{"id":2300,"date":"2016-10-20T22:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T22:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2016-10-20T22:42:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T22:42:28","slug":"2300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/women-and-gender-issues\/2300\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Minors in ISIS Areas: Victims of Society or Circumstance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Sami Al-Sari<\/span><\/p>\n

September 10th, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Certain social heritage has come to pose a problem for Arab societies, threatening their very existence. One aspect seen in most conservative Arab societies is child marriage. It starts early with phrases that reinforce gender stereotypes such as \u201cShe has grown into a beautiful bride\u201d and \u201cHope to see you a bride soon\u201d. This \u00a0kind of word choice sculpts a minor\u2019s view of her future on a subconscious level, leading her to believe that the apex of her happiness is to marry \u201cthe right one\u201d, and that her education and career are secondary. Inherited culture hails married women and dictates that a female\u2019s greatest goal is to get married.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how did the revolutions that swept through the Arab Spring nations affect those traditions and social problems? Not only did the revolutions demand the removal of decades old dictatorships, but also the removal of those obsolete traditions that long stood in the way of youth aspirations for true change and advancement. \u00a0Did the status quo remain or have things become worse, especially after the rise of extremists in several Arab countries? What about the situation in Syria? <\/span><\/p>\n

“Not a week goes by without news of someone getting married\u201d said Abu Hassan, amazed at this phenomenon that is sweeping through ISIS controlled areas in Deir Alzour, \u201cEngagement and marriage are the most commonly used words today\u201d. Despite siege and poverty, marriage has continued unabated in that area. \u201cTwo of my nephews got married a month ago\u201d added Abu Hassan, \u201cMind you, they were only 14!\u201d. Marriage of minors is widespread nowadays. \u201cFamilies resort to marrying off their sons is in order to keep them from joining ISIS.\u201d Explained Abu Hassan. \u201cThey believe that a wife would divert their attention from war and fighting. Besides, it would be a chance to make up for the loss of lives. ISIS itself encourages marriage as the next generation would grow under their control and would become the nation\u2019s salvation. They call them the cubs of the caliphate!\u201d Abu Hassan chuckles and jokes that he is thinking of taking up a third wife following in the footsteps of the village children. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Abu Houssam\u201d is busy furnishing a home for his daughter who will get married after Eid Al-Adha. He seems happy to secure a future for his 13-year-old: \u201cWe keep worrying about our daughters until death. But I can say I am now reassured, especially after all her brothers had left to Europe. I\u2019m afraid that should something happen to me, she would become a victim of those who shall not be named (meaning ISIS). They requested her hand in marriage more than once, but I told them she was too young. I heard their muftis say many times that minors\u2019 marriage is sanctioned by Islam, citing the prophet\u2019s marriage to Aisha when she was 9. So I decided to marry her off to the first suitor, granted he is a native of our village\u201d. Abu Houssam says that \u201cAll families marry off their daughters early, each for different reasons.\u201d He goes on asserting that \u201cmarriage between minors is a problem that threatens to tear families apart as most end in divorce or the husband joining you-know-what (again, meaning ISIS). The wife then goes back to her parents divorced or widowed at 15.\u201d Abu Houssam then recites some sad folk poetry, and that is when I interrupt -in an attempt to avoid spoiling the nearly 50 year old\u2019s happiness- to tell him that tomorrow will be a better day.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that this crack that is dividing the society and changing its values will take many years to repair. Perhaps the first step, after deposing authoritarianism and extremism, is to go back to women\u2019s issues, make them a priority, and confront these absurdities that keep trying to change our lives. We need to rehabilitate women and tackle their problems while keeping in mind their cultural and religious realities, and work on creating a female workforce that is creative and capable in the social and intellectual fields, among others. <\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by Dima Alghazzy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sami Al-Sari September 10th, 2016   Certain social heritage has come to pose a problem for Arab societies, threatening their very existence. One aspect seen in most conservative Arab societies is child marriage. It starts early with phrases that reinforce gender stereotypes such as \u201cShe has grown into a beautiful bride\u201d and \u201cHope to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-and-gender-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rising4freedom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}