16 Days of Activism Against GBV: Forced/Early Marriage

Photo from Long, Hard Road to End Child Marriage in South Sudan

Early marriage is a human rights violation that denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education and most often ends her schooling, limits her economic and social opportunities, increases her risk of intimate partner violence and abuse, and places her health and reproductive health at risk. Forced/early marriage is found in countries across the globe, but is most prevalent in developing nations. The following statistics were extracted from the International Center for Research on Women website:

• One third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15.
• In 2012, 70 million women 20-24 around the world had been married before the age of 18.
• If present trends continue, 150 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday over the next decade. That’s an average of 15 million girls each year.
• While countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage are concentrated in Western and Sub-Saharan Africa, due to population size, the largest number of child brides reside in South Asia.

In South Sudan 40% of girls are married before the age of 18 (2010 Sudan Household Health Survey). However the ongoing conflict and the ensuing economic crisis has forced many parents to resort to using early marriage in exchange for bride price as a survival method. Thus, the actual rate of forced/early marriage may be much higher during the last two years. Forced early marriage is also a harmful traditional practice that continues in my second home country of Mozambique. I personally see the consequences of forced early marriage right in my own community.

Some reasons why child marriage remains prevalent in South Sudan, Mozambique and in Sub-Saharan Africa in general are the following:

1. Social and cultural beliefs view girls as a source of wealth
• Many African communities consider early marriage a good practice that benefits both the girls and their families. It is an avenue for families to access much-needed assets, such as cattle, money, and other gifts.
• It is also viewed as a way to protect girls from premarital sex and unwanted pregnancy that undermines family honor and decreases the amount of bride price a family may receive.

2. Educating the Girl Child is not valued
Investment in girls’ education is often seen as a waste of money. In South Sudan, only 6.2% of girls complete primary school and 20.4% of young women drop-out of secondary school due to pregnancies.

3. Inadequate enforcement of laws and policies on early marriage. Many countries do have laws protecting girls from forced early marriage--without enforcement a law is just words on a piece of paper.

Harmful Consequences of Forced Early Marriage
• Higher risk of maternal mortality and obstetric complications such as obstetric fistula due to early and frequent pregnancies;
• Lack of control over health and reproductive decisions such as contraceptive use which strips women of their right to control her physical integrity. For example, the number and spacing of children and to be protected from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
• She is denied her right to access and complete her education;
• Girls are more likely to remain in a cycle of poverty throughout her lifetime.

What is being done do to stop forced/early marriage?

1. Empowering families and communities to understand the importance of girls staying in school, getting a job or starting their own business. Let them know that their value to you is far greater than any material object like cattle, money or gifts.
2. Advocates are working with families and communities to consider alternatives to early marriage by looking at community mechanisms to alleviate food insecurity or economic hardship.
3. Campaigns are pushing for improved birth and marriage registration which helps prevent early marriage by proving the age of a girl and her partner. When births and marriages are registered it means that girls and women are able to seek financial and legal reparation if the marriage ends.

If you are interested to learn more about forced early marriage in South Sudan, here is a link to a video called Child Marriage: South Sudan produced in 2013 by Human Rights Watch, most likely published shortly before the conflict began in December 2013. The rate of forced early marriage is much higher today (and the last two years) due to the economic constraints experienced by resource impoverished families. And the following link is to a website dedicated to eradicating forced/early marriage where you can learn about the stories of girls themselves from other parts of the world called Child Brides: A closer look at child marriage around the world, tales of heartbreak and of hope.