* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As long as child marriage exists, we will not be able to build a safer, more equal world, not just for girls but for all of us
When Evelyn married at the age of 15, it brought a shocking change to her life: “Anything (my husband) said I would do even if I did not want to. I would do all the work in the house and most of the work on the farm, and he controlled my movements.”
Every year, 15 million girls meet fate similar to Evelyn’s: they get married, with no way out.
International Day of the Girl Child on October 11 will shine a light on the violence that adolescent girls face on a daily basis around the world.
Child marriage, a practice that leaves girls vulnerable to sexual, physical and psychological violence throughout their lives, must be a part of this conversation.
Violence under the guise of marriage
Adolescent girls in Syrian refugee camps know all too well the hardships of matrimony. According to UNICEF, child marriage among Syrian refugee girls has more than doubled since the start of the conflict more than three years ago.
In times of insecurity, it is not uncommon for parents to resort to marriage to protect their daughters from rape or as a ticket out of poverty. Yet pushing girls into marriages does not remove the threat of sexual violence: it merely gives violence the pretence of legality.
Robbed of their autonomy, girls are rarely able to negotiate sex or motherhood on their own terms, leaving them vulnerable to early and repeated pregnancies, one of the leading causes of death for adolescent girls worldwide.
That is what happened to Evelyn: “He told me he wanted ten children. I told him that I only wanted two but he said he is the man and his decision is what we will go by. Our men are still making the decisions. When we refuse, they can force us.”
Child marriage is a clear manifestation of the pervasive violence that women and girls face globally. A recent UNICEF report found that 700 million women alive today were married off before the age of 18 – that is nearly 10% of the world’s population! This number could grow to 1.2 billion women and girls by the year 2050. At this scale, child marriage is not just a problem: it’s a global crisis that requires immediate action.
Solutions to child marriage exist
Recent research by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) shows how, by empowering adolescent girls, programmes can successfully delay marriage in communities where child marriage is the norm.
The basic ingredients to success are the same: giving girls the knowledge to understand their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the confidence to claim them; providing them with a space to interact with other girls their age; and teaching them how to become financially independent and earn an income.
But preventing child marriage should not rest on a girl’s shoulders. One girl can make a difference but she cannot start a revolution by herself. She needs the support of the whole community, including men and boys.
Women’s rights activist and Girls Not Brides member Qamar Naseem explains that “educating women without educating the men in their life often renders them more vulnerable and puts them more at risk of violence. Even if women are aware of their rights, men are not always ready to give them their rights.”
Translating commitments into action
This year has seen unprecedented attention to child marriage, from the African Union’s launch of a continental campaign to hundreds of commitments taken by governments and civil society at the Girl Summit to end child marriage in a generation.
Now is the time for governments to translate these commitments into concrete change for the communities where child marriage happens. A few countries, including Nepal, Zambia and Tanzania, are showing the way by collaborating with civil society to develop national strategies to address child marriage. More countries must demonstrate the political will to address this issue.
Child marriage has undermined achievement of six out of eight Millennium Development Goals which is why, as the international community negotiates the post-2015 development framework, governments should rally in support of a target to end child marriage in the Sustainable Development Goals. For as long as child marriage exists, we will not be able to build a safer, more equal world, not just for girls but for all of us.
Heather Hamilton is global gcordinator of Girls Not Brides
