Child brides – a global issue
Author: Professor Joyce Harper
Child brides are still common in many countries. A few years ago there was a report of an 8 year old girl from Yemen who died on her wedding night after suffering bleeding and uterine rupture due to sexual trauma. Her husband was five times her age. And today there was a report of a 13 year old Yemen girl dying in similar circumstances.
The group Girls not Brides report that every year 15 million girls are married as child brides. “Neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers, child brides are at greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence.” In developing countries, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 years.
Child brides can be found in every region of the world, from the Middle East to Latin America, South Asia to Europe. 1 in 3 girls in the developing world are said to be married before the age of 18. The countries with the highest observed rates of child marriages are Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea and the Central African Republic, with a rate above 60%
Most of these countries have a legal age for marriage, often around 15 years, but this can be overturned with the parents consent.
Alemtsahye Gebrekidan, now 38 and living in London, campaigns against child brides. She was married at 10, a mother at 13 and a widow at 14. She tells her story here.
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Image credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2543166/Ethiopian-former-child-bride-tells-harrowing-story.html
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These girls are not ready for marriage in anyway. One minute they are children, and the next they are sexually abused and looking after their husbands. This is wrong on so many levels.