Child Marriage and FGM at the 2014 Girl Summit

The first ever Girl summit occurred in July of 2014. This event took place in the UK with the participation of Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize of 2013. During the summit, child marriage and female genital mutilation were the two main topics.

The United Kingdom government and the UNICEF hosted the event. The two principal subjects touch mostly girls, the summit title says it, but they also affect young girls. Child marriage are arranged and or forced by the family. Whether it’s because of unfortunate living conditions or cultural beliefs. The UNICEF claims that one girl out of three in developing countries will be married while she is a child.

Children weddings continue to occur even if this maintain poverty in the family and a lack of education for the girls. A woman without schooling is a woman with less power and opportunities and this why the Girl summit stands for. Both United Kingdom government and the UNICEF want to decimate forced marriage and female genital mutilation in a generation.

As for forced marriage, female genital mutilation takes place when the girls are young. Girls suffer from this surgery as young as eight years old. Cultural background influence when does this intervention occurs. The UNICEF presents that 125 million women and girls will pass through this surgery. At the Girl summit the United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron claimed that child marriage and “female genital mutilation［…］violate the rights of girls and women across the world, including here in the UK.”

This issue matters for the UK Prime Minister because according to the video What does freedom mean to you? #freedomls “every year, over 20, 000 girls are at risk ［to undergo female genital mutilation］ in the UK alone”

By: Audrey Rivard, November 11 2014