A bride’s age troubles village in Cambodia

[ggt]

Phew...was holding my breath to see if the groom was a knucklehead foreigner...was relieved to discover it was a local knucklehead...

[mikiea]

wow... what a fine collection of old fart chicken hawks. this marriage is so wrong on so many levels. but the truth is most of the bar-stool generals here have been guilty of tapping a uneducated, poor, baby mama, young good lookin girl just because they can. oh yea, dey luv dat hansum man also. :-)

[Cent]

Phew...was holding my breath to see if the groom was a knucklehead foreigner...was relieved to discover it was a local knucklehead...

"Thavary said there were also concerns that the bride, who is under the age of consent, could be taken out of Cambodia by her Vietnamese groom."

She's Cambodian. He is Vietnamese, not a local knucklehead. I imagine much of the uproar from the villagers has as much to do with him being Vietnamese as to do with her age. There's been plenty of news articles lately about VN and Chinese men going to Cambodia and Thailand looking for young brides to take home to their own country. Also lots of news on human trafficking.

[Nayet]

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So then poster, you think a 14 year old is mature enough to make big decisions like that ? Wow, you have a lot of growing up yourself.

If it's truly consensual, I see no problem with it, aside from all the problems that come with virtually all marriages.

Nayet, As I am sure you and your pals Jimmy, Gary and Rolf have held regular discussions on this topic, it would be difficult to change your mind.

For the rest of the readers, lets just remember Paedophilia is a touchy subject!

My post was not an endorsement of the above or any other relationship/marriage between an adult and a child. I am also not suggesting that we can blindly trust the word of a child who says a relationship or marriage is consensual. To suggest that I am a pedophile, or that I am giving the thumbs up to the likes of Rolf Harris is obviously a knee-jerk reaction and not the result of rational thought. I am fairly confident that my feelings toward child molesters are not much different from yours.

Seems to most of us that was an endorsement of the relationship. Did you not say "as long as it was consenual I don't see a problem"? The girl is 14 now and they have been dating for 3 years since she was what 11? That is way below the law for legal consensual sex in Thailand and therefore statutory rape.In the case of the 14 year old even Thai law says she must be 15 years old to be legally able to give consent. Before that its statutory RAPE. Each country makes thier own rules on what the age of consent is. Thailand 15, certain prefectures in Japan 13 and different states in USA have different age.

The rules are made because the child is not considered mature enough to make that decision , would be very easy to suduce a child with gifts, money affection thats why rules are made.

How can I endorse it if I don't know whether the girl really wanted to get married? Like I said in another post, it's hard to know how she truly felt about it, regardless of what it says in the news article.

What's your point anyway? That you would have been okay with it had they married in Japan?

Edited November 7, 2014 by Nayet

[fabianfred]

For those who wonder why a young girl can find an older man attractive, remember this. Young girls often get very close to their fathers, but those who might have grown up without a father presence, either from the father's death or leaving the mother to raise the child, often are attracted to an older man who fulfills the missing father role as well.

I often come across girls who have married young when i visit hill-tribes or migrant workers here. In the orange plantations near my village are girls of 12 who do a full days work and receive 2/3rds of an adults pay. They have never been to school, here or in Burma, but they are certainly mature in outlook and experience of life. They often marry fellow migrant workers at 14 because they have no chance to shop around, being restricted in travel and with low wages and living in slum like conditions. They fear the police and being noticed in this country foreign to them, even if they have some kind of id card. They thus choose a mate from those who share their lifestyle and language. Kids of age six and upwards help their parents with many tasks, and wash their own clothing and bathe themselves and can also cook. They are far more mature than their Western or city counterparts because they are given more responsibility from a young age.

One rule does not fit all.

[Manbing]

"it was once called carnal knowledge of a minor, now it's peadophilia"

Not quite the same thing, carnal knowledge is of s girl

under the legal age of consent whereas pedophelia is a

sexual attraction to pre-pubescent girls, which are pre-

menstrual and the younger the better for the pedo.

I thought the definition was based on age as an indication of maturity in relation to making good decisions?

I think Biggles45 might like to contact the Attorney Generals of the world to ask them to redefine the terms of their legal definitions.

As a suggestion, I think he might like to title these ammendments

" If she old enough to bleed, she's old enough to..."

[strapper1]

I don't see a whole of of difference between this 14 year old girl and the 12 year old boy that the Dutch man is serving a 35 year sentence in a Thai prison for allegedly molesting this 12 year old. (the story was recently on Thai Visa) I actually feel more sorry for this girl, than for the boy. The boy will get over it, but the girl is going to have to live with this for the rest of her life, her life is ruined. How long before she is pregnant?

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

I know this is taboo in many cultures currently but getting married at that age was common place even in the west not long ago. My dear grandmother (God rest her soul) was married at 14 in Canada in 1920 in Saskatchewan and had her first child at 15. It was common place back then. She had a total of 13 kids.

[AyG]

I can't help but wonder whether both are members of the Cham (Campa) ethnic group, most of whom are Moslems, and for whom child marriage/rape would be perfectly acceptable on religious grounds. They would consequently feel that no crime has been permitted, despite official, secular law.

(The Cham people live in both Cambodia and Vietnam.)

[Jaggg88]

In Greece, and especially in the villages, about 60 years ago, when a girl came to the age of menstruation, about 12 to 13, the parents made sure that would find a husband for her.

The explanation was that as she was expected to be a virgin at her time of marriage, parents were afraid that she would loose her virginity to somebody else.

Hence the rush.

I believe this was a custom in other Mediterranean countries also, but not sure.

Of course now we live in different times........but I wrote that as a reference to the old days.

Roma gypsies still practise child marriage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3154994.stm