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
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