopted and then suffer an identity crises because they do not know who they are anymore.
Topic: family

Their own suffering is caused by the ways in which we define kinship in society and there is a clear difference between a ‘biological’ and ‘social’ parents, we see the biological parent as the real parents and that has the strongest bonds with the child, this is a strong western belief. However in other cultures they believe that it is the person who rears the child is defined as the parent regardless who is involved in the reproductive process, for example in some cultures it is common for a child to be raise by a grandparent. ( R. T. Smith cited by Gittins p. ) fond this was common in Guyana and Jamaica and says that ‘close and imperishable bonds are formed through the ‘act’ of raising a child. Fictive kinship (Rapp 1980:292 cited by Gittins p5) stated that fictive kinship was a serious relationship, and how we turn friends into family. It was also argued that kinship is whatever we chose it to be whether that’s biological, social or fictive, it’s a way of identifying others as in some way special from the rest, people to whom the individual or collectively feel responsible in certain ways.
Topic: family

Many anthropologists have argued that kinship is simply a system of meaning and symbols, they also state that animals reproduce, mate and form attachments but they do not have a kinship system. (Marx cited by Gittins p 5) argued that it distinguishes people from animals. In child birth motherhood is always known unlike fatherhood, however apart from carrying and giving birth to the child that is where the biological process stops the rest become socially constructed.
Topic: family

Gender also affects the ways that kinship is constructed and defined, they are both universally present as mothers and children are but the content of them and the meanings ascribed to them is highly variable. Age is also an important fact when it comes to kinship as people grow up the household composition and resources change. All relationships are different and with society changing there has become many different norms of society. Families do not have to be blood ties or even live under the same roof all the time or have two sec parents. Family isn’t universal.
Topic: family

Can Marriage Be Saved? Written by: Frank Furstenberg Summer 2005 I chose the article “Can Marriage Be Saved? ” written by Frank Furstenberg. This article was found under the “topics for course papers” section of our syllabus, link number four. I felt that the article was very much true to life. I agree that marriage seems to last a lifetime for the more educated and wealthy. I see all too often young adults getting married just because they have become pregnant or for the wrong reasons.
Topic: family

No wonder most marriages end almost as soon as they begin. I believe the best way we can change these old habits is to set better examples for our children and instill high values in them to get a college degree and make sure they have a strong career path before tackling the challenge of marriage and having a family. I believe marriage has a much higher chance of success if you have your education and career in order first. Once you have a good balance of values in your life, then you should consider marriage and a family.
Topic: family

With more mothers entering the workforce, children are learning to depend more on themselves or other relatives to get what they need. As more mothers are away at work, dads often become the primary caregiver in the home. The increasing number of mothers in the workforce has created time conflicts for many families. Families are trying to find alternative ways to do the work traditionally done by the stay-at-home Mom. Some is done by other family members, some is bought from third parties like daycare workers or house keepers, and some is simply left undone.
Topic: family

That’s a recipe for success in life. Mothers have to enter the workforce to support their family. This hasn’t always been the case as we know from looking at our past. It was normal for the father to work and the mother to stay home with the children. Unfortunately, times have changed and divorce rates have gone up. To keep up with the rising costs and the splitting of a household, mothers have joined the workforce to help provide for the home. This now raises the question, if the mother is not home with the kids, how are the children effected?
Topic: family

Three possible ways that children are affected from mothers entering the workforce have to grow up in daycare, becoming more independent, and being less involved with family. The first possible effect is a child having to grow up in daycare. With the need for more income, moms are no longer staying home. Children are now being taken care of all day—and sometimes night—by the daycare facilities. I am a single mother and I have to take my daughter to daycare five days a week. If I did not have my daycare facility to take my daughter, I would not be able to work.
Topic: family

The only thing that is wrong is that these facilities have become the place for children to learn valuable life lessons. What used to be the mother’s duty is now being placed upon the daycare centers. They are helping nurture and teach these children how to share, potty train, respect others, and so many other valuable life lessons. All these things used to be the job of the stay at home mom. I miss being there for the life lessons, but I have to support my family. I also have to deal with my child getting sick more often. She is normally around six to eight kids every day
Topic: family

