tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/child-brides-25895/articleschild brides – The Conversation2020-04-06T15:43:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1345762020-04-06T15:43:44Z2020-04-06T15:43:44ZMore than a million babies are born to young Nigerians every year: we explored why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324950/original/file-20200402-74878-173ip8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Child marriage is still a major issue in Nigeria </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/three-young-girls-including-fatima-and-goggo-walk-home-in-news-photo/1168287626?adppopup=true">Tom Saater/For The Washington Post via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Nigeria, <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPA_PUB_2019_EN_State_of_World_Population.pdf#page=162">145 babies</a> are born to every 1,000 girls aged 15-19 annually. Considering the population’s <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/">age structure</a>, the adolescent fertility rate implies 1.6 million births a year in that age group. Nigeria has <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/">over 23 million girls aged 10-19</a>.</p>
<p>There is abundant evidence that if girls become mothers without adequate preparation, they face <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-311X2019000205007">poor life chances</a>. They may end up with low educational attainment, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2673752?seq=1">experience marital instability</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1521693410000313">live in poverty</a> for the rest of their lives. In addition, they may face <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871519217300768">reproductive health problems</a> if their bodies are damaged when they give birth.</p>
<p>The negative impact of early childbearing for young mothers, their children and the society at large makes it necessary to consider what drives the phenomenon.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">studied</a> which factors are associated with childbearing among adolescent girls in Nigeria and showed that they vary in different parts of the country. Our findings add to those of previous studies which showed that adolescent girls in certain regions of the country (northern geopolitical zones especially) were more likely to start having children than girls from the southern zones. </p>
<p>We used data from <a href="https://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/2014">the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey</a>. At the national level, the analysis shows that the following factors predict when a girl is likely to have her first child: whether she has ever been married or lived with a man as if married; which zone she lives in; her level of wealth; and her level of education. In all the zones, marriage or cohabitation was relevant to the age of childbearing. States where girls live and their religion were also useful predictors in some regions. </p>
<p>Understanding the drivers of early childbearing in specific contexts is important for effective programming and policy making targeted at stopping girls from becoming mothers while they are still children themselves.</p>
<h2>Factors associated with early childbearing</h2>
<p>Chief <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">among the drivers </a> of early childbearing is early marriage or living with a man as though married. Although Nigeria’s laws see persons under the age of 18 years as children who are below the age of consent and marriage, child marriage remains a common practice in many parts and more than 40% of Nigerian girls are victims of <a href="https://www.unicef.org/wca/media/2596/file">child marriage</a>.</p>
<p>In some contexts, the marriage of children who may be as young as 13 to older men as second, third or fourth wives is forced and supported with religious injunctions. In other situations, though less common than child marriage with the consent of parents, children may be abducted and kept as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/girls-held-by-boko-haram-face-auction-life-as-sex-slaves-if-rescue-fails">sex slaves by terrorists</a> or other dissidents with little regard for state laws.</p>
<p>In scenarios like these, the girls are exposed to sex without access to contraceptives or information on how to prevent pregnancies. Generally, Nigerian girls’ independent access to contraceptives is limited to those <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/51511/SavageOyekuned_Adolescent_2015.pdf;sequence=1">above the age of 18 years</a>.</p>
<p>The region where girls live within the country is <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">also a predictor</a> of the timing of their first birth. Of the six geopolitical zones, girls in the North West, North East and South South regions are the most vulnerable to early childbearing, which is least likely in the South East. The zones overlap somewhat with clusters of similar cultures in Nigeria, although <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR359/FR359.pdf">cultural pluralism</a> is high in the South South and North Central regions. </p>
<p>In the North East and North West, the socio-cultural context is typically marked by a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sifp.12043">high level of conservatism</a>, which community level gatekeepers of social norms and values uphold with Islamic teachings. </p>
<p>How the socio-cultural context in the South South creates an environment conducive for early childbearing is yet to be fully understood. The region is largely oil rich, although it is questionable whether this <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275594/Niger-Delta-Rich-oil-poor-slaughter-goats-stunning-photos-raw-brutality-life.html">reflects in the well-being</a> of the majority of the people. Militancy was for several years a part of the everyday life of people in parts of the region and it will be interesting to have studies that shed light on its relationship with health outcomes.</p>
<p>As most people would imagine, <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">poverty</a> is also a major driver of early childbearing. The likelihood of early childbearing declines steadily with wealth. By implication, the poorest girls are the most likely to become child mothers. Studies have shown that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24697531">basic deprivation</a> exposes girls to sex with older men in exchange for money and gifts, as a means of survival. </p>
<p>Poverty may also contribute indirectly. For instance, poor parents may want to give girls in marriage early either to relieve themselves of the burden of care or to receive bridewealth. Poverty may also determine access to education in general and reproductive health education in particular.
