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Articles on Child marriage

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Mothers iron their daughters’ breasts as a way of preventing early marriage and keeping their daughters in school for longer. Shutterstock

Breast ironing: a harmful practice that doesn’t get sufficient attention

Close to 4 million teenage girls are subjected to breast ironing worldwide. This harmful cultural practice, which is most prevalent in West and Central Africa, needs to stop.
In this 2012 photo, a midwife holds a newborn baby boy she has just delivered by flashlight in Guinea-Bissau. The African country is one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth, with a high rate of maternal death. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The truth about maternal death

It’s not just women in impoverished countries dying in childbirth. The maternal death rate in both Canada and the U.S. has risen, particularly among Indigenous and African-American women.
Many girls in Dar es Salaam’s slums drop out of school because of the costs involved. ICT4D.at/Flickr

Jobs and paid-for schooling can keep Tanzanian girls from early marriages

Creating more opportunities for young women and girls to work and earn money is a possible solution to early marriages. Subsidising secondary education to keep poorer girls in school is another.
Participants in the Finote Hiwot project to end child, early and forced marriage in Ethiopia. Department for International Development/Jessica Lea

How decent data can help African girls overcome second class status

A number of African states are taking positive steps to combat violence against girls and child marriage. But social and cultural barriers can nullify national laws and strategies.
A young girl from Kenya’s Pokot tribe weeps as she’s led away from her home by her future husband’s family. Reuters/Siegfried Modola

How schooling can save African girls from becoming child brides

Education can be a powerful tool to stop the practice of child marriage. It empowers girls, and their success can ultimately boost their communities.
South Africa is taking a tough stance against the practice of abducting and forcing young girls into marriage that’s still rife in some parts of the country. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

Banning child and forced marriages is gaining traction in Africa

The reasons for the phenomenon of child marriage are complex and include the fact that in customary law, marriageable age was never reckoned as an actual number but depended on puberty.

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