Political Quotes

“I rise today to discuss a disturbing article which most of us saw on the front page of the Washington Post. It is entitled ``In Niger, hunger crisis raises fears of more child marriages.'' It was written by Sudarsan Raghavan. The article highlights child marriages around the world. It is a human rights atrocity that steals the future, the health, and the lives of little girls and even boys in many developing countries. In many of these countries girls are treated like chattel or commodities, sold into marriages with older men to settle debts or for dowries to help families survive. In Niger--the focus of the Post article--a famine is raising fears that more families will turn to that practice and marry off their little girls to gain economic security and even survival. Niger happens to have the highest prevalence of child marriage with one out of two girls marrying before the age of 15, and some are as young as 7. Can you imagine? Women, look around you. If you see another woman, know that in Niger one of you would have been married before you were 15 years old. That is exactly what happened to Balki Souley. Balki Souley was married at 12 years of age. Let me show this poster of her. She is now 14. She recently lost her first child during childbirth at age 14. She almost died herself. Her small body was just too frail to handle the difficulty of facing labor.…”