Nightfall, I'm also disgusted by the idea of a grown man marrying a twelve-year-old, but I think the way you describe it is misleading even if not technically incorrect. For example:
Who says they don't want to get married...
I dont consider a child to be fully capable of deciding if she wants and is ready for a life time commitment.
I don't either, but when you say "forcing," understand that some of these girls will want to get married, or if they don't, it's not due to their age, they'd just rather marry someone else. But they have been expecting to get married at that age, like their friends and sisters do, so they're much more ready for it than American girls would be. In the kind of society we're talking about, a lot of men and women don't really get to choose who they marry, so the point may be moot.
...and who said anything about children?
You said 12 year olds. I consider 12 year olds to be children.
I do too, but in a society that views twelve-year-olds the way we view twenty-year-olds, that's probably a misleading term.
...is a man a pedophile if his society expects him to marry young teenage girls and he does so?
Well, if hes attracted to girls who are not yet developed, I would say so. I'll grant however, that attraction may not be a factor in these types of marriage.
But they're developed enough to be physically capable of having children. That's why some cultures wouldn't call them children. When we talk about a pedophile in our culture, we're talking about someone who likes to abuse small children. We even use it if the victim is 15 or 16. But a guy like this is marrying the girl with her parents' permission, taking her into his home and providing for her. It's no utopia, but it's quite a bit different from what pedophilia connotes to most of us.
