Child marriage
Child marriage
It is one of the crimes against humanity committed against young girls, a gross violation of human rights, the killing of childhood’s innocence, and a cry from nations for rights and freedom.
Just as recruiting children violates the rights of boys, marrying off minors violates the rights of girls.
But child marriage is an even greater offence than child recruitment, because it happens in every country, while child recruitment happens mostly in countries at war.
An introduction to child marriage
More than 700 million people alive today were married as children, before the age of 18, and live with the suffering it brings.
More than 150 million men in the world suffer from child marriage.
Every year, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18: more than 28 girls every minute.
That is one girl every 2 seconds. Every minute, we lose dozens of girls.
If these marriages are not stopped, the number of child marriages in the world could reach 1.2 billion by 2050, with serious consequences for the world at every level.
No country is free of this practice, which kills human rights, and it is most common in developing countries.
Why child marriage happens
These traditions and customs are unjust, cruel and painful. Our parents became victims of wrong customs that killed girls and are still killing more girls today.
Fathers believe that marrying a girl young protects her honour, secures her future and saves her from staying unmarried, as happened with girls before her. They forget that such a marriage kills her future, ruins her life, denies her an education and holds society back.
The dangers of child marriage
According to reliable studies, most of these girls die during pregnancy or childbirth because their bodies cannot cope. If a girl survives, many serious problems harm her own interests and affect society too.
Violations against minors recorded by Nada Foundation in Yemen in 2017
- More than 250 girls were forced into marriage for social reasons or because of hard living conditions; most were displaced by the war, or exploited after losing their parents or their homes.
- 6 women took their own lives in the capital Sana’a and in the cities of Ibb and Al-Mahwit.
- 12 girls died on their wedding night in Al-Hudaydah, Raymah, Taiz and Al-Mahwit.
- 45 girls died giving birth, and some also lost their babies, in hospitals in Hajjah, Al-Hudaydah and some rural areas.
- 120 were taken to hospital in the first weeks of marriage.
- The fate of 69 married girls is still unknown.
What if a girl could finish her education before marriage?
What if a girl finished her education and married after the legal age, by her own choice? Let us imagine that this is our society, and these are our customs and traditions: that we see underage girls the way we see boys.
My message to the world about child marriage
Today we must all stand up to these violations, which destroy the souls of their victims and, with them, the generations to come, raised by mothers whose rights were violated in childhood, when they were taken by force to adults’ beds while still playing with their childhood friends, and taken from their school desks to carry a family larger than any child can bear. We must say with one voice: Childhood is not for sale. Girls are not for trade. It must be recognised that every girl, anywhere in the world, must enjoy rights that are guaranteed and protected.
Watch the full episode with Nada Al-Ahdal
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