Anton Chekhov`s, tragic play is about a family who lives in Russia who can not do anything to keep their families orchard due to money problems. Although this family has strong emotional connections to their orchard they still will not do any thing that requires work to save it. This is because they have been so use to a life of privilege and doing work is beneath them. This essay will try and explain where this family comes from and why there is such a lack of urgency on their part to help save the orchard.
Topic: family

This play is set in the country of Russia, at the beginning of the twentieth century just between the two World Wars. Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevsky is now the owner of the orchard who returns from Paris, to this place of her ancestors, with her daughter, Anya and her familys’ hired help. Ranevsky returns to this orchard in May Just before the summer. In the first act, it is learned that this family is debt and can not pay the mortgage and the orchard will be sold at auction in August.
Topic: family

She even gives a vagrant who is egging for money, all the money she has on her even though her adopted daughter, Varya argues with her about this. Now we are several months into this story. This in the night of the party as well as the day of the auction. During this act, Ranevsky has received a little money from the stingy aunt not enough to even pay the arrears. The family eagerly awaits word of what will happen to them. While the party is in progress, Varya gets upset because a party is being thrown and she worries about how the musicians will be paid.
Topic: family

She ven is upset with her neighbor Pishtchik who knows about their situation but drinks anyway. Ranevsky is given a message that states her former boyfriend who took all her money is sick and wants her back. Due to the situation she finds herself in she actually is thinking about going back to him because she loves him even though he is a weight around her neck she wants to go back. Act Ill, tells of the sale of the orchard at auction, a character in the story Lopahin whose father and grand father were slaves on the orchard, and ends up out bidding Ranevskys’ family for the orchard. Lopahin celebrates his purchase.
Topic: family

He announces he plans to tear the orchard down with his axe and build houses for his family. In the final act, the Ranevsky family is packing their things. Lopahin is rushing them off and tries to give them some money. They refuse to take anything for the man who took their orchard. Varya even scolds Lopahin for allowing his men to start saddened at the loss and drags their feet in leaving. Madame Ranevsky cries at the end. Then when the play ends all is heard is the sounds of the axes. As we went through this play, this family goes on with their life and refuses to ace the facts that change is coming to their lifestyle.
Topic: family

Child Criminals: what should we do now? Madii 5. 17. 12 There has always been a controversy over how child criminals should be handled in court. People disagree on whether children should be tried as adults for their actions or if their age should be a great determinant of the outcome. Children are very complex. Their life history, home environment, influences, possible mental illnesses, and the simple mentality and moral level of children must be considered when they are being convicted of a crime.
Topic: family

But when it comes to murder and sex crimes, they should not be able to get out of that. Those are two extreme things that everyone, no matter what age they are, should know are wrong” (Madii Sahli). Every child should know the difference from right and wrong by the age of three or four, or at least have a sense as to what the difference is. The difference was instilled in our brains when we were two” (Courtney B. ). A three or four year old may know right and wrong, but we cannot possibly expect them to understand the consequences of their actions.
Topic: family

But should normal children be impressionable enough to be convinced that murder is okay? If it is insisted that people know the difference from right and wrong at the age of three, then why is the age of adulthood so high? Instead of the age of 18 determining when one is an adult, the age should be brought down to sixteen. By the age of sixteen, everyone should know better. “I am only sixteen, and I know better not to commit any crimes. I am old enough to understand consequences for my actions, and every other sixteen year old should be mature enough to know as well. (Madii Sahli). Compared to other countries, sixteen is still a higher age to be considered an adult. Many countries recognize the age of criminal responsibility to be much younger than eighteen. Below is a list of some other countries and their age of legality/adulthood. COUNTRY: AGE OF LEGALITY/ADULTHOOD: England 10 years old for crimes. 13 years old for sex crimes. Romania 12 years old. Greece 12 years old. Turkey 14 years old Armenia 14 years old. Spain 15 years old. Scotland 16 years old. Belgium 18 years old. Luxembourg 18 years old.
Topic: family

On the other hand, United States law uses 18 for many things as well. People are not considered responsible enough to purchase tobacco products, live on your own, get a tattoo/certain piercings, choose to have sex with whomever you want, get married, own property, sue/get sued, or gamble until you are eighteen years old. You cannot even order crayons from a television commercial until you are 18! If you are not responsible enough to make your own choices, then how can you be considered an adult? “There needs to be some balance. The age of adulthood should completely be moved down to 16.
Topic: family

