By Nirmal P. Acharya
According to BBC on October 1, California Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1267—the “ban on child marriage” bill—on September 30 local time, which will officially take effect on January 1 next year.
This means that anyone wishing to marry in California must be at least 18 years old; otherwise, it will be illegal.
I was nearly stunned. It’s already 2026, and only now are they banning child marriage? Did California actually allow child marriage before? Is the human rights situation in America really this backward?
Yes, currently 33 U.S. states still permit child marriage, with three of them having no minimum age requirement—California being one of them. As long as a girl’s guardian consents, she can legally become the wife of an adult man, even if she is only 10 years old or younger.
Each year in California, approximately 9,000 children get married. The majority are girls (accounting for 86%), and there are also around 40 to 50-year-old women marrying young boys.
There are about 320,000 minors in the United States who are legally married. These children have no way to escape marriage.
Because of the federal law in the United States: minors do not have independent judicial capacity.
Children cannot apply for divorce or hire lawyers.
This is the perfect legal loop.
Hasn’t the United States, for a long time, been hailed by the mainstream media and authoritative academic circles around the world as the beacon of human civilization? This civilized beacon still provides extensive legal protection for child marriage to this day, which is truly astonishing.
At this moment, I can’t help but have a wish: May the “light” of this civilized beacon not spread to Nepal. Nepal is physically quite far from this beacon, and this is truly a blessing bestowed upon us by heaven.
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