- My research has lead me down many paths and dashed the bridal identity wide open, leaving so many rooms of exploration to what is a bride, who is a bride and ultimately what does it mean to be a bride? With the door wide open to the unspoken words of the bride story through history and the present, it has led me to the section of child brides. Now this on its own is a topic and theme deserving of its own profound analysis and research thesis as it is both alarming and controversial dependent on which side of the law, religious or cultural belief system you lean on. I will thus only be giving a brief summation on the subject and will not be conducting a deep analysis on the subject. I would however like to include it as part of my study by producing a poetic and jewellery depiction/caption of the subject.
Through my research I have become alarmed by the vast
numbers of young girls who have been both abducted and forced into marriage;
young girls of school going ages ranging from the ages of as young as 12. This
just makes me question the understanding and stand point of cultures as to what
marriage is and what is a bride? The reason being that, how can a girl who has
just hit adolescence and barely knows who she is, a girl who is still trying to
understand herself and grow into herself, be expected to not just play house,
but be the woman of the house? What are the determining factors? I have been
going through documentary after documentary, and was shocked by just how many
women actually agree let allow defend this practice, which is actually a form
of abuse. One woman, from the Eastern Cape actually stated that what the law
regards to be an unlawful age to marry is not what Xhosa culture regards as
unlawful. This is just one of many examples of such beliefs being part of
traditional systems which broadened as far as the UK, where girls are literally
kept and taken out of schools by the thousands per year by their own parents,
all in the name of marriage. All of these
girls fall under the age groups of below 18 to 10 year old.
In truth, I must ask: “What is does it mean to be a bride,
when you are forced to become one even as a child?”