At the age of sixteen, you should be able to get convicted of adult crimes, but you should also be able to smoke, etc. The only things that I think should stay at 18 is the age of being able to move out and live on your own or with a roommate, getting married, and gambling. That makes more sense to me” (Madii Sahli). In 1998, 29% of high school boys in America owned guns. A survey was taken in Virginia in 1996, and reported that 41% of youth have been in a gang or associated themselves with a gang. From those 41%, 69% got involved because of influences coming from their friends and 60% said that they joined for excitement.
Topic: family

Joining a criminal group for excitement shows just how careless children are when it comes to the law. They do not understand their consequences because they believe that they will be treated leniently in the eyes of the court. More needs to be done to show them that they cannot get away with it. “The murderers made their decision. Children always wanted to be treated as adults so why not trial them as adults? That is always a child’s dream, to be treated as an adult” (Courtney B. from Teen Ink). Children should be tested for mental illness before the trial proceeds. As many as 70 percent of youth in the system are affected with a mental disorder, and one in five suffer from a mental illness so severe as to impair their ability to function as a young person and grow into a responsible adult. The prevalence of disruptive behavior disorders among youths in juvenile justice systems is reported to be between 30 percent and 50 percent” (Sarah Hammond). Not only should they be trialed differently, but they should not be placed into a jail. They should be placed somewhere that can take care of them and help to handle their disability.
Topic: family

That way, they might be able to recover properly. Most children who have committed crimes were accompanied by an adult during the incident. Joe Sullivan was thirteen-years-old when he became one of the two thirteen-year-old in the entire country to be sentenced to life without parole for an offense that did not involve a killing. Joe was mentally disabled, and lived in a home in which he was victim to physical and sexual abuse regularly. Two older boys, Nathan McCants (17) and Michael Gulley (15) convinced Joe to participate in a burglary in which they entered an empty household of a 72-year-old elderly woman.
Topic: family

One of the older boys stole jewelry and money, and the homeowner was sexually assaulted in her home later that day, but never saw her attacker. The assault was so brutal that she needed to have corrective surgery. One of the older boys had blamed the sexual assault on Joe. While being blindfolded, the woman listened to the Joe’s voice to see if she recognized it and stated that it “could very well be” him. Both of the older boys received short sentences in juvenile detention, while Joe Sullivan was charged and tried in adult court. Even though Joe was the youngest person in the country sentenced to die in prison for a non-homicide, his lawyer filed a brief on appeal saying there were no issues to challenge in his case. Joe was sent to adult prison when he was just fourteen, and he was repeatedly and brutally victimized by older inmates” (Equal Justice Initiative). Joe, not only having to deal with a traumatic past of his home life and a mental illness, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. The petition stating that this punishment is cruel and usual was denied.
Topic: family

Another convicted child who was influenced by a very bad home life includes Antonio Nunez. When Antonio was thirteen-years-old, he was shot multiple times in a drive by shooting. While his brother tried to help him, he was shot in the head and killed. Because of the traumatic event, he developed post-traumatic stress disorder. His mother was depressed and inactive, his father was an alcoholic, and his siblings were currently being treated for anxiety and trauma. Most children who have commit crimes were influenced and accompanied by an adult. Antonio fell victim to older influences, having got into the car with two older men. 4-year-old Antonio was in a joint trial with the 27-year-old after the other man claimed himself to be kidnapped by them. “The Equal Justice Initiative has documented over 70 cases throughout the United States in which children 14 and younger have been condemned to die in prison, often without consideration of the child’s age of life history. Antonio Nunez is the only child in the country known [in 2007] to be serving a death in prison sentence for his involvement, at age 14, in a single incident where no one was injured” (Equal Justice Initiative Writer).
Topic: family

Sometimes putting a child in an adult jail will only do more harm, and will only give them more bad impressions and thoughts. This is because when you put a child in an adult jail, you are surrounding them with people who have committed crimes as well and are a negative influence. They are being trapped in the same environment that got them there in the first place. “Young people who have been in prison since they were adolescents need help learning basic life skills” (Equal Justice Initiative Writer). According to mental health researchers Laurence Steinberg and Thomas Grisso, unlike an adult, a young teen can change.
Topic: family