Education is a <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">significant predictor</a> of onset of childbearing among adolescents in Nigeria. </p>
<p>The likelihood of becoming a child mother declines with greater education. Girls who have never been enrolled in school and girls who drop out of school are at <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-018-0623-3">risk</a> of becoming young mothers. <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/199031468290139105/Adolescent-sexual-and-reproductive-health-in-Nigeria">Education</a> equips girls with information that may be useful in preventing pregnancies. Being out of school <a href="https://www.progressivepolicy.org/blog/the-drop-out-crisis-and-teen-pregnancy/">may also expose</a> girls to men who would take advantage of them. </p>
<p>The relationship between education and early childbearing works the other way round too. Girls who become <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/06/14/leave-no-girl-behind-africa/discrimination-education-against-pregnant-girls-and">pregnant</a> may have to stop schooling. </p>
<h2>Possible solutions</h2>
<p>Solving the problem of child motherhood requires putting an end to child marriage. Organisations intervening in this area also need to focus on the most affected states – Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kebbi – and on households living in extreme poverty in those states. </p>
<p>Girls become mothers for a combination of reasons beyond their control. These may include child marriage, socio-cultural context, poverty and poor access to education. As research has shown, children of child mothers are likely to inherit their situation in life. Understanding what drives early motherhood can inform efforts to improve people’s health and socio-economic conditions in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Kunnuji does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Understanding the drivers of early childbearing in specific contexts is important for effective policy making.Michael Kunnuji, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1237652019-09-20T04:30:59Z2019-09-20T04:30:59ZWhy raising the minimum age for marriage is not enough for Indonesia to put an end to child brides<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293211/original/file-20190919-22420-pyv2qm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C992%2C661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many children in Indonesia do not know that having sexual relations may lead to them being pregnant and forced to marry their partners</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.jawapos.com/nasional/24/07/2019/1-dari-9-anak-nikah-di-bawah-umur/">In Indonesia, one out of nine girls marry before their 18th birthday</a>. It’s a statistic that puts Indonesia in the <a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/indonesia/">top ten countries with the highest number of child brides</a>.</p>
<p>Last week, the Indonesian parliament <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/17/asia/indonesia-marriage-age-raise-intl-scli/index.html">agreed to raise the minimum age for women to marry from 16 to 19 years old</a> in an attempt to curb child marriage. </p>
<p>Even though that decision is an important step towards ending child marriage, lessons from India prove it is not enough. </p>
<p>In India, child marriage persists even though the legal age for women to marry has been <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-is-age-of-marriage-different-for-men-and-women-the-law-the-debate-5925004/">18 since 1978</a>. </p>
<p>India has the <a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/india/">highest absolute number of child marriages in the world</a> due to <a href="https://ilg2.org/2015/07/02/child-marriage-in-india-loopholes-in-the-law/">various factors</a>, including the lack of access to education and rigid gender norms. </p>
<p>To protect girls from child marriages, various studies have suggested at least three actions:</p>
<ul>
<li>providing access to formal education</li>
<li>educating youth on reproductive health and rights</li>
<li>promoting gender equality at grass-roots level. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Providing formal education</h2>
<p>Raising the minimum legal age for women to marry to 19 years provides more opportunities for girls to finish high school before they tie the knot. </p>
<p>Research has shown the <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/publication/2016/01/04/aa6bb91f9368be69e00d036d/kemajuan-yang-tertunda--analisis-data-perkawinan-usia-anak-di-indonesia.html">importance of higher education</a> to prevent child marriage. As education increases child marriage decreases. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, the <a href="https://mikrodata.bps.go.id/mikrodata/index.php/catalog/633">2012 National Social and Economic Survey</a> shows senior high school graduates are less likely to get married than junior high school alumni.</p>
<p>Keeping girls in schools longer prevents them from becoming child brides. It will also bring economic benefits not only for themselves but for the country. </p>
<p>An unpublished report from <a href="https://www.unicef.org/indonesia/">UNICEF Indonesia</a> shows highly educated women will have better chances to secure jobs. In the end, this will contribute to the country’s economy. </p>
<p>To keep young girls at school and prevent them from marrying early, the government should make sure girls receive their <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/06/26/ri-kicks-12-year-compulsory-education-program.html">12 years of compulsory education</a>.</p>
<h2>Sex education</h2>
<p>Research by the Credos Institute in 2017 in Rembang, Central Java, shows the lack of information for children on <a href="https://jakartaglobe.id/multimedia/no-means-no-putting-stop-child-marriage-teen-pregnancy/">sexual reproductive health and rights</a> is one of the reasons child marriage continues to happen. </p>
<p>Many children in Indonesia do not know that having <a href="https://jakartaglobe.id/multimedia/no-means-no-putting-stop-child-marriage-teen-pregnancy/">sexual relations may lead to them being pregnant and forced to marry their partners</a>. </p>
<p>Research in 2016 by a local NGO representing youth, <em><a href="https://www.ari.or.id/">Aliansi Remaja Independen</a></em>, shows seven out of eight girls in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and East Java admit they had unplanned pregnancies prior to their marriage.</p>
