Pot calling kettle

When I was young it was only in Scotland you could marry at sixteen without parental consent. In England you had to be twenty-one to do so. Hence the Gretna Green marriages.

The age when marriage is legal has nothing to do with the age of consent in most countries in the world, In most European countries you have to be eighteen to get married, but the age of consent is sixteen.

I think the Radfords are another example of the right person at the wrong time.

I would have preferred to have been given the choice to stay in education at 15, not pushed to get a job. I would have been content to be a child til age 18, but it was not an option seeing as there was no support for my education.

I don't like the hypocrisy of this country allowing child marriage whilst criticising other countries and cultures. All child marriage should be banned wherever it takes place.

Yes, the issue of consent is bound up with the age for marriage. If people are regarded as children until the age of 18, then the age of consent needs to rise to 18, too.

Fwiw, I married at 18. I was in no way a child, I’d been working for over a year by then and knew what I was doing. My mother certainly wasn’t happy with my decision and gave us six months but Dh and I have now been together for 47 years and counting.

I think it's quite important to discuss consent, age of consent etc.

I was wondering that too welbeck.

why are you so exercised about this OP.

My cousin got married on his girlfriend's 16th birthday, when she was 8 months pregnant. This was in 1963. They moved to New Zealand, had another child and the last I heard they were still together. Who'd have thought it?

Is it not a matter of informed consent? We had 'clients' who would disappear off to Pakistan and come back married to very confused looking very young girls.
Teacher friends told me that they have to keep a look out for young pupils suddenly disappearing off to Pakistan or Bangladesh. Forced marriage is wrong.

I cant believe people are using the radfords as an example of a happy marriage. She was 14 and he was 18 when she became pregnant.

A 16 year old is legally a child not an adult.

Well done Jayt It shows that it matters more who you marry than when.

Better to marry the right person at the wrong time than the wrong person at the right time.

I married at 17 and over 53 years later am still married to that same special man. I’ve been lucky, but we preached to our children on the advantages of maturity and having a young free life first before going in to a marriage. They all listened and understood.

A sixteen year old is not a child, nor a child bride in any country.

But it is wrong, immoral, if not illegal, for a sixteen year old, or especially a younger girl, to be coerced or forced into marriage with an older man against her will.

So a 16 year old in this country is not a child bride but would be in another country?

I think in some countries children are taken out of school or education to marry at a young age. Very young children are also promised, or engaged if you like, to marry parents choice at an early age. This is what should be stopped.

I knew a lady who had been “married” at the age of 8. The groom was a couple of years older. She sat on her father’s knee during the ceremony and afterwards she lived with her “husband’s” family. I was not rude enough to ask when the marriage was consummated but she clearly loved her husband and they were still together 50+ years later.
This took place in the Caribbean, the family was Hindu.

The difference between a 16 year old in the U.K. and. sixteen year old in many other countries is how they are regarded by the menfolk.
They are of no value other than to cook, clean and procreate.

That's if girls even have access to education, of course.

Clearly obvious girls all over the world need to think education, education, education before any thoughts of marriage. Thank god I grew up up in the feminist decade

@Welbeck I've never heard of it either. I think it might make the news headlines!

i think the cases of parents agreeing for their 16 year old to marry a 58 year old in england must be very rare.
i've never heard of it. i think the registrar might ask a few questions.

i think by confusing the situation here for 16 year olds with the obvious evil in some countries where there is large scale abuse involving young girls, the message is being diluted.

A 16 year old marrying a 58 year old is a tragedy. All abuse is a tragedy.

In the news recently a blogger died who had married at 16 and had been fantastically happily married for 14 years with four children until her sudden and tragic demise.

Sue Radford has been with her husband since she was 14. Just because someone gets with someone young doesn't mean they can't make a relationship work. And yes, she was underage when she got pregnant, but she is still with him and they seem happy.

Just two examples of teenagers who managed to make it work...