Handling child criminals is totally situational. Some of them deserve it, and sometimes it is fair for them to suffer with an extreme punishment. Many children get away with murder. Eric Smith was twelve years old when he murdered a six year old. He was to stay in jail until he was twenty-one. “Eric Smith admitted what he did was wrong but he also said he enjoyed it. There is no chance of rehabilitation for this boy nor is there for any other child murderer” (Courtney B. from Teen Ink). Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were ten years old when the kidnapped a two year old named James Berger when James’s mother went into the grocery store.
Topic: family

They committed many criminal acts against him. They sexually molested him, beat him with a 28 lb iron bar, and poured paint into his eyes. As James was hardly holding on to his life, the two boys placed his beaten body onto the train tracks. When a child does something like that, they are bound to be messed up for the rest of their lives. “The boys obviously knew what they were doing and that it was wrong because they tried covering their tracks by making up stories” (Courtney B. ). Only a severely disturbed child could do something like that so young.
Topic: family

Scientists put together an experiment which compared the brain of a serial killer and a normal person using a CAT scan. The results showed that the serial killers brain was covered in black spots, while the normal person’s brain only had two miniscule black spots. If a child’s brain is already that irregular, how can they recover from that? People are fighting to convince the courts that sentencing a child to die in prison violates the eighth amendment, for it is cruel and unusual. “In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that no person under the age of sixteen may be executed for a crime.
Topic: family

Twenty states with capital punishment laws consequently established sixteen as the minimum age for execution” (Daily Mail Reporter). “In 2005, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles to death is unconstitutional. The court ruled that life without parole for anything less than homicide was unconstitutional as well” (Daily Mail Reporter). The only catch is that the child can be tried and convicted to be considered an adult in the eyes of the court. That means that no matter their age, they can still be sentenced to death. But no matter what, a child is still a child.
Topic: family

When it comes to life sentencing, those rules should apply to every person under the age of 18. 14-year-old Omer Ninham was sentenced to prison for life after he threw a child off of a parking ramp. He claimed it to be a cruel and unusual punishment. “The Supreme Court ruled that neither the state not the U. S. has any statue prohibiting life sentences without parole for 14-year-olds in homicide cases” (Daily Mail Reporter). When it comes to murder, most states will trial the child as an adult, especially if the crime was first-degree murder. But sometimes in special cases, it is moved into a juvenile court (Natalie Saar). I think that it should only be moved into a juvenile court for two reasons. One being if the child has any type of mental illness that can alter their brain capability, and two being if they are under a certain age. Age 10 for murder and sex crimes, and age 12 for other crimes such as burglary and theft” (Madii Sahli). In 2008, there were 73 children who were sentenced to die in prison for an offence that took place when they were only 13 or 14 years old. This includes a man named Phillip Shaw. Shaw was convicted when he was 14 for a robbery-shooting, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Topic: family

When he was 28, a retrial won him his freedom after he had spent 14 years in adult prison. Each side, whether one believes in adult punishment for children or is against it, has their points. There has got to be balance between the two. How to handle children is very situational, and depends on a lot of different things such as their life history, home environment, influences, possible mental illnesses, and the simple mentality and moral level of the child. The U. S. is the only country in the world where children are sentenced to die in prison. Is that fair?
Topic: family

“The exchange of greetings is the most ordinary, everyday use of language and gesture found universally” and I noticed that he greeted everyone just about the same way as I did (Scupin, 105). For the most part, he was a normal teenager but I definitely saw differences here and there that reminded me he was from another culture. The encounter that I had with the foreign exchange student definitely made me reflect my own culture and way of doing things.
Topic: family

The most noteworthy is the guicharo, or guiro, which was adapted from pre-Columbian days. I also found it interesting that fewer that 20 percent of Puerto Ricans speak English fluently. I think it’s awesome that you enjoy and have passion for music and that you can find similarities in your culture and in the Puerto Rican culture. Maybe your enculturation is similar to other Puerto Ricans. I enjoyed your discussion post and look forward to many more!
Topic: family

It blocks them from education and any possibility of independent work. It subjects them to pregnancy and childbirth before they have reached physical maturity, a circumstance that often produces serious physical trauma, psychological disturbance, and sometimes lifelong physical and/or emotional incapacities. Confusion about the legal status of child marriages results from widespread ignorance of the law by the majority of society. Even ministers were in many cases, unaware of the actual minimum ages for marriage.
Topic: family