<p>The fertility rate for Indonesian women aged between 15 and 19 was <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT?locations=ID">47 births per 1,000 women</a> in 2017. That’s much higher than India’s <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT?locations=ID">23 births</a> per 1,000 women. </p>
<p>Little do the girls know that early pregnancy would increase their chance of dying – <a href="https://www.prb.org/adolescent-fertility/">twice as high</a> as for those who become pregnant in their 20s. </p>
<p>Sexual education in <a href="https://iwhc.org/2018/10/empowering-girls-begins-proper-sexuality-education/">Kenya, Peru and Pakistan</a> has helped reduce child marriage and unplanned pregnancies. Classes on sexual education in those countries are comprehensive. Children can learn about issues of human rights, gender inequality and power relations in relationships. </p>
<p>The Indonesian government should provide comprehensive sexual education by including it in the school curriculum. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-teach-sex-education-in-indonesia-academics-weigh-in-122400">How to teach sex education in Indonesia: academics weigh in</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Promoting gender equality</h2>
<p>Girls are more prone to child marriage due to society’s perceptions and expectations of girls in domestic roles. </p>
<p>According to the Credos Institute’s 2017 research, girls are considered ready to marry when they are able to take care of the family. For boys, it is really up to them. Mostly, boys think they are ready when they feel they are economically independent. </p>
<p>This expectation may be stronger in rural areas, which is possibly one of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324089397_An_empirical_exploration_of_female_child_marriage_determinants_in_Indonesia">reasons the rate of child marriage is higher there than in urban areas</a>. The <a href="https://mikrodata.bps.go.id/mikrodata/index.php/catalog/633">2012 national survey</a> found the rate of child marriage in villages was 29.2%, compared to 19% in cities.</p>
<p>The government should work more closely with civil society organisations to promote gender equality.</p>
<h2>Addressing taboo</h2>
<p>Another reason child marriage is still common in Indonesia is that the public’s fear of adultery has become stronger in line with rising conservatism. </p>
<p>Conservative groups have created movements to support early marriage as they think it provides protection from the sin of adultery. One such movement is <a href="https://tirto.id/bisnis-dan-kontroversi-gerakan-indonesia-tanpa-pacaran-cK25"><em>Indonesia Tanpa Pacaran</em></a> (Indonesia without dating), which encourages youths not to date and to marry as soon as possible. </p>
<p>This public pressure is evident in <a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/UNICEF-Marriage-Dispensation-Research-Brief.pdf">a 2019 study</a> of why parents ask for dispensation for their daughters to marry in Tuban, East Java; Mamuju, West Sulawesi; and Bogor, West Java.</p>
<p>The study shows parents seek permission to marry their daughters before the legal age because they <a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/UNICEF-Marriage-Dispensation-Research-Brief.pdf">worry their children will commit adultery, especially when their children are in relationships</a>.</p>
<p>We can overcome this problem by working at the grass-roots level with the relevant community. </p>
<p>In West Lombok, for example, where the rate of child marriage is relatively high at <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/publication/2016/01/04/aa6bb91f9368be69e00d036d/kemajuan-yang-tertunda--analisis-data-perkawinan-usia-anak-di-indonesia.html">25%</a>, <a href="http://www.civilsocietyasia.org/resources/their-time-is-now-time-to-act-report">young people</a> are working together with village-level institutions. They advocate for funding to protect young girls from being married early by providing information on reproductive health and rights.</p>
<p>Child marriage is a multifaceted issue that requires concerted efforts from various sectors.</p>
<p>A national strategy that covers all of these issues would better help reduce the numbers of child marriages in Indonesia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadira Irdiana tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Raising the minimum age for Indonesian women to marry to 19 years is important, but on its own is not enough to reduce rates of child marriage.Nadira Irdiana, Research and Advocacy Associate PUSKAPA (Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing), PUSKAPALicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1010822018-09-03T13:56:09Z2018-09-03T13:56:09ZIslamophobia is preventing the empowerment of Muslim women repressed by political agendas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234454/original/file-20180831-195328-nz51rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-desert-wearing-arabic-dress-666033169?src=KG4d9lao1ivgPcQUdikfzA-1-20">Facecontrol.it/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many, Muslim veiling <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-truths-about-the-hijab-that-need-to-be-told-63892">represents the oppression</a> of women in Islam. The head and/or face veils are a <a href="https://theconversation.com/burqa-comments-like-boris-johnsons-are-pushing-muslims-to-reassert-their-identity-101362">frequent topic of debate</a>, which suggests that “saving” Muslim women from their oppressive religion is a moral duty of the West. </p>
<p>But focusing on the (in)visibility of women in Islam does not help the cause of empowering women in Muslim societies. Looking through the lens of Islamophobia, all Muslim societies are seen the same, where women are subjected to the same oppression. However, the contrasting examples of Saudi Arabia and Turkey show that this could not be further from truth. Muslim women are fighting for their rights, but are being held back by political moves.</p>
<h2>Saudi Arabia</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia is one of the most religious countries in the Middle East and yet the denial of basic women’s rights is down to a unique combination of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html">Wahhabi culture</a> as well as Sharia (Islamic law). The women who live there are some of the most voracious Muslim campaigners, but it is the laws of the land that they fight, not their religion. </p>
