Ending Child Marriage:
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| This photo shows 73-year old Rohaya Binti Muhammad (right) with her 15-year old husband in Southern Sumatra province, Indonesia |
Child marriage is one of the most
painful subjects I have come across in my life. I cannot even begin to fathom
what these innocent girls at a very young age have to go through this. I am very passionate about ending child marriage and
informing the vast majority of the public and friends in the West who really
have no clue. Just recently, after so
many years of battle, the Indonesian government raised the minimum age
at which girls can marry from 16 to 19. The country has the eighth-highest
number of child brides in the world according to the UN, this phenomenon should
soon be a thing of the past.
According
the UNICEF, United Nations’ children’s Fund, worldwide, more than 700 million
women living today were married before the age of 18; of those, more than one
in three women were wed before the age of 15. 125m are African. Three out of
four girls in Niger are married before they are 18, giving this poor West
African country the world’s highest rate of child marriage. The country’s minimum
legal age of marriage for girls is 15, but some brides are as young as nine. UNICEF
estimates that, on current trends, almost half the world’s child brides by 2050
will be African.
This is a very complex issue where
poverty, lack of education, the belief that girls and women are somehow
inferior to boys, and cultural practices tend to sustain the practice. In many communities where child
marriage is practiced, girls are not valued as much as boys – they are seen as
a burden on their family. Marrying a daughter at a young age can be viewed as a
way to ease economic hardship by transferring this ‘burden’ to her husband’s
family. An ancient proverb from South India says, “Bringing up a girl is
like watering a neighbor’s plant. “ This means you are investing in your female
child who one day will belong to her future husband’s family.
One negative
effect of child marriage is the exclusion of women from education in favor of
domestic work and child rearing. It destroys girls’ lives, and rob their
opportunity to complete their basic education. If they marry older men and when
husband dies or leaves her or they get divorced and when she can't read, she can't
support herself. Countries with a high prevalence of child marriages, such as
in South Asia and sub- Saharan Africa tend to have low literacy rates for young
women. These poor little brides are also susceptible to domestic violence, sexual
abuse from their older husbands, and marital rapes as they are not mature or
strong enough to protest and not independent enough to escape adverse situations
in their married life.
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| Photo courtesy: Stephanie Sinclair |
Early marriage
is also being used in many societies as a strategy to protect their daughters
from rape, often to ensure her safety in areas where girls are at high risk of
harassment and physical or sexual assault. In addition to this, when
menstruation begins, there are no bathroom for girls in most of the village
schools. So a lot of families don't want their girls to go to school when they
have their periods. In a poor family, giving a daughter in marriage at a very
young age allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one
less person to feed, clothe and educate. So, they can invest more on their
son’s education.
According to
the World Health Organization, one of the biggest issues in child marriage is
that girls who give birth before the age of 15 are more than twice as likely to
die during childbirth. Their children are also at greater risk to be born
premature, because the girls' hips aren't wide enough. They end up in obstructed
labor, and they can end up with fistulas because they are pushing their bodies
so much, and their bodies aren't ready for it.
Even today, in many parts of
the world, a girl child and young women are still seen as second-class
citizens; the property of their fathers until they are married and of their
husbands after they have tied the knot. The more patriarchal a society, the
more sons are preferred. One report notes that:
‘While a number of
national and international legal norms protect the rights of the girl child in
theory, in practice cultural and social beliefs about gender and the value of
girls and boys have been much more difficult to overcome… By age five, most
girls and boys have already internalized the gender role expectations
communicated to them by their families, schools, the media and society as a
whole, and these norms will influence their behavior and their development for
the rest of their lives.’
Perhaps this is not
surprising. These attitudes go back a long way – one verse from the Chinese
Book of Songs, written 3,000 years ago, says:
‘When a son is born,
Let him sleep on the bed,
Clothe him with fine
clothes,
And give him jade to
play...
When a daughter is born,
Let her sleep on the
ground,
Wrap her in common
wrappings,
And give broken tiles to
play...’
In many countries today,
the birth of a boy is still something to be celebrated and the birth of a girl
a cause for commiseration. This can have serious consequences for their human
rights. Although it is often technically illegal, families that prefer to have
male children are able to abort their female fetuses now that technology can
tell them the sex of their unborn child. In Asia, at least 60 million women are
missing due to sex-selective abortion and the practice of killing or abandoning
girl babies.
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| Photo courtesy: Stephanie Sinclair |
Once they are born, girl
babies are likely to be fed less than their brothers when food is short,
leading to a permanent cycle of anemia and under-nourishment. They are also
less likely to go to school. As a result, 62 per cent of illiterates between
the ages of 15 and 24 are young women. And this despite the fact that research
has shown that an educated woman not only has a better chance of earning an
income, but is more likely to keep her children healthy and send them to school.
Finally, I think we all
can make a difference in the life of a girl child whether in this country or anywhere
in the world. Discrimination against girls cannot be done by laws and
regulations of each country alone. One cannot force changes. Despite the
advancement of political and civil rights for women, in many advanced countries
and the widespread acceptance of equality in principle, full equality has not
been achieved. The fundamental belief in equality of men and women must start
in the family and continue through school, community, work and marriage. Here
are some points to guide us on what we can do. (source: New
Internationalist, from UK in a report entitled, “Because I am Girl:
State of the World’s Girls 2007.)
First: Invest in girls and young women. Adequate
resources must be supplied to provide young women and girls in the poorest
areas of the world the opportunity for education. If you see girls not
attending school in any parts of the world, become a champion or the financial
provider for them to attend school. This is an investment not just in half the
population of the world, but in the future for all.
Second: Promote attitudinal changes, from cradle
to grave. Fathers, husbands and brothers need to be encouraged to view their
female relatives as equal to themselves. They must be listened to and respected
at home and work. As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest
possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might
be theirs.
Third: Work with your community leaders and make
sure women participate fully and equally in the affairs of your village, town
or city. Any discriminatory laws related to women must be changed to protect
and promote their human rights.
Fourth: Take a life-cycle approach to improving
the rights of girls and young women’s means addressing discrimination at every
stage from birth, or even before birth, until they are grown women.
Fifth: The countries at a higher level must
collect more data on girls and young women. Statistics and material are
collected either on children or on women in general. Young women’s needs, as
distinct from those of young men, are ignored.
Sixth: Listen to girls and encourage their participation. There are many young women out there with the confidence to make themselves heard and the skills and knowledge to make a difference. Their voices and views must be listened to by that in power, and supported by family and friends. Be a catalyst to make the world listen to them.
One of the ways we can
help third world countries is to organize a campaign to provide education for
girls in villages. Make sure they stay in school. You can work with various
non-governmental agencies in selected countries. Some of the countries are
making great progress in providing primary and secondary education for girls.
Countries have begun to notice that educating women provides amazing social
benefits, from better health to a better economy.
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