Although the non registration of the marriages and the absence of identification documents do not allow the collection of accurate data on the subject, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) consider the non respect of the minimum age requirement to be the major violation of the right to marry or not to marry. In addition, Afghanistan is bound to end child marriage through its ratification of certain internationalconventions including The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Topic: family

Based on annual report of AIHRC suicides, self immolations, murders, sexual perversions and psychological disorders are amongst the many negative consequences of child marriage. These also include the increase of maternal and child mortality rates, and the low level of education for women which has a long term effect on the role these play in the country’s political, social and economic life. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, girls who marry during their childhood do not develop properly, neither physically nor psychologically.
Topic: family

Child marriage is a serious problem, and there are frequent cases of young girls being married to the much older men. Many times, children and teenagers are pulled out of school to marry, depriving them of an education and meaningful work. Victims suffer health risks associated with early sexual activity, such as high risks of maternal and child mortality and sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS. They are also likely to be victims of domestic, sexual, and/or emotional abuse, and may suffer from social isolation.
Topic: family

Child marriages have negative and unexpected consequences like propagation of disease, divorce cases and escaping from home. While parent’s poverty and illiteracy may lead to their marrying daughters as child, these very marriages will prevent the daughters from having access to education and economic progress. Research Questions: 1. What are the Social, Economic and Political consequences of forced and early marriages in rural society? Objective The focus of this concept paper is to know reasons, causes and consequences of early childhood marriages in Afghanistan.
Topic: family

In addition this will seek on vulnerabilities which the girls face by forced and early marriages in rural areas and how it is linked with the rural society and contribute with the poverty, violence and isolation of the families. Research method: The Research will included literature review, reviews of existing files in hospitals and schools, interviews with hospital and school directors, interviews with Rural people (Target area), Government officials and NGOs. Forced Marriages in Afghanistan Afghanistan y Tahera Nassrat  |  on April 6th, 2010  |  9 comments Throughout the world, there are 49 countries that have forced marriage or child bride problems. Forced marriage is simply breach of basic human rights. It is a form of domestic violence and child abuse that contributes to a society’s problems. Afghanistan is one of the Islamic countries where people hold strongly tight to customs and traditions. Breaking the tradition of marrying young children, both boys and girls, is not only difficult, but near impossible in most urban districts.
Topic: family

In the rural areas of Afghanistan, girls are mostly married between ages of 7 to 11. It is really rare that a girl reaches the age of 16 and is not married. The customs, traditions and community they live in make it impossible for girls to break free from forced marriages. They do not get ask to speak for self desire. The fathers in the families mostly decide, as the mothers do not get involved in the decisions, because they are women. By marrying  children in early ages, families are putting them in situations of isolation, health problems, abuse, suicide and lack of education.
Topic: family

They believe, they are doing best for their children and without their consents, they bond them into marriage contracts. However, they don’t consider that forced marriage affect women and young children adversely. It involves negative situations like threatening behavior, emotional blackmail, physical violence, rape, sexual abuse, suicide and even murder and young children are obviously not in the capacity to handle such pressure. According to a United Nations’ report, between 60 to 80 percent of marriages in Afghanistan are forced marriages.
Topic: family

The report states that the reason why girls are dragged into forced marriages are; repayment of debts; to solve a dispute and to pay family expenses. Moreover, It is obvious among Pashtons, that their widow will never marry someone out of their family, as they always marry the brother of their deceased husband. However in a non-Pashton family, the girl is asked to marry her brother-in-law to get support for the children of her sister. Even worse, some sisters are married to pay for the crime of their brothers by marrying the victims.
Topic: family

So, people in Afghanistan believe it is part of culture to marry a girl before age of 18th and not let her have a say, but they should consider that forcing a girl to marry cannot be regarded as cultural practice in any society. It is a violation of basic human rights. Therefore, women as part of society should be able to freely express their choices about their lifestyle desires. The video bellow is history of a 12 year girl who was forced into marriage. She ran away to break free from her in-laws, but unfortunately was arrested and in form of punishment by her husband (a Talib) she lost her nose and ear.
Topic: family

