Child Marriage
As you may or may not know the Country of Nepal is 81.3% Hindu, it’s the biggest religion in the country. Not to mention Nepal’s founding fathers and all of their government believes in Hinduism as well. If you know absolutely nothing about Hinduism I suggest you go and read about it and research it, it literally is a religion inspired and brainstormed by Satan and created by man to worship man alone. One of the prominent beliefs in the Hindu Religion after marriage is that men and husbands are Gods over all women. And before marriage, Girls should be married before reaching puberty so that their parents can go to heaven. This is where child marriage comes from. The parents of a young girl will give the child between the ages of 5-10 to men between the ages of 19-50 (Depending on their caste) to be married. These poor little girls are forced into this and have to perform all ‘duties’ of a bride. This saddened me so much. What does a 5 year old or even 18 year old know about love or marriage? The Hindu religion believes that no woman can divorce their husband or they will face excommunication or harsh scrutiny. They even believe that if your husband should die, the wife should be burnt alive with him in honor and worship to her God (her husband). This is not practiced much these days but is still practiced in some rural areas. The Hindu religion actually praises and worships the male genitalia. So in this country, government and Hindu place, men literally get away with murder. Basically the women have zero rights and would never speak out, out of fear. I asked my contact here in Nepal many questions, due to my righteous anger about the laws protecting women when it comes to sexual and physical abuse and he just looked and me with a sad face and said…
“There is nothing they can do. The law does not work here”
One of the answers he had to my questions created this passion in me to write these blogs bringing awareness to all of you about what’s going on here in Nepal. Not so you can donate or come here but so that you can PRAY! Prayer is pretty much all you can do here when it comes to these big issues.
I asked him… “what were to happen if I was walking down the street and saw a man beating or raping a woman and began to help her…”
He then interrupted me saying… “You would get badly hurt and might even be abused yourself then you would go to prison for getting involved.”
I replied eagerly “What happens to the man though!? Even if I go to prison, what happens to the man for the abuse?”
To which he answered, “Nothing.”
This upset me! Because that means that everyone must turn a blind eye to it. No one try’s to help their fellow Nepali sisters from terror. Basically everyone is too scared to help.
“WHAT CAN WE DO!? WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT DO!?
He answers so humbly, “All we can do is Pray.”
My mind immediately went back to Thailand, where I could do nothing but pray as well, for the girls having to leave with those men to do unspeakable things, just for a measly $10.. PRAY!
Then God spoke to me, “Prayer is preparation! Prayer is fighting for those girls who can’t fight for themselves! Prayer is movement. PRAY. Just PRAY.”
This is why I write to you today not so you give money, not so you cry over the issue for a day or so and then forget, but that you make this a daily thing you pray for. PRAY for the young girls who are forced into a marriage. This is not a battle of flesh and blood, but a battle of the spirit and heart. PRAY for mercy and hearts full of grace. PRAY that God has undercover workers in the government that can make beautiful changes. PRAY that the parents of these children will look past these foolish ways. PRAY for the young girls eyes to be unveiled to God’s great truth. PRAY for the young girls who’ve had to marry at these young ages, that the men whom they are married to become men after God’s own hearts and will love and respect them. PRAY.
I have added testimonial stories about women forced into child marriage. Many of the young brides are often sold to sex traffickers or trafficked by their own husbands. Thanks to Bhuvan Devkota and www.lightnepal.orgfor the stories.
Read and please join me in this month of prayer and fasting for Nepal.
Maya, a girl from rural Nepal, was married at age 15. A victim of child marriage, Maya was sold to a brothel in Mumbai immediately after the wedding. She was brutally raped and beaten on a daily basis until she submitted to her captors. She became pregnant some years later, and it was at that time she found out she was HIV positive. Her little girl lived to be only 5 years old before she died with full-blown AIDS. Maya is now in the last stages of AIDS and will likely die very soon. She still lives in the brothel where she worked, even tho she hasn’t been a prostitute for over three years. She isn’t welcomed back home in Nepal because she is a prostitute, even though it wasn’t by choice. She is just one of over 100,000 Nepali women in brothels in Mumbai alone.
Sunita is a beautiful Nepali woman of just 19 years old. She was a victim of child marriage at the unthinkable age of five years old. Her husband of 35 had no need to keep her around after he received her dowry from her parents, and so he took her to a brothel in Mumbai. Every month he travels from Nepal to India to collect the wages that Sunita has earned from prostitution. If she has not earned enough money, he will beat her unmercifully. Sunita cannot escape for fear of her husband tracking her down. She is illiterate and unskilled. The only work she has ever known has been as a sex slave. Since she is legally married, she is the property of her husband. She cannot divorce him because he does not desire a divorce. He is her master and she is his slave. Sunita has a young five-year old son. She is working diligently to ensure he has a better future
I have also added Nepal’s census for 2011 of all children married under the age of 10 years old, courtesy of www.cbs.gov.np.
Total of children married in Nepal under the age of 10 years old is
Male-22,865 Female-115,150 Total-138,015
Total of Children in rural Nepal
Male-19,531 Female-97,694 Total-117,225
-A sister on fire for her sisters
Tatiana ysatis Famania
