Child Marriage

Child marriage is a practice prevalent where girls are married off between the ages of fifteen and eighteen.

Fifty percent of the population is female, yet they will have no power due to child marriage.  Societies that condone this practice never prosper.  Much of Africa has a current rate of 72% of girls being married with India having a rate of 49%.

I witnessed this practice in Afghanistan while I was there.  Very sad indeed.

Girls will be married off to older men for financial and sexual reasons.  She has no power to disobey what ever insanity he may want.  As she is his property she may be whipped, tortured or killed at his pleasure.  He may arrange her demise so he can marry another.

Children born to young girls under eighteen are 68% likely to die before they turn one. Girls are more prone to death or injury due to early sexual activity and early childbearing.  A girl under the age of fifteen is five times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in her twenties.

As young brides often have older husbands, they may not have the power to negotiate safe sexual behaviour.  This means they are more vulnerable to HIV infection and more likely to suffer domestic violence.  Girls who marry young cannot complete their education increasing the power gap between men and women. 

Taken together, the cost of this practice is extremely high and will ensure societies/countries staying in poverty.

Progress has been made as awareness is communicated and accepted.  In India until changes were made by the English, there were practices where upon her husbands death and cremation, the bride had to leap into the fire to be with her husband.  Too much of a financial burden to the rest of the community in reality.  Also stopped, was the practice of all the women of the defeated warring faction, required to leap into a fire pit.  Barbaric to be sure and real within our humanity.

Thanks for taking the time to read and understand why women of this world suffer such inequality.  Education! Education will eventually change the inequality.  How fast or how slow?

Gandi said "you be the change you want to see in this world".

Your thoughts please!

Humor - a little spice in our lives

Hey, we all need a little humor and this little gem was passed on to me by Elizabeth A.

Its good to be a woman.

We got off the Titantic first.

We can scare male bosses with mysterious gynecological disorder excuses.

Taxis stop for us.

We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing.

No fashion faux pas we make could ever rival the Speedo.

We don't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves.

If we forget to shave, no one has to know.

We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end.

We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there.

We have the ability to dress ourselves.

We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked.

If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot.

We will never regret piercing our ears.

There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems.

We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

Are you aware of this practice where older women hold down the young girls, cut off their clitorises using glass?  This is done so that women will not be interested in sex.  Otherwise, men may be enticed by females to rape them, as men cannot be expected to have discipline.  Also the reason that women must wear dark colored burkquas despite soaring temperatures of over 100 degrees. Religions have instituted this practice to help men overcome their lust.

I know, some of you are laughing so much, you will wet your panties, or cry with sadness.

According to the United Nations, each year, around three million girls and women - some 8,000 GIRLS EACH DAY - face the risk of mutilation or cutting.  An estimated 130 million girls and women have undergone the practice in Muslim countries.

Were you aware of this practice?  How would you feel about having eight women sit on you and cut off your clitoris without anesthetic?

Why I write this blog is to create some awareness of female inequality?  Please write some comments and if you have undergone this procedure yourself please let us understand the other side of this issue.

Do We Want Equality?

I've been thinking about this issue quite a bit.


When making love with your partner, do you mostly need to switch back to being a feminine person?  It works best for me that way.  How about you?


Yet, in the rest of my life, I'm working right along side of men, in the trenches so to speak, working full time, as well as running a household, looking after a baby granddaughter  40 hours a week and going to hot yoga at every opportunity.  My personal gift to myself.  Some semblance of balance.


We women no longer wear dresses.  Dresses do make one feel feminine.  They show off ones curves and attract those men like flies, which secretly we love.


Yet, they are totally impractical to work in. Can you make presentations in the board room without sexism creeping in? While wearing dresses, can you climb into an SUV with bags of groceries, clean up the kids who are hungry, keep the dishwasher monster under control as well as the laundry which is calling you constantly. Or work all day in shoes with heels so you can feel and look feminine?


How do you feel feminine?  Do you feel relaxed enough, stress free enough to be affectionate with your partner?  Do you want to stay home and have your partner bring in the bacon yet control you due to the resentment that often is harbored by the working partner?  Do you want equality?

Forgiveness

I do not forgive because I'm weak.  I forgive because I am strong enough to know that people make mistakes.

We women are so very strong.  We endure child birth, child rearing, working at a full time job, along with the child rearing, yet, we outlive our men by an average of six years.

Yet men rule the world - rule us essentially!