<p>In August, a group of anonymous Saudi feminists <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/the-women-behind-saudi-arabias-anonymous-feminist-radio-station/10169198">launched a new internet radio station</a>, Nsawya FM (“Feminism FM”). Their main aims are to campaign for Saudi women’s rights, be “the voice of the silent majority” and to let the world <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45181505">know they exist</a>. In recent years the internet has proven to be an important place to effect change. </p>
<p>Also notable has been the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13928215">Women2Drive campaign on social media</a>. Saudi Arabia was, until recently, the only country in the world where women were not allowed to drive – although this was more about Saudi culture, not explicitly against Islam and its doctrine. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-reason-saudi-arabia-lifted-its-ban-on-women-driving-economic-necessity-97267">eventual overturning of the ban</a> was seen as a victory for Saudi women, and yet several leading activists who challenged the ban <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/women-in-saudi-arabia-are-finally-able-to-drive?utm_term=.xsNy2q4d4#.bsdPq1LXL">were arrested</a> – some of whom <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/08/saudi-arabia-outrageous-ongoing-detention-of-women-rights-defenders-reaches-100-days/">are still in jail</a> without charge. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/saudi-decree-allowing-women-to-drive-cars-is-about-politics-not-religion-84809">driving ban was lifted</a> in June 2018 as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-saudi-arabias-vision-2030-mean-for-its-citizens-58466">Vision 2030 programme</a> to modernise some aspects of Saudi society. Eight months prior, Saudi Arabia took a truly unique step by becoming the first country to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/saudi-arabia-robot-sophia-citizenship-android-riyadh-citizen-passport-future-a8021601.html">award citizenship to a robot named Sophia</a>. Clearly the Saudi authorities want to create a new international image, but many critics have raised concerns, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/saudi-arabia-criticized-giving-female-robot-citizenship-restricts/story?id=50741109">questioning why</a> the country would advance robot rights while still holding women back. They asked whether Sophia would have to follow the strict laws concerning Saudi women, and whether “she” would be required to cover her head.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, many conservative clerics <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/saudi-arabias-once-powerful-conservatives-silenced-by-reforms-and-repression/2018/06/04/5332bdec-3dad-11e8-955b-7d2e19b79966_story.html?utm_term=.25737a6b0567">disagreed with the Crown Prince’s social reforms</a> – as they erode cultural boundaries between men and women – and criticised the modernisation policies for being too close to Washington. And, despite the seemingly progressive moves, there has been an increasing crackdown on dissent. On August 22, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/22/saudi-arabia-seeks-its-first-death-penalty-against-a-female-human-rights-activist">appealed for the death penalty</a> for the first time against a woman. Activist Israa al-Ghomgham is on trial because of her work <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/saudi-arabia-seeks-death-penalty-female-activist-180822111933881.html">documenting human rights-related demonstrations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234453/original/file-20180831-195301-1fe6u4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the spotlight, but for the wrong reason.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/arab-woman-islamic-headscarf-back-light-27646588?src=KG4d9lao1ivgPcQUdikfzA-2-1">robert paul van beets/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Turkey</h2>
<p>Some 1,500 miles away, Turkey – once regarded the most progressive country for Muslim women’s rights – has been turning back the clock. When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, Turkey, as a secular democracy, had been a beacon of hope for many Muslim countries looking towards economic growth and modernisation, while retaining their religious identity. Under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, however, women’s rights have been regressing further every year. </p>
<p>In November 2017, the government passed a new law that allowed state-approved clerics (muftis) to conduct marriage ceremonies. This practice had previously been outlawed by Turkey’s Civil Code because they lacked the legal protections of secular marriages. The change <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-religion/turkey-to-allow-muftis-to-conduct-weddings-sparking-uproar-on-left-idUSKBN1CP226">paved the way</a> for any girl who has reached puberty to be able to marry.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/03/1004192">UN assessments</a> show that child marriage (under the age of 15 years) is one of the biggest obstacles to the education and empowerment of women. While child marriages are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-43297085">declining worldwide</a>, <a href="http://www.tpfund.org/put-an-end-to-child-brides/">40% of Turkish women</a> between the ages of 15 and 49 were married before the age of 18. </p>
<p>Child brides are among the world’s most vulnerable individuals. Once girls are forced into marriage their basic rights of and claims to education, equality and opportunities are lost forever. Despite opposition and secular groups <a href="http://www.milliyet.com.tr/turkiye-de-181-bin-cocuk-gelin-var-pembenar-detay-aile-1629435/">calling for investigations</a>, the future of half of Turkish society continues to be impeded.</p>
<p>The oppression of women from Saudi Arabia and Turkey – though on different scales – show that it is not Islam and its faith that represses women. It is political agendas. </p>
<p>Islamophobia dehumanises Muslim women and denies their agency. By focusing on the role of religion, Western Islamophobic views ignore the patriarchal and political structures within which women are oppressed. Activists are silenced, and child brides are victimised. The way forward for empowering Muslim women requires looking beyond Islamophobia, and recognising the urgency of gender equality irrespective of any race, religion or culture. </p>
