Forced Marriages are Still Too Common.

Specifically in the Middle East, forced marriages are often found in today's society. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, one of the main protagonists was forced into marriage with an older male stranger. The marriage between Laila and Rasheed is organized by her own father. The two even have a 17 year age difference between them. As extreme as this seems to us, it is not uncommon to others. So why are forced marriages still happening? 17-year-old Humaira Taiba lives in the Middle East currently and is attempting to get out of an engagement arranged by her grandfather when she was just 1 month old, which shouldn't have existed in the first place. Most of these marriages start to end a dispute or to acquire money in a family, and are never based off of actual love between a man and a women. In my opinion, a marriage should be between two people who love one another. The United Nations Children's Fund states that around "57 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve girls below the legal age of 16". A Thousand Splendid Suns addresses this occurrence to call attention to the serious subject.  Recently, in Afghanistan, a woman was forced to marry her rapist and have his baby. She did this to pay for her daughters future. This is unacceptable. Women’s rights activists say that forced marriages deny women any education or any bit of an independent life. This links back to our previously studied topics of independence for women, in stories like The Awakening, Yellow Wallpaper, and A Room of Ones Own. This is a serious issue and should not be taken lightly. By being denied these rights, women are taught to be submissive and obedient to their male or superior counterparts. This teaching can only be changed if these rights that were taken away, are fought for.