They are the captains and kings of industry who decide which products or services will be produced and at what cost to society.  They choose which politicians to endorse/control.  They choose which countries, peoples should be annihilated, how and when to conduct wars.  They control how to think through religions and the media.

Its not the problem that's the problem.  It's how we see the problem that's the problem.

I do not forgive because I'm weak.  I forgive because I am strong enough to know that people make mistakes.

Future of the Tradition of Marriage

I've been reading more and more about trends in both Europe and colleges in America where marriage is seen as a "life sentence".


Apparently more and more young people are "hooking up" with others to have sex for as long as its pleasurable.  Often meeting on Friday or Saturday night after drinks, getting together for the evening and living their independent lives for the rest of the week. No commitments.  Working and getting ahead is viewed more important than raising a family.


Statistics will prove this trend as true as 67% of babies are now born to single mothers. Divorce is over 50%.


This trend does lend itself to more equality than our grandmothers had. An even further gap between Sharia law and trends in the western world.  It does provide more sexual satisfaction for both men and women.


The Hollywood created concept of coupling and living happily ever after would be history? I wonder? Where do you see the concept of marriage heading in your country?


Please scroll onto comments below.

Black, White, or Shades of Grey

Guest Post by Susan V.


There are certain things that throughout time have proven to be black or white: 


The Ten Commandments - you shall not kill or steal, or you shall probably go to jail, or worse.


You shall not covet your neighbor's ass, nor his wife, nor his wife's ass, or you may get a butt full of buckshot.


You shall not take the Lord's name in vain, - people will think you have a limited vocabulary and are too stupid to think of better ways to express yourself.


You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor - in other words, don't lie, don't spread gossip about people of your acquaintance or you may end up with no acquaintances at all.


Then there's the Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, treat people decently and they will, usually, treat you in kind.


These are black and white rules that we have lived with for generations.  We all know right from wrong, good from bad, and we know when we are doing something we shouldn't - we know these things because they play out in our everyday lives and have proven themselves over and over....kill, steal - away you go, covet and it's buckshot for you.  But when the question of equality is raised, is there really a black or white answer to how a woman achieves it, or does her personal quest for equality come in shades of grey?


I can't help but feel that the correlation between equality and a women's personal feelings of self worth are directly related.  That her perception of her "place" within her family, social circle,community and work place all contribute to how she sees herself in relation to the people around her.


Most working women know what it feels like to be on the low end of the pole in the work place - to have her contribution to the working environment down played by the men around her.  Even when she works harder, contributes more and has a broader knowledge of how the company actually functions.  In social circles, and the community at large, isn't it the women who bring people together to celebrate special occasions, to enlist groups to volunteer and contribute?  And in the family unit, its the mother/wife who holds the family together through"thick and thin", calm the waters when disputes arise, ...................its always the woman.


Why then is equality such an issue at all?  Aren't the contributions women make to the lives around them just as important as the contributions of men?  Are women somehow programmed from a very early age to accept the lesser role in life, therefor contributing to a diminished self worth?  Did the very women who raised us instill a "acquiescent" gene in us that makes us feel that somehow, while we may feel we deserve the same recognition of the men in our lives, that is not so?  We are intelligent, thinking women.  We have in our hands the power to be who and what we want to be.  We know right from wrong, good from bad but do we fight for black or white when it comes to our personal equality or do we settle for shades of grey.


Go ahead.....scroll over "comments" below and put your own words here. 

190 Countries 9 Female Leaders

Australia, Germany, Brazil, Ireland, Finland,Liberia, Iceland, Costa Rica and Kosovo have female leaders, another eleven have female heads of state. Some may be figureheads only.


This ratio stunned me.  I know we have made progress and yet the number still amazes me. So little power in the world.  Does this amaze you?  Or is it only me?


Makes me question equality?  Is it possible?  Are we meant to compete with men for power, for our point of view?  For no wars, less greed, less need to look good to our buddies?  For a more peaceful existence.  We are always the reconcilers in our families, we are the ones who make ends meet, somehow!


I remember the beginning of the women's movement in the 60's. So much hope that opportunities would open for women.  They have somewhat, and at what price?  American women are viewed by others as extremely aggressive, yet we haven't achieved equality in the work place nor the home.


Once again, I want to mention why I started this blog.  To create exchange of ideas, strengthening tolerance and equality. We have a long way to go.  That is how I see it, how do you see it?  Make a comment by scrolling over the word "comments" below.