<p><em>This article has been edited to correct the figure on the rate of child marriages in Turkey. It originally stated that 40% of girls were forced into marriage in 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ayla Göl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Turkey to Saudi Arabia, Muslim women are battling for their rights - but religion is not at fault.Ayla Göl, Visiting Senior Fellow, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937712018-03-25T21:04:05Z2018-03-25T21:04:05ZNew research partnership makes childbirth safer in Mozambique<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211594/original/file-20180322-54903-7jilxb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Mozambique, gender-based violence, early marriage and early pregnancy all play a part in compromising the health of mothers and infants. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nazeem Muhajarine)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the world awakens to deep injustices for women globally, an <a href="http://www.maternalhealthmozcan.ca/">ambitious project led by University of Saskatchewan researchers in Mozambique</a> is striving to reset the course — reducing maternal mortality and improving newborn health by empowering women and girls.</p>
<p>Although maternal deaths worldwide have decreased by 45 per cent since 1990, about <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/epmm/en/">800 pregnant women still die daily from largely preventable causes before, during and after giving birth</a>.</p>
<p>Mozambique has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world, <a href="https://www.indexmundi.com/mozambique/maternal_mortality_rate.html">estimated at 489 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015</a>. One in five of these maternal deaths <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/epmm/en/">occur in women under age 20</a>. </p>
<p>The neonatal mortality rate (deaths during the first 27 days of life) in the country was <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/epmm/en/">30 per 1,000 live births in 2011</a> — also one of the highest in the world.</p>
<h2>A gender-equality perspective</h2>
<p>In Mozambique, sexual, reproductive, maternal and infant health is challenged by a range of factors that include gender-based violence, early marriage and early pregnancy — all of them products of widespread gender inequality.</p>
<p>As the government of Mozambique has identified in its <a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/press-release-mozambique-launches-national-strategy-to-end-child-marriage/">National Strategy to Prevent and Combat Early Marriage (2016-2019)</a>, education about sexual and reproductive rights, and access to safe contraceptive methods and safe abortion are all important tools in reducing barriers to women’s and girls’ sexual, reproductive and maternal health. </p>
<p>However, many more interventions that work in an integrated manner are also required.</p>
<p>In April 2017, we launched the <a href="http://www.maternalhealthmozcan.ca/">Mozambique-Canada Maternal Health Project</a>. This five-year project in Inhambane province will improve access to health-care services for mothers, and work to reduce maternal deaths and improve newborn health.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211628/original/file-20180322-54863-1a5wojr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community engagement activities include mapping local resources and prioritizing topics for education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Don Kossick)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Funded by <a href="http://www.international.gc.ca/international/index.aspx?lang=eng">Global Affairs Canada</a>, this project takes a strong gender-equality perspective in its work. </p>
<p>Working in 20 communities within five districts, the project aims to support and empower women within their families and communities. It will increase access to health care services, increase management and leadership capacity in the health care system and provide professional education for health practitioners.</p>
<p>The project will also build infrastructure such as maternal clinics and waiting homes, provide much-needed ambulances and medical equipment and increase the use of research-based information in decision-making.</p>
<h2>A village to support safe childbirth</h2>
<p>The project partners with the provincial health directorate, Mozambique’s health ministry, and two health training centres in Inhambane. It builds on more than 15 years of continuous partnership with Mozambican colleagues. </p>
<p>We also partner with the NGO, <a href="http://www.wlsa.org.mz/">Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA)</a>, which has extensive experience with developing knowledge and advocacy in issues related to gender, law and power. WLSA will provide a gender-perspective to our work.</p>
<p>Our community engagement activities are underway with community mapping to identify local resources. Community leadership teams — or “<em>núcleos</em>” — that consist of equal numbers of women leaders, prioritize topics for local, participation-based education about maternal, reproductive and sexual health. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers and staff from Mozambique and Canada describe the ambitions of the five-year Maternal Health Project.</span></figcaption>
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<p>These teams are also prioritizing micro-enterprises to engage community members, especially women, and improve their incomes. </p>
<p>The teams participate in creating a formal and identifiable community-based network of resources to support women in childbirth. These networks include <em>madronas</em>, or midwives, and traditional healers, who exert influence in local communities.</p>
<p>It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to support a woman to have a safe childbirth.</p>
<h2>Building local support networks</h2>
<p>For rural women, reaching health services for deliveries without undue delay can be a problem. They are often far from a clinic, and without means of transport. </p>
<p>Our project will provide local ambulances. We will also provide maternal waiting homes, which meet evidence-based standards for infrastructure and care, close to the clinics.</p>
<p>Most importantly, we will support local midwives to improve their ability to support women in reaching health services without undue delay. We work with community-based health workers to create an ongoing updated list of pregnant women and plan support strategies in advance of delivery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211593/original/file-20180322-54869-dxgy2j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A village near Balat, Inhambane, Mozambique.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nazeem Muhajarine)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>We are providing education to health practitioners in clinics and hospitals about improving care for deliveries and newborns, but also about reproductive and sexual health issues. Some topics focus on technical skills and others on improving attitudes towards rural women.</p>
