Unicef’s Photo Of The Year: The Pre-Teenage Bride
VIA John Naughton, and Clive Davis Anorak understands that this picture is UNICEF’s Photo of the Year:
The image is startling — a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride. Photographer Stephanie Sinclair, who took the photo last year in Afghanistan, asked the pre-teenage bride what she felt on the day of her engagement. “Nothing,” said the girl, according to Sinclair. “I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?” Sinclair, an American photographer, produced her winning photograph as part of a series of pictures she took about child marriages between 2005 and 2007 in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Nepal.
Your thoughts..?
Posted: 20th, December 2007 | In: Anorak Says Comments (14) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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December 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Mohammed ‘married’ Aisha when she was 6, and “knew” her when she was 9.
Just because it is part of someone’s cultural heritage does not make it OK.
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:57 am
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9
BabyJane Says:
December 21st, 2007 at 9:17 am
Good morning,
Meejician, a women’s urge to vomit if a man (she doesn’t like but in whose posession she is) touches her, is not a cultural thing, but a universal, I think.
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Sorry, it’s not. Do you live in a multicultural area, with non-western women? Listen to them, especially new immigrants. The West has little idea of what life is like for women in most of Africa and eastern Asia, and parts of Australasia or South America.
It presumptuous of us to assume that all women live by the expectations of what we call the civilised world, which is itself a ‘holier than thou’ position in which to live.
That photograph represents a holier than thou attitude in its assumption that a pre-puberty engagement to an older man somehow represents what we may call paedophilia. But this girl won’t be able to marry him until she’s matured. That’s the custom.
Could we balance it by photographing the pretty 19-year-old Manchester girl who enjoyed, allegedly, being ‘roasted’ by five or six footballers, and boasted about it?
What is preferable? The answer is neither.
What is honourable? The answer is neither.
What is culturally acceptable? The answer is both.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Actually that guy looks a lot like me during project meetings, except his eyes are open.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Gaak!
December 21st, 2007 at 12:08 pm
7 May
“Love is a triumph of imagination over intelligence.”
That quote was penned by Henry Mencken. He wrote many pithy pieces mocking relationships between the sexes and once called marriage “the end of hope” . Then he had a 7 year courtship with Sara Haardt, whom he married in 1930. She died in 1935, leaving him “grief-stricken”.
Actions speak louder than words.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:17 am
Good morning,
Meejician, a women’s urge to vomit if a man (she doesn’t like but in whose posession she is) touches her, is not a cultural thing, but a universal, I think.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:09 am
Beautiful couple. But the setting is disgustingly dirty. Is this supposed to be at an engagement ceremony? They are in unwashed clothes…
Groom: “Haha she’s mine! Bet you’re jealous.”
Bride: Looking for any moment to escape…
If the girl doesn’t love her husband, she will find romance with a younger guy. She will then be either beaten by her husband or run away with her lover. Or both.
But why doesn’t anyone think of the older men? No girl desires them any more… How are they supposed to find happiness?
Josef and Mary were not the exception but the rule. And still are. In a more open way in the “3rd World”, but don’t let that fool you. Western men are not born to be inherently free of disgusting desires. Given the chance and a degree of social acceptance men in some other cultures get, most would happily ‘marry ‘this girl as well.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:56 am
3
Meejician Says:
December 21st, 2007 at 12:07 am
Edit…
It’s only the Western notion of romantic love, which is in itself a myth, which leads us to despise and condemn pragma of this kind. I really don’t like the cultural imperialism that says we must disapprove of the survival instincts of non-Western communities, and their traditions. It’s patronising, at best.
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“Love is a triumph of imagination over intelligence”.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:24 am
This has nothing at all to do with ‘Pragmatism’. This behaviour and practice derives from a patriarchal culture that sees women as possessions and/or livestock; some four footed forms are more highly regarded and are better treated.
It is not cultural imperialism to condemn such revolting practices, just an accurate and valid recognition that women are treated inhumanely in some cultures and that some aspects of those cultures are fundamentally indefensible.
To draw a comparison with Joseph and Mary is entirely appropriate, as it reinforces the perception that such practices are culturally out-of-date and are are entirely anachronistic in more modern times.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:55 am
It’s not the survival of the rural poor that’s the issue, it’s the age of the girls involved. Also, if the girl’s aren’t happy it’s not Western Cultural Imperialism but compassion that would make us disapprove of it. Sisters unite!!!
December 21st, 2007 at 12:54 am
Disgusting.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:07 am
No, the words rural communities speak volumes. This isn’t unusual in the Eastern world. The marriages are arranged in order to preserve what little the poorer family may have, usually in terms of land, and may need to hold on to, and the arrangements are carefully organised. The belief is that love develops from a mutual need to survive within an extended family.
It’s only the Western notion of romantic love, which is in itself a myth, which leads us to despise and condemn pragma of this kind. I really don’t like the cultural imperialism that says we must disapprove of the survival instincts of non-Western communities, and their traditions. It’s patronising, at best.
Mary was 14 when she gave birth to Jesus.
I have no problems with either system - pragmatic or erotic. Except that the erotic system on which the Western mating system is predicated offers a sell-by date of 18 months.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Seriously? body language is speaking volumes, from both of them.
The words obscene, barbaric, medieval spring to mind too
December 20th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Mary and Joseph?