Child Marriage in Afghanistan October 2, 2011 by Aamozgar01 Filed under Cultural, Featured 5 Comments If the government of Afghanistan does not stop the practice of child marriage, most mothers will lose their children besides their own lives in Afghanistan as a result of under age marriage. Indeed, getting married under the age of eighteen or sixteen is not legal according to any law around world because it is internationally accepted that at least the couples should be sixteen.
Topic: family

Although according to the Afghan Civil Law the minimum age of marriage for male is 18 and female 16, according to reports of Medica Mondiale and UNICEF, 57 per cent of Afghan females are married under the age sixteen without their consent because of their parent’s financial problems. Moreover, Getting married under 16 sixteen will result several serious health problems for mothers that cause them not to develop properly, neither physically nor psychologically (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan).
Topic: family

For instance, a woman living in Qala-e-Bakhtiar of Kabul with her six children has said to Medica Mondial that she was only 15 when she was married against her will. She hates the noise of her children  because  of  having  psychological  problems. (W. Mukhatari , pg 6). The marriage of children by force is against human rights. Children know nothing about their sexual relationship with their life partners, because they are still child and their parents should take care of them. Therefore, to save the Afghan female hildren from being exchanged for an amount  of  money  to  solve  a  family s  financial  problems,  Afghanistan government  should  educate  and campaign   about  consequences  of  child  marriage,  increase employment opportunities for parents, and enforce the law by making the marriage registration legal. In spite of understanding the childhood condition of children, most of the Afghan parents marry their daughters because financial problems they are facing. Poverty is a challenge, which changes the lives of children besides the culture of early child marriage.
Topic: family

According to the report by Millennium Development Goals for Afghanistan, the average income of per member of family is 200$ a year and less than one dollar  a  day. So, they  are  considered  below  the  poverty  line   (Earily   Marriage  in Afghanistan). Thus, to get out of the financial crises the marriage of their daughters before their legal ages such 16 or 18 would be considered for some families the only option for the parents to protect their family honor, pay their debts and take a little amount of money in exchange for their.
Topic: family

First of all, one of the reasons of child marriage is to receive an exorbitant amount of money, which is called Toyana (wedding expenses) in Dari. The payment that parents  receive from the groom family is not less than 300,000 Afs. and is not meant to be the wedding expenses, but the price of their child daughter. In a report about the child  marriages  in  Afghanistan  by  the  Women  and  Children  Legal  Research  Foundation (WCLRF) shows that most of the interviewees have said that the only reason they were married in their childhoods was to receive Toyana from the groom’s family (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan).
Topic: family

Secondly, the other factor that makes the poor families marry their daughters under the age sixteen, often times in rural areas, is to exchange women for women which is called Badal. The practice of this type of marriage is very common among the afghan people. This kind of marriage saves a huge expense of both sides because of exchanging their child daughters from a family to another family to satisfy both sides. The wedding party of such kind of marriage is often  celebrated at one time to avoid spending an  large amount of money.
Topic: family

Indeed, it is the little young female who is devoted for her brother and is victimized for a little amount of money. Third, debt is another function that the females are exchanged for under the age sixteen in Afghanistan. When a family is unable to pay its debt within limited time that agreed, then the family is supposed to pay a huge amount that satisfy the lender, such as building, farming land, in some cases even a daughter otherwise the family is put in jail. So, the only remaining option for the family to protect its ancestors  property would be to sacrifice a daughter as a form of repayment for debt.
Topic: family

It does not matter whether the child daughter is 9 or 18 years. As an explicit example, Shahs Family had to marry their 9 year old daughter Khalida  two years ago. Shah had received almost 2000$ from a drug trader to grow opium in his land, but the government crop-eradication team destroyed his poppy field and put the Shah family in debt. So, he had to give his 9 years daughter to drug trader because nothing was left in his life. (Clifford) Forth, the traditional custom of Afghan people is victimizing the child females in most of the rural areas.
Topic: family

One of the reasons of child marriage in Afghanistan is Baad, which is a traditional way of having the child females to marry one of males from the family of  enemy and forcing her to accept him as her husband in compensation for the crime that her father or brother has committed against the enemy family, and to stop the enmity between two families. For instance, Aisha, an Afghan female whose nose and ears were cut by her Al-Qaeda husband in Oruzgan province, was just 8 years old when she was given as a Baad to her husband family 10 years ago (Shaming her in-laws costs ).
Topic: family