<p>To contribute to overall health system quality, we are working with the management of the provincial health department to provide training on topics such as leadership, conflict resolution and data collection and analysis. With the health system managers, we are exploring the feasibility of using “near-miss” methodology (an approach to preventing maternal death by preventing near-miss cases) to improve practice.</p>
<p>The World Health Organisation suggests that “a grand convergence” is within our reach, that is, <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/epmm/en/">through concerted efforts and well-placed resources we can eliminate gender-based disparities</a>, of which maternal mortality is one. </p>
<p>To do so would be a great achievement for gender equity and reflect a shared commitment to a human rights framework for health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nazeem Muhajarine works for the University of Saskatchewan. He receives funding from Global Affairs Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation. He is affiliated with the Saskatoon Unitarians. </span></em></p>Mozambique has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. Researchers hope to reduce this, with an ambitious project aimed at empowering women and girls.Nazeem Muhajarine, Professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology and Director, Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/888462017-12-12T02:51:48Z2017-12-12T02:51:48ZChild marriage is still legal in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198655/original/file-20171211-9386-1c7ltur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women protest against child marriage in Albany, New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Anna Gronewold</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent outrage over Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore allegedly targeting teenage girls for sex has <a href="http://beta.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-brightbill-roy-moore-evangelical-culture-20171110-story.html">elicited reports</a> that some evangelical churches actually encourage teenage girls to date older men.</p>
<p>It seems unlikely that Moore was ever interested in marrying any of the women who have thus far accused him of unwanted sexual attention and assault. However, Moore is married to a woman 14 years his junior <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/roy-moore-wife-kayla-minor-718819">whom he first met</a> when she was 15 and he was 29. These conversations about older men dating and marrying young girls have left many Americans surprised. The reality is that these practices are still around, as I learned in researching my recent book, “<a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469629537/american-child-bride/">American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States</a>.”</p>
<h2>Minors and marriage</h2>
<p>Child marriage has a long and vibrant history in the United States. While activists have long urged legislators to raise the age of consent to marriage – and continue to do so – with parental consent it remains possible for minors to marry in every single state. </p>
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<p>Though some boys do marry, the vast majority of marrying minors are girls. This has been the pattern throughout U.S. history.</p>
<p>The minimum marriageable age <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/alabama/2016/title-30/chapter-1/section-30-1-4/">in Alabama today is 16</a>, though for most of the state’s history girls could marry at 14 and boys at 17. Different minimum marriageable ages for girls and boys were common nationwide until the 1970s. While marriage as a minor is significantly less common today than it was in the early or mid-20th century – two periods with particularly high rates – it is certainly not a thing of the past. In the last 15 years, more than <a href="http://apps.frontline.org/child-marriage-by-the-numbers/">207,000 minors</a> have become legally wed in the United States, many marrying below the age of consent to sex in their states.</p>
<p>Data from the U.S. Census show that the marriage of legal minors has always been more common in the South. This may be one reason – aside from liking his conservative politics – that voters in Alabama seem less disturbed by Roy Moore’s targeting of teenage girls. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.6a429ea356ae">Leigh Corfman claims</a> Moore initiated sexual contact with her when she was 14 in 1979. Nothing in the law would have prevented the two from marrying if they’d had her parents’ permission.</p>
<p>Today southern states like Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia have among the <a href="http://apps.frontline.org/child-marriage-by-the-numbers/">highest rates of minor marriage</a> in the nation. They are also joined by Idaho and other rural states in the West. These states share high rates of poverty and are home to religious conservatives who often see marriage as the solution to teenage sex and premarital pregnancy. Some even condone marriage when it results from statutory rape. In many cases, district attorneys have been <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/married-young-the-fight-over-child-marriage-in-america/">willing to waive prosecution</a> if a girl’s statutory rapist agrees to marry her and her parents are also supportive.</p>
<h2>Who are child brides?</h2>
<p>Child marriage has <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/specters-of-mother-india">long been portrayed</a> as an issue in the developing world – especially in India and various nations in Africa and the Middle East. Americans are often surprised by its persistence right here at home. Many assume that it was a practice brought to the United States by immigrant populations, or one used in isolationist religious sects. Neither belief is <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469629537/american-child-bride/">borne out by the numbers</a>. </p>
