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Child marriage: a crime against girls

Published 26 February 2018 in Uncategorized

Child marriage is one of the crimes against humanity committed against young girls. It is a gross violation of human rights, it kills the innocence of childhood, and it is a cry of nations for rights and freedoms.

Just as recruiting children violates the rights of boys, child marriage violates the rights of girls. But child marriage is the greater offence: it happens in every country, while child recruitment mostly happens in countries in armed conflict.

This episode with Nada Al-Ahdal is presented in parts below.

Introduction

More than 700 million people in the world were married under the age of 18 and still suffer from it today. More than 150 million men in the world suffer from underage marriage.

Every year, 15 million girls marry before the age of 18. More than 28 girls marry every minute: one girl every 2 seconds. Every minute, we lose dozens of girls.

The number of child marriages in the world could reach 1.2 billion by 2050 if these marriages are not stopped. This would have serious consequences for the world at many levels.

No country is free of this practice, which destroys human rights, and developing countries least of all.

Reasons for child marriage

Some traditions and customs are unjust, cruel and painful. Our parents became victims of harmful customs that killed girls, and that still kill more and more girls.

Fathers believe that marrying a girl young preserves her honour, secures her future and protects her from staying unmarried, as happened to girls before her. They forget that such a marriage kills her future, destroys her life, deprives her of education and holds society back.

The harms of child marriage

According to reliable studies, most of these girls end up dying in pregnancy or childbirth, because their bodies cannot bear it. A girl who survives faces many other harms to her own interests, and these also affect society.

Nada Foundation's findings for 2017 in Yemen

Nada Foundation monitored violations against girls in Yemen in 2017:

• More than 250 girls were forced into marriage, for social reasons or because of hard living conditions. Most had fled the war, or were exploited after losing their parents or their homes.
• 6 women took their own lives in Sana'a, Ibb and Al Mahwit.
• 12 girls died on their wedding night in Al Hudaydah, Raymah, Taiz and Al Mahwit.
• 45 girls died in childbirth, and some also lost their babies, in hospitals in Hajjah and Al Hudaydah and in some rural areas.
• 120 girls were taken to hospital in the first weeks of their marriage.
• The outcome of 69 cases of child marriage is still unknown.

What if a girl could finish her education first?

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: that we look at young girls as we look at young boys.

My message to the world about child marriage

Today we must all stand against these violations, which destroy the souls of their victims. They also harm the generations to come, raised by mothers whose rights were violated in childhood.

These mothers were taken by force to the beds of adults while they were still playing with their friends. They were taken from their school desks to carry responsibility for a family larger than any child can bear.

We must say with one voice: childhood is not for sale, and girls are not goods to be traded. Every girl, anywhere in the world, must have rights that are respected and protected.

The full episode