Capstone Research 1. Bentley U., Julia S., Ailee T., and Seattle S.

A. Social Activism: There are many agencies and groups against womens issues.
Kaur Life is one that that focuses on violence against women in India. This website states that
India is the most deadliest country for women. This website talks about statistics on female
infanticide and its issues. This website features artwork, statistics, and information on Equality
and women in India. There is an option for people to submit their work so it is a website for the
public to express themselves.
Girls Not Brides is a website dedicated to fighting child marriage. It has many things such as
sub-links to learning about what child marriage is and why it happens. It tells you where it
happens, why it happens, what is the impact, what is the laws surrounding it, and what can you
do to stop it. It features resources for people such as laws and things you can do to help and it has
a take action link where it shows all the different ways you can get involved. You can protest,
donate, etc.
Care is another website dedicated to raising awareness on womens issues and equality. This
website talks about child marriage. This website gives information on the issues as well as
statistics. It then gives you a plethora of ways you can get involved and change the world by
donating or volunteering, etc. This website also features links to other websites talking about the
same issues so it gives its readers more options for learning and gaining opportunities. There are
careers involved with care so you can do this for a living.
Events/protests/initiatives/etc.: There are many things surrounding womens issues and many
events, protests, etc. for it. Recently there was a Womens march nationwide in response to
Trump Legislation. Large numbers of people in cities such as Seattle, New York, San Francisco
and even Salt Lake City gathered to protest for womens rights. This was described as the biggest
protest gathering in history. Last year thousands of Turks protested against a proposed child-
marriage law. The law claimed that men who are convicted of child sexual assault can avoid
punishment by marrying their victims. This caused an uproar in Turkey and thousands of men
and women protested this. There are similar protests in countries such as India and Pakistan that
may suffer from the same issues against child marriage. In Utah, Laws were introduced against
polygamy which often includes child marriage.

B. Individual Stories We all have to do a separate paper on this, I suggest you turn it in
separately.

C. Course Tie-Ins
Feminism: In Ethiopia, for example, 49 percent of girls are married before the age of 18. One of
the biggest factors that holds women back and keeps them in poverty is child marriage. Girls are
forced to leave school and give up their education so they can take care of the home and have
children. They have to give up their childhood and dreams all because they are forced to marry
when so young. Child marriage also violates the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/inter/girlsnotbrides.html
 Cultural Sustainability: Child marriage affects certain cultures around the world. A lot of these
groups have been practicing child marriage for hundreds of years. It is seen as somewhat normal
in their society. However, this is a part of their culture that we do not want to sustain. The point
is that not all aspects of one's culture is are positive. We must remove the negative parts so every
part, and everyone, in that culture can flourish.
Human Rights: Child marriage is an obvious violation of human rights. These girls are not able
to make the choice if they want to be married or not. They are forced into these arrangements and
it drastically impacts the rest of their lives. Everybody should have a choice in how they want
their futures to go. These girls are pulled out of their educations and are made to live a life that is
not their own.
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/themes/human-rights-and-justice/
Art and Activism: There is a photojournalist named Stephanie Sinclair who works for National
Geographic magazine. She mainly focuses on photographing child brides in places like Yemen,
Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Her goal is to bring awareness to the struggles that these girls have
to face everyday. This makes a more emotional impact on viewers because they are seeing actual
people who are affected by this. She has also started a non-profit organization named To Young
to Wed.
http://tooyoungtowed.org/
https://www.stephaniesinclair.com/
Moral Decision Making: Since people in America do not see child marriage in their everyday
lives, they do not see it as much of a problem. These people believe that child marriage is
exclusively happening in places like India and the Middle East. What they do not know is that it
is happening right here in Utah. The FLDS religion forces young women to marry older guys,
just like in India. If these people were educated on the topic of child marriage and knew it was
happening in their own backyard they would feel different about the issue.
Environmental Issues: The Girls Not Brides organization has a pretty good description of how
child marriage and the environment go hand in hand. Girls are connected to a large range of
environmental issues. Women spend hours collecting water and firewood to complete household
chores. As climate change dries up water sources and causes deforestation, women have to walk
farther and farther each day to gather the things they need to live. Walking further increases their
vulnerability to physical or sexual violence. Child marriage is seen as a coping mechanism for
families trying to find a more food secure household for their daughters.
http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/7.-Addressing-child-marriage-
Agriculture-and-the-Environment.pdf

D. Questionnaire
1. Where do you think (in the world) child marriage is happening the most?
2. Do you think child marriage is a problem in the U.S.? If so, where?
3. Do you know what Infanticide is?
4. Why do you think Infanticide exists in different cultures?
5. At what age do you think female children are married off and how old do you think their
husbands are?
6. If you could only have one child, would you want a boy or a girl? Why?
7. What do you think is being done about child marriage in the world today?
8. Do you think that child marriage can be completely stopped in every culture that practices it?
9. What do you think can be done to help mitigate the issue of child marriage and Infanticide?
10. Do you think that child marriage and infanticide are related to each other? If so, how?
E. List of Major Issues
1. Girl under 15 married every seven seconds, says Save the Children
According to the study by Save the Children, girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older
men in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, India, and Somalia. Conflict, poverty, and
humanitarian crises are viewed as the main reasons why girls are exposed to child marriage. The
report, called Every Last Girl, ranks countries based on the hardest place to be a girl based on
schooling, child marriage, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and the number of women in
parliament. Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia were ranked at the bottom
of the index.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-37614798

2. Afghanistan: Child Marriage, Domestic Violence Harm Progress

Child marriage and early pregnancy also contributes to fistula, a preventable childbirth injury
that prolonged labor creates a hole in the birth canal. A 2011 government report discovered that
25 percent of the women and girls diagnosed with fistula were under the age of 16 when they
married and 17 percent were younger than 16 when they first gave birth. Fistula leaves one
leaking urine or feces, and often results in social ostracism, loss of earning capacity, medical
expenses for treatment, and depression. Left untreated, fistula can cause further serious medical
problems, even death.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/04/afghanistan-child-marriage-domestic-violence-harm-
progress

3. Americas Child Marriage Problem

In the United States today, thousands of children under 18 have recently taken marital vows
mostly girls married to adult men, often with approval from local judges. Of course, one persons
parental consent can be anothers parental coercion, but state laws usually do not call for
anyone to investigate whether a child is marrying willingly. Even if a girl is crying openly while
her parents sign the application and force her into marriage, the clerk has no authority to
intervene. In fact, in most states there are no laws that specifically forbid forced marriage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/opinion/americas-child-marriage-problem.html?_r=0
4. Sheriff Covered up Mormon Child Marriage
Girls as young as 12 were forced into spiritual marriages with much older men. According to
one former police officers testimony in the Phoenix court, the practice continued after the
sheriffs arrest, with police purposefully turning a blind eye to the marriages, or even taking child
brides themselves. If it was a church marriage, I as a church member saw it as a valid
marriage, Helaman Barlow, a former Colorado City marshal and member of the FLDS, said on
Wednesday in testimony reported by Courthouse News.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/09/sheriff-covered-up-mormon-child-
marriage.html