<p>Even at the height of immigration to the United States in the 1910s and 1920s, U.S.-born white children of U.S.-born parents were more likely to be married as minors than were immigrant girls of the first or second generation. U.S.-born black girls were about one-and-a-half times more likely to be married than were white girls. In both cases, poor girls in rural states accounted for the numbers. </p>
<p>Opposition to child marriage in the United States also has a long history, dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Women’s rights advocates like Elizabeth Oakes Smith and <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/elizabethcadystanton/loridginzberg/9780374532390/">Elizabeth Cady Stanton</a> <a href="http://www.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629537.001.0001/upso-9781469629537-chapter-005">called marrying</a> as a minor “the great life-long mistake.” They argued it deprived girls of the opportunity to develop into womanhood and some semblance of independence before they yoked their lives to a husband and began to bear children.</p>
<p>While the legal minimum marriageable age has gone up in almost all states since the 19th century, almost all states have exceptions built in that allow parents and/or judges to consent to the marriage of minors below the stated minimums, in some cases if they are pregnant, in others if they are already emancipated minors. This means that with judicial or parental consent, children as young as 10, 11 and 12 have been married in the U.S. in the last couple of decades. When exceptions are taken into consideration, <a href="https://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FINAL-State-Marriage-Age-Requirements-Statutory-Compilation-PDF.pdf">25 states</a> actually do not have an absolute minimum marriageable age. </p>
<p>When activists have sought to eliminate those exceptions and ban marriage prior to age 18 outright, as they are attempting to do in about <a href="http://www.unchainedatlast.org/laws-to-end-child-marriage/">10 states nationwide</a> today, they have met with substantial pushback. Some religious conservatives worry that without access to marriage, pregnant girls might turn to abortion. Others simply place faith in the institution of marriage to establish a happy and financially secure household. This is despite the fact that <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/285e/6eea1ac27b38f400cc9b444bf1040c9d1479.pdf">studies have shown</a> that marriage as a minor is much more likely to lead to divorce, to dropping out of high school, to spousal abuse and to <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/08/24/peds.2011-0961">mental and physical health problems</a>. </p>
<p>Only when Americans are able to have more honest conversations about what marriage really looks like – as opposed to some idealized image of marital perfection – are we likely to see the abolition of child marriage in the United States.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Syrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is possible for minors in all 50 states to get married. A scholar explains the long history of child marriage, mostly of young girls, in the US.Nicholas Syrett, Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of KansasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873822017-11-16T18:13:41Z2017-11-16T18:13:41ZJobs and paid-for schooling can keep Tanzanian girls from early marriages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194351/original/file-20171113-27616-w73f5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many girls in Dar es Salaam's slums drop out of school because of the costs involved.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ICT4D.at/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sub-Saharan Africa is home to <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Marriage_Report_7_17_LR..pdf">four of the top five countries</a> in early marriage – or child marriage – rates: Niger, Chad, Mali and Central African Republic. Despite decades of campaigning to restrict or forbid early marriage, little has changed for the world’s poorest women. The percentage of these particularly poor women who were in a conjugal union by the age of 18 <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/files/UNICEF-Child-Marriage-Brochure-low-Single(1).pdf">has remained unchanged</a> for the continent as a whole since 1990 – and has <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/files/UNICEF-Child-Marriage-Brochure-low-Single(1).pdf">actually risen in East Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Early marriage appears to have absolutely no benefits. It <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15570274.2015.1075757">accelerates population growth</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15570274.2015.1075757">decreases women’s participation in the labour force</a>. It also reduces <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/530891498511398503/Economic-impacts-of-child-marriage-global-synthesis-report">a country’s overall national earnings</a>. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are at <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/press/state-world-population-2013-motherhood-childhood">greater risk</a> of childbirth-related complications that are the leading cause of death worldwide for girls aged 15 to 19. </p>
<p>But what’s not often reported in the media is that some girls themselves want to marry early. I discovered this when I <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2017.1390162">conducted interviews</a> with 171 people, most of them Muslim women, in two low-income neighbourhoods in Tanzania’s capital city Dar es Salaam. </p>
<p>The poorest girls and women see themselves as having few possibilities to earn an income for themselves. Even before they marry, girls from poor families must often resort to premarital sexual relations with their boyfriends who provide food and money. For many low-income Tanzanians, it’s also normal to start thinking about marriage at roughly age 15. Established cultural expectations in many ethnic groups suggest that adulthood begins at age 15 or 16. </p>
<p>Yet even those girls and parents who would like to delay marriage often have little choice because of poverty and the fact that women in slum neighbourhoods have fewer opportunities to earn an income than men do. Creating more opportunities for young women and girls to work and earn money is one possible solution to early marriages. Subsidising secondary education to keep poorer girls in school for longer is another.</p>
<h2>Choices</h2>
