Editing Child marriage (section)

===Dowry and bride price===
[[File:Thai Bride Price 2008.jpg|thumb|left|A traditional, formal presentation of the bride price at a Thai engagement ceremony]]
Providing a girl with a [[dowry]] at her marriage is an ancient practice that continues in some parts of the world, especially in the [[Indian subcontinent]]. Parents bestow property on the marriage of a daughter as a dowry, which is often an economic challenge for many families. The difficulty in saving for dowry was common, particularly in times of economic hardship, or persecution, or unpredictable seizure of property and savings. These difficulties pressed families to betroth their girls, irrespective of their age, as soon as they had the resources to pay the dowry. Thus, Goitein notes that European Jews would marry their girls early, once they had collected the expected amount of dowry.<ref name=goitein78>S.D. Goitein (1978), A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World, Vol. 3, University of California Press</ref>

A [[bride price]] is the amount paid by the groom to the parents of a bride for them to consent to him marrying their daughter. In some countries, the younger the bride, the higher the bride price.<ref>{{cite news | last = Bearak | first = Barry | title = The bride price | work = [[The New York Times]] | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/magazine/09BRI.html | date = 9 July 2006 }}</ref><ref name="nourreport" /> This practice can create an economic incentive where girls are sought and married early by her family to the highest bidder. Child marriages of girls can function as a way out of desperate economic conditions or simply as a source of income for the parents.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Tremayne | first = Soraya | title = Modernity and early marriage in Iran: a view from within | journal = [[Journal of Middle East Women's Studies]] | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | pages = 65–94 | doi = 10.1215/15525864-2006-1003 | jstor = 40326888 | date = Winter 2006 | s2cid = 54509784 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/194426 }} [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_middle_east_womens_studies/v002/2.1tremayne.pdf Pdf.]</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Boyden | first1 = Jo | last2 = Pankhurst | first2 = Alula | last3 = Tafere | first3 = Yisak | title = Child protection and harmful traditional practices: female early marriage and genital modification in Ethiopia | journal = Development in Practice| volume = 22 | issue = 4 | pages = 510–522 | doi = 10.1080/09614524.2012.672957 | date = June 2012 | s2cid = 144583426 | url = https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ad065460-bef4-4578-8fd4-b22d62ac599e }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last = Chowdhury | first = F.D. | title = The socio-cultural context of child marriage in a Bangladeshi village | journal = [[International Journal of Social Welfare]] | volume = 13 | issue = 3 | pages = 244–253 | doi = 10.1111/j.1369-6866.2004.00318.x | date = July 2004 }}</ref> Bride price is another cause of child marriage and [[child trafficking]].<ref name=icrwchild/><ref name=africachild>{{cite web|url=http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/child-marriage |title=Eradicating child marriage in Africa |publisher=FORWARD UK |access-date= 2015-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last = Warner | first = Elizabeth | title = Behind the wedding veil: Child marriage as a form of trafficking in girls | journal = Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law | volume = 12 | issue = 2 | pages = 233–247 |year = 2004 | url = http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/jgspl/vol12/iss2/1/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/401-420/tandi415.html |title=The trafficking of children in the Asia–Pacific |publisher=Aic.gov.au |access-date=2015-02-18 |archive-date=27 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131027094118/http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/401-420/tandi415.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>