Reasons for child marriage
In this video, Nada Al-Ahdal sets out the main reasons why girls are married as children.
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Traditions and customs
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.
Poverty
Poverty is used to justify these marriages. Marrying young girls for money is trading in children. The groom plays the buyer, the girl's guardian takes the role of seller, and the goods are a little girl who understands nothing. This is the bitter truth that society ignores.
Displacement and war
Displacement and war create frightening problems and deep insecurity, for example in Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Parents marry their daughter to a soldier, or to any man, so that he will protect her, and so that they are freed of the responsibility and the cost of keeping her. This happens in many countries hit by displacement, disasters and war.
Inequality between the sexes
A girl is seen as a source of shame that must be removed by marriage. Her family wants to be free of responsibility for any mistake she might make outside the bounds of law or custom, such as the clothes she wears or finishing her education. This inequality must end.