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No More Child Brides

by Matilda Branson

(Trigger warning: discussion of child sexual abuse)

When I was eight years old, I had three main interests in life:

1. Building cubby houses in trees.
2. The trampoline.
3. Salt and vinegar flavoured chips.

And I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up, a stylish incarnation of the Famous Five-meets-Indiana Jones. I had few worries in life.

A few weeks ago an eight-year-old Yemeni girl died from internal bleeding from a ruptured uterus, caused by sex with her 40-year-old husband, not long after marriage.

It is not ok for an eight-year-old girl to be married to anyone.

It is not ok for an eight-year-old girl to die from sex with her 40-year-old husband.

It is fundamentally wrong, wrong, wrong.

You can feel it, no? That slightly sick feeling? It’s not fair, it’s not right – it is wrong. 11-year-old Nada al-Ahdal captures the issues and fears for child brides, as she talks about escaping her arranged marriage, in this video from earlier this year.

Child marriage. Early marriage.Forced marriage. Whatever it’s called, it’s a serious abuse of child rights. It threatens young girls’ lives, their health, and their futures (UNFPA, 2012).  It exposes girls to early pregnancy (the complications which may arise during childbirth when young being the main cause of death among 15-19 year old girls in developing countries), to HIV and STIs. Young girls are more at risk of domestic violence and sexual abuse (marital rape, a hidden form of gender-based violence, is frequently  ignored in the public sphere, left out of policies and legislation), as well as psychological and emotional harm including depression, feelings of hopelessness, and trauma among others.

Girls’ educations (formal and vocational) and their ability to attend school, and to consequently access employment opportunities and to have futures, are irretrievably lost on the day they are married.

Choice for a girl – to have the opportunity to find out what she wants, to choose what she would like to be – is stolen.

Child Marriage hot spots throughout the world:

Rank	Country Name	% girls married before 18
1	Niger	75
2	Chad	68
3	Central African Republic	68
4	Bangladesh	66
5	Guinea	63
6	Mozambique	56
7	Mali	55
8	Burkina Faso	52
9	South Sudan	52
10	Malawi	50
11	Madagascar	48
12	Eritrea	47
13	India	47
14	Somalia	45
15	Sierra Leone	44
16	Zambia	42
17	Dominican Republic	41
18	Ethiopia	41
19	Nepal	41
20	Nicaragua	41

* Child marriage prevalence is defined as the percentage of women 20-24 years old who were married or in union before age 18.

Source: UNICEF State of the World’s Children, 2013 – data from UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and other national surveys, and refers to the most recent year available during the period 2002-2011. Source: United Nations 

Horrified at the stats?  I was- no, I am, hence the blog post. Not enough is being done. What is scary is that if current trends continue, worldwide, 142 million girls will be married in the next decade alone (UNFPA, 2012).

Ok, so it’s wrong, and an absolute violation of human rights on every front. But to say it’s wrong, and that it just needs to stop, is way too simplistic a way to look at it. So why does it happen? Why is it so prevalent? For a detailed explanation, maybe have a look at UNFPA’s detailed 2012 report Marrying Too Young. In short though, some of the key reasons include:

• Poverty and structural inequalities
• Gender inequality
• Social norms legitimating child marriage
• Lack of education and economic opportunity

 

It is a complex issue, and tackling it requires work on a range of fronts, including:

• Improving girls’ access to education, to better equip them with knowledge and skills that will help them to negotiate and make decisions regarding their own lives.
• To transform social norms which legitimate child marriage by working with individuals, families, community leaders and communities themselves on these norms.
• Focusing on projects and programs which alleviate the economic and social pressures which motivate the perceived need for child marriage.
• Improving policy and legislation on child marriage, including raising the age of marriage to 18 years.

 

At the end of the day, every eight-year-old girl holds the fundamental right to be exactly that – an eight-year-old, interested in eight-year-old things. She should not die or suffer at the hands of a husband she has not chosen and that she is forced to marry.

For more information about child marriage, or how you can help, the following websites may be of use:

http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/

http://www.icrw.org/preventing-child-marriage

http://www.care.org/getinvolved/international-day-of-the-girl/index.asp

http://unfpa.org/endchildmarriage

http://www.iwhc.org/index.php

http://www.betterworldcampaign.org/take-action/end-child-marriage.html

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