Earlier this week, News of the World broke a story about an 11-year-old named Kordeza Zhelyazkova who gave birth to a baby girl on her wedding day.
Her husband, 19-year-old Jeliazko Dimitrov, met her in the playground of her Roma gypsy school in Bulgaria and rescued her from bullies. He said he believed she was 15 at the time and was never made aware of her real age.
He now faces up to six years in prison for having sex with a minor.
Kordeza has dropped out of school and says she is not going back. 'I used to play with my toys,' she said to News of the World. 'But now [my baby] is my new toy.'
Sliven, the Bulgarian city where Kordeza hails from, is the underage mother capital of Europe.
According to the girl's grandmother Dida, who was pregnant herself at 13, young motherhood is part of their culture. 'It's normal for our girls to have babies young. It's our tradition. But I didn't want it for my Kordeza - I felt she was too young.'
This incredible scenario begs so many questions: How can an 11-year old possibly comprehend the emotional and mental ramifications of raising another human being? How can a pre-teen fully understand the life-long commitment that is marriage? How can she manage to cope with the complicated arena of sexuality before her twelfth birthday?
But what may be more depressing than a culture of 'girl mothers' is how seemingly unprepared they are to deal with their lot. If young motherhood is so traditional (and commonplace) in this area, where is the sex education? If you know that girls are going to be having sex and getting pregnant (whether they're ready for it or not) can't they at least be provided with the tools to understand what they're getting themselves into?
Kordeza received no sexual education in school, had never heard of condoms and didn't even know she was pregnant. And what's most frightening is she refers to her child as her 'new toy'. Kordeza is painfully uneducated about the gravity of the situation ahead of her and regrettably ill-equipped of the most daunting tasks she'll face in her young life.
Can an 11-year-old really raise a child? Is a tradition of young motherhood acceptable? Should these girls be receiving more sex education?
- Vanessa
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