Quote From: marianparooI haven't read the book, because I didn't like The Kite Runner, but in Reading Lolita in Teheran, we are told the age a girl can marry in Iran is nine!
Here in Israel it is 17-1/2 (for both boys and girls).
Fundamentalist Jews and Arabs are trying to lower it, but without success, so they just have secret religious ceremonies that they don't register with the authorities. As far as they are concerned, since the marriages are religious they are legal to them.
Extreme fundamentalists whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian seem to have the same methodology behind their brutish rule. The first thing to go is education, then female rights, child rights and then the fear sets in. This fear can come from physical, sexual and mental abuse, which usually starts at an early age.
Read Khaled Hosseini's newest book. It helped me to understand Afghanistan historically and geographically. The book is about 2 young girls. Due to personal circumstances and the climate of war both girls were married at age 14 and 15 to a man 2 to 3 times their age. The book begins when Afghanistan was at a good time politically, culturally and religiously. Then it goes down hill beginning with the Soviets, then the internal political factions and finally the Taliban. It ends with North America declaring war on "terroism."
It blows my mind that so many North Americans look at countries like Afghanistan and say, "Wow! How can that happen? How can people be so brutal...so uncarring...so evil in nature?" But, then we have this Christian "cult" right here in front of us, under our laws and government, doing the exact same thing. And, we are actually left questioning, "what are we going to do with the children?"
To be honest, I fear that the system cannot handle the re-placement of that many children. That is why some government officials are thinking of placing these children back with their mothers. Ideally, no one should have to live under that insane rule created by a finatic mental case. I think everyone, including the adults, should go into foster care. Is it possible to create a special program just for them? This current "cult" like behavior needs a major overhall. I mean, if they want to live like the Mormons or the
Amish, then more power to them. But, what is currently taking place on that compound is not acceptable!
