Age Restrictions

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I was working on an article and would post it soon. This topic had been bothering me for a long time; I started writing this several weeks ago. I had nearly completed it when I got distracted by something else (don't remember exactly what distracted me, this happens to me all the time), and I lost focus from this work. Then I got really busy in some other work, so busy, in fact, that I nearly forgot about my blog. But of course, I couldn't forget it for long, and here I am, back with this new article on age restrictions. Basically, it is an argument that young people should be given the same rights, and opportunities as adults.
I'd like to know about what you think about this. Do you agree with this perspective or not? It would great if you could take out the time and leave a comment below. Thanks a lot! :)

In most countries of the world, an individual is considered to be a ‘child’, and not an adult, before s/he reaches the age of eighteen. That means that a person may not drive a car, vote in the local elections, marry, own an independent bank account, or do any of the things that are considered legally permissible for adults to do, until they reach the age of eighteen.

In my opinion, that is absolutely unfair and unjust to forbid a person from doing any of the above things just because of their age. If a young person is not allowed to drive or vote, there should be a more valid reason for this rather than just because they aren’t old enough. After all, how old is old enough exactly? How can you say that at the age of majority, which is eighteen in most places, a person will actually be mature enough to be called an adult and be given their own responsibility? And isn’t it highly probable that a person becomes mature enough to enjoy the privileges that adults have before they turn eighteen, but they may not use those privileges because they aren’t old enough?

Sorry if I confused you a bit, but this has been bothering me for a long time. So I decided to write an article on it, and since you might or might not have understood the slightly philosophical debate above, I would like to illustrate my point with an example below.

Given the above information, let us imagine the very different lives of two women – one of them is legally an adult, and one of them is not. We are also assuming that both of these women, in the context of my descriptions, are living in Pakistan. Please note that these characters are entirely fictional, and have no relation whatsoever with real life, and nor are they based upon any persons that I am aware of. Also, I am in no position to say that what any of these characters are doing is right or wrong. This is an entirely imaginary description that I am about to give, written for the purpose of this article only.

One of them, who is an adult, is a twenty year old woman. She is a student at a local university, but has no interest in studying, nor has it been her mindful decision to go to university. Her main interests lie in fashion; she spends a large amount of her time aimlessly on social media, or gossiping with friends. She knows how to drive, and is old enough to obtain a driving license, but hasn’t bothered to do so.  She occasionally drives herself to places she needs to visit, but doesn’t care much for traffic signals or road rules.

This woman is old enough to have an independent bank account, but she has no need for one, for she is still financially dependent on her parents and elder siblings. She hasn’t even done any formal job yet, for she hasn’t felt the need for it, nor does she believe that she is capable enough to do one. She is legally allowed and encouraged to vote in the elections, but has no interest in politics, and is even unaware of the current Prime Minister. Consequently, she has never even bothered to cast her vote for any of the elections.

The other person who I’d like to talk about is a fourteen year old girl. She has been home educated by her parents since the very beginning, and is now about five years ahead of her age mates academically. Her interests lie in reading philosophical books, writing stories and articles.

She runs her own small business, making and selling cupcakes, which is one of her favourite pastimes. The business is running so well that she has even hired a part time worker for help. This young lady has a keen interest in her country’s politics, and has pretty strong views regarding it. She has read many books on politics and has a fairly good understanding of how the whole democratic system works. She even knows how to drive a car – her dad taught her, in case of emergencies. And she makes sure that she follows all the rules and regulations related to it.

This girl is an entrepreneur!  However, she cannot have an independent bank account because all banks allow only adults (that is, people eighteen and above) to have their independent accounts, and child accounts have to be monitored by a parent or guardian.

She has a deeper understanding of politics than most of the adults around her. However, as she is still a minor, she does not have the right to vote in any of the elections taking place, and thus, her opinion regarding these things hardly matters.

She has a perfectly adequate sense of road rules and regulations. She is also a very law abiding citizen, making sure not to break even a small rule, carrying out the duties she believes she has as a citizen of this country very faithfully. However, she is not legally allowed to drive a car because people younger than eighteen cannot obtain their driving license in most countries. And driving without a license is clearly illegal.

So how old is old enough exactly? I believe that this cannot be measured by the number of years a person has been in the world. After all, age has hardly anything to do with physical or intellectual maturity. I have seen many adults talking nonsense and doing silly things, and I have also seen very young children talking sensibly and acting responsibly. And this isn’t unusual. It happens all the time. I believe you all would have seen these things in life as well.

So why is it that we consider people younger than eighteen children, and treat them as children, however mature and sensible they may be? And why is it that people older than eighteen are given the status of an ‘adult’ in society, without judging whether or not they are actually mature enough to be called an adult?

If we look at this whole thing from the Islamic (or religious) perspective, we will find out that religion has never stated that a person will be legally an adult when he or she turns eighteen. In fact, we have learnt that after the age of twelve (or physical maturity), each person will be accountable for whatever good or bad deeds he or she does.

But whatever the age of majority in a country, there are very few countries in the world, excluding Pakistan, of course, in which the minimum voting age is sixteen. No country has reduced it any further than sixteen; with the regular voting age in most countries being eighteen. The legal driving age is lower in some countries, as low as fourteen or fifteen (under the supervision of a parent), but unfortunately in Pakistan, the driving age is eighteen years.

I think these age restrictions are holding back the youngsters of our country – and many other countries – from doing and creating so much that they could have. While I wouldn’t use this as an excuse for not doing what I could and should, I still believe that given the same rights, opportunities and privileges as adults; we – legally minors – could perform much better than we already are doing.