Child marriages should be taboo

Child marriage usually refers to a social phenomena which is practiced in some societies. This widespread practice is that of marrying a young child (generally defined as below the age of fifteen) to an adult. In practice, it is almost always a young girl married to a man although sometimes a boy is married to girl who is also young. But generally, those marriages are put on hold until they are older.

Child marriage has been prevalent in many cultures throughout human history, but has gradually diminished since some countries started to urbanize, changing the ways of life for the people of these countries. An increase in the advocation of human rights, whether as women's rights or as children's rights, has caused the traditions of child marriage to decrease greatly as it was considered unfair and dangerous for the children. Today, child marriage is usually only practiced in third world countries, where cultural practices and traditions remain and have a strong impact on the people, and where the living standards and conditions still create a strong incentive for child marriage.

Despite many countries enacting a marriageable age of 16-18, customary marriages are widespread. Poverty, tradition and conflict make the incidence of child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa..

In many tribal systems a man pays a dowry to the girl's family in order to marry. The dowry in many parts of Africa decreases as a girl gets older. Even before puberty it is common for a married girl to leave her parents to be with her 'husband'. Many of the marriages therefore are poverty related, with parents seeking a dowry to feed, clothe, educate and house the rest of the family.

Nchimunya, age 13 has already experienced the pain of labour in child-bearing, although she never saw the intended results as she had delivered a still-born baby. A year ago, this girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair, was married to a 35-year-old man in her village in Namwala District of Southern Province. She was then just 12 years old. The marriage was fully consummated, and Nchimunya was given her five-year-old younger sister to keep. The new wife was just in grade seven when her guardians decided to marry her off to a wealthy man, three times her age. At the end of her first pregnancy, Nchimunya's anatomy proved not ready for the task of delivering a baby. After an unbearable three-day labour, the foetus was 'cut' out of her, still-born. The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula- a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina, bladder and rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour. This condition mostly affects child victims of under-age marriages.

The various UN commissioned reports indicate that in many Sub-Saharan countries in Africa, high incidence of marriage among girls aged less than 15 exists. Governments have tended to overlook the particular problems which child marriage has resulted in, including obstetric fistulae, childbirth mortality, sexually transmitted diseases, including cervical cancer, and malaria. Many teenagers are unable to negotiate for protected sex. Further compounding their vulnerable position is their lack of knowledge of contraceptive methods and lack of access to reproductive health information and services.

In parts of Ethiopia and Nigeria over 50% of girls are married before the age of 15 and some girls are married as young as the age of 7. In parts of Mali 39% of girls are married before the age of 15. In South Africa there are legal provisions made for respecting the marriage laws of traditional marriages, whereby a person might be married as young as 12 for females and 14 for males.

Despite a move four years ago to curb child marriage in Morocco, the practice is still quite common in the country, according to new data provided by the authorities. The Moroccan Justice Minister Abdel Wahid al-Radi, said that in 2007 alone, his ministry received 38,710 marriage applications involving a minor, in which about 90 percent of the cases were approved. This despite the reform of Morocco's Family Law or Mudawana four years ago which outlawed child marriages except in special cases that have been approved by the Justice Ministry. Out of the over 38,000 applications, 379 involved marriage with a male child below the age of 18. The rest of the applications were for unions with female minors.

Child marriage has been illegal in India since the passing of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929. In this Act, the term child refers to a male younger than twenty-one, or a female younger than eighteen. Every year children are still married illegally in India. Most of the child marriages in India take place in rural villages and areas, that usually have little legal supervision. Over time, child marriage has become a social taboo, with the majority of Indians believing it to be wrong. Mass marriages that involve children are frequently ignored by authorities.

Child marriage is legal in the United States. Laws vary from state to state but generally children 16 and over may marry with parental consent. Under 16 generally require a court order in addition to the parental consent. In 2007, church leader Warren Jeffs was convicted of being an accomplice to rape of a minor due to him arranging a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man. We all remember Jerry E. Lewis marrying a 13-year-old girl in the United States years ago.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials do not seek it.

Officials known as "ma'thoons" have legal authority to preside over marriage contract ceremonies. They ask the groom and the woman's guardian if they approve of the marriage and then give them the marriage papers to sign.There are no statistics to show how many Saudi children are married off every year.

An 11-year-old Saudi boy gave out invitations to his classmates for a big event his family was planning this summer – and it wasn't his birthday party. It was his wedding to a 10-year-old cousin. Muhammad al-Rashidi's marriage is on hold, his father said, after pressure from the governor of the northern province of Hail, who considered the elementary school student too young to marry. Muraiziq al-Rashidi, the 11-year-old boy's father, said he has delayed, not cancelled, his son's marriage. "God willing, we will hold the wedding next year,"

The case is among a recent spate of marriages involving the very young reported in the media and by Saudi human rights groups. They have been denounced by activists, clerics and others who say such unions harm children and trivialize the institution of marriage.

"We are studying this issue so we can put an end to this phenomenon," said Zuhair al-Harithi, board member of the Human Rights Commission, a Saudi government-run rights group. "These marriages violate international agreements the kingdom has signed.''

One girl, 15, was married off by her father, a death-row inmate, to a cellmate also sentenced to die. The father was beheaded July 21 for killing another man.Pictures of the wedding, held in the men's prison in Taif, appeared in several newspapers. The groom, Awad al-Harbi, and his bride were allowed to spend two nights together in a special prison quarters after the wedding, according to Al-Watan daily. Al-Harbi told another newspaper, Al-Madina, recently that his wife is pregnant.

But the phenomenon is not new, said Sheik Muhammad al-Nujaimi, a strong opponent of the marriages. He and other clerics, activists and writers have pushed the government for a law setting a minimum age for marriage and to resolve differences among religious authorities over the issue. "There are different (religious) opinions regarding the marriages, which is why we need the government to settle the issue through legislation," said al-Nujaimi.

In Yemen, an 8-year-old girl recently sought a judge to help her divorce a man nearly four times her age.

I don’t believe that any country that permits children under the age of 15 to marry should be permitted to sit as a member of the Security Council of the United Nations. It would not be in the best interest of the other nations to have some backward country sitting as a member of the Security Council voting on an issue that has an effect on the lives of the rest of us.