Re-evaluation

Although technically it is already September 16th, I will finally be making my post for Tuesday, September 15 (it's been a long day).

So here I am, stressing over my really long, busy day and the loads of work ahead of me, when I come across this article regarding the death of a 12 year old Yemeni girl who died birthing the child of her arranged marriage:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/14/yemen.childbirth.death/index.html

Every aspect of this article is quite appalling, and after reading this, I completely recant all my statements regarding how stressful my day was. These poor girls are faced with atrocities far beyond their years on a daily basis. And yet the article states that a minimum age marriage law has been unable to pass because Islamic law sets no such restrictions. While I understand that religion is an essential ingrained element in the lives of these people, I do not think it excuses them for being so completely ignorant to the well-being of these poor girls. Here, religion acts as an enforcer of passivity and a deterent of progress, quite the opposite of its original intent, and until the day comes when people are willing to adapt their religious traditions according to the ideas of freedom and the humans rights of modern life, tragedies such as these will continue to occur.