Because her father had killed a member of her husband family, so he had to give his daughter to compensate his crime and to avoid being imprisoned or being killed by his enemy. Unfortunately, when the child female goes to her husband house in Baad marriage she is not going to her in-laws  house as a bride but as a slave. Consequently, the child marriage has several negative impacts on the health of both, mothers and babies. The female children wh o are married under the age of 16 0r 18 would not be prepared for pregnancies and child birth.
Topic: family

A statistic of child marriage by Women and Children Legal  Research  Foundation  (WCLRF)  shows  that  28. 7%  mothers  have  physiological  and psychological problems, 34. 1% have physically weak children,  8. 9% have handicapped and disabled children, 1. 6% have children with different types of diseases and disorders, and 40. 4% of these women have suffered from gynecological disease (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan). In addition, the child marriage would result to take the life of the mothers along with losing the babies. Most  of  the  mothers  who  are  dying  at the age of  18-19  are  because  of  their  early regnancies, and the chance of  survival for the babies would be forty per cent comparing to the mothers who married in their proper ages (Sadik). Furthermore, child marriage would result the child brides to be abused by their in-laws family. Most of the child females face various violations after they get married, such as no right to choose, no right to go somewhere without the permission of her husband . When the violation increase the child bride is going to be isolated from the families and relatives. Thus, the only options that remains for the child bride is to suicide or escape from home.
Topic: family

The interview of female prisoners by  the  Medica  Mendials  legal  staff  shows  that  60%  of prisoners  were  the  escapees  from husbands  houses who were married under the age sixteen. Most of the prisoners have said that they  were  being  abused  or  even  being  threaten  to  dead by  their  in-laws  families (W. Mukhatari , pg 9) . To come out of the child marriage problem and save little young girls in Afghanistan, education and awareness of public are the main keys to prevent from child marriage. The government should provide community education programs to inform the public about negative consequences of child marriage.
Topic: family

Such programs can be implemented easily by  Ministry of Women Affairs, which  can  easily  teach  the  women  of  an  area  without  any  problem,  or  in  other  way,  the government should pay the clergymen of mosques to advice the parents on their tribunes. These are the only sources that families can trust on. Moreover, the government should implement public awareness campaigns by international organizations and by holding Shoras and Jirgas with the elders of rural areas to talk about the negative impacts of child marriage (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan).
Topic: family

The government of Afghanistan should enforce the law to prevent child marriages. For instance, keeping the marriage registration regularly by the government agencies and receiving the evidence and acquiescence of both sides could be a possible way to reduce the child marriage. For example, in parts of  Indonesia, registration of marriage is dependent on evidence that the marriage is not forced on couples (Sadik). The parents who marry their daughters in their childhood under the age 16 should punished and persecuted seriously by the government as governments of Norway and Kyrgyzstan did.
Topic: family

They both have set the minimum age of the girls 17 and the punishment of those who marry the females earlier than the age 17 would be jailed for 2 to 6 years. Weak Economy is another factor, which causes most child marriages in Afghanistan. The government should try to develop the economic situation in rural areas where  women have  cannot  earn  money  for  themselves. For example,  the  project  of Micro finance Investment  Support  Facility  for  Afghanistan,  which  is  donated  by  the  World  Bank  and  is implemented by the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry, should be accessible for all women the Afghanistan.
Topic: family

In fact, lending a little amount of money to women can be  the  start  of  their  business  to  provide  their  own  necessities. For example  Saima Mohammad who was about to be divorced by her husband because of having only a daughter and no son. Her husband had borrowed 3,000$, and he was not able to pay it back. So, Saima went to Pakistani micro finance organization called Kashf Foundation, took out only 65$ as loan and bought her 65$ bead and clothes to make embroidery from them and sell them to market in Lahor.
Topic: family

She has everything now, and even her husband is working with her (Knistaff). The government should be serious in taking important steps against child  marriages in Afghanistan, because child marriage is dangerous for the health of both, mothers and their babies. People should be informed; the parents who force their child daughters to marry and those who marry females under the age sixteen should be punished. Most importantly, the economic situation of people should be developed to prevent them to not marry their children under the age sixteen in exchange for an amount of money.