<p>One factor that pushes some girls into early marriage is the hidden costs associated with education. Many Tanzanian girls <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR243/FR243%5B24June2011%5D.pdf">drop out</a> after primary school. Primary education in the country is mandatory by law and is nominally free of charge. But numerous hidden costs exist: additional fees, uniforms, books and transportation. </p>
<p>Only a small percentage of students achieve good enough exam scores to be accepted to low-priced government secondary schools. This forces the rest into private secondary schools, which are usually too expensive for the poorest urban residents. Parents recognise the value of education and want to school their daughters. They just can’t afford to do so.</p>
<p>Sometimes the girls themselves wish to discontinue their studies. They perceive the transactional intimacy provided through marriage as offering a more secure future than an expensive secondary education.</p>
<p>After age 15, girls are expected to be self-sufficient to gain respect in the eyes of others. Marriage is viewed as a more likely way to gain that respect than through years of education with its high costs and uncertain rewards.</p>
<p>The people <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2017.1390162">I interviewed</a> felt that premarital sex was seen as shameful in their neighbourhoods. Relying on a husband or fiancé for money, though, is a respectable means of displaying independence. </p>
<p>When girls drop out of school, cannot find work and don’t have enough starting capital to sell food or other goods in their neighbourhoods, early marriage is often the only culturally approved way to be a productive adult. It can be seen as a sign of “success” for a girl: it means she has a good <em>tabia</em>; a good character.</p>
<h2>Employment could help</h2>
<p>Cultural traditions are a popular scapegoat for policymakers. But these should not be blamed for what are perceived elsewhere in the world as “backward” practices. Trying to eradicate cultural attitudes when these are grounded in economic and educational realities does little to change people’s behaviour. </p>
<p>Women living in the poorest parts of any city need policies that create employment opportunities. This would offer girls who might otherwise choose early marriage other choices.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Skinner_WIEGO_WP5.pdf">Tanzania was a leader in the 1990s</a> in Africa when it came to inclusive policies towards informal and street traders. But a rapidly growing population and competition among traders means many women cannot afford the licenses and permits needed to set up a business in a busy area with many customers. They may also not have sufficient capital or may need to stay close to home to care for family members.</p>
<p>Ultra-low interest micro loan programmes serving the poorest areas of the city could be organised for women who have no option but to obtain income from the smallest and least visible vending niches in the city. </p>
<h2>Making education more attractive</h2>
<p>Another option, or one that could run in parallel with improved access to work opportunities, could centre on education. Tanzania could consider employment-oriented education policies and subsidising secondary education for the poorest students. This would provide motivation for girls and their families to continue girls’ studies. These are issues over which poor families themselves have little control: structural change needs to come from above. </p>
<p>As long as girls and their families see the most viable – and morally acceptable – option for a girl’s economic survival to be early marriage with a male partner whose earning opportunities are greater than hers, the practice of early marriage is unlikely to decline among the urban poor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Stark received funding from the Academy of Finland for this research. </span></em></p>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.Laura Stark, Professor of Ethnology, University of JyväskyläLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/618762016-07-10T16:45:31Z2016-07-10T16:45:31ZGirls should be in school – not forced into marriage by powerful men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129700/original/image-20160707-30710-7ak492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education can change girls’ lives: an extra year of education can raise a girl’s future wages by between 10% and 20%.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Albert González Farran – Unamid/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Naisiae⁺ is 15 years old. She belongs to Kenya’s Maasai tribe, is the first born in a family of six and her father died in 2012. In 2015, the teenager from Narok County graduated from primary school with slightly below average grades. </p>
<p>Naisiae was awarded a scholarship by a local civil society organisation so that she’d be able to repeat the year at a different school, improve her grades and move on to secondary schooling.</p>
<p>But Oloibon was having none of this. He had decided that Naisiae should be his ninth wife and, because he is the community’s chief priest, he’s allowed to do what he wants. And so Oloibon, who is in his 60s, married the teenager against her and her mother’s will.</p>
<p>Naisiae’s mother was devastated. She had no power to stop Oloibon from marrying her daughter – how dare she stop the chief priest from performing his “duties” in a society that measures a man’s wealth partially by counting his wives?</p>
<p>The girl’s education is finished. Her dream of going on to university and being able to support her family one day is just a mirage. And her story, sadly, is not unusual among Africa’s pastoralist and semi-pastoralist communities.</p>
<h2>Girls’ education benefits everyone</h2>
<p>African governments and civil society organisations have made huge <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-needs-to-be-done-to-keep-child-marriages-trending-down-43419">gains</a> in ensuring that girls go to school and complete their education.</p>
<p>This, of course, has enormous benefits for both individual girls and societies at large. Programmes like the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/adolescent-girls-initiative">Adolescent Girls Initiative</a>, which evaluates economic outcomes among girls, have proved that education and training empowers girls to venture into non-traditional, non-farm employment. In some cases, their presence has bolstered employment figures outside a country’s farming sector by <a href="http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/11/18/090224b0831c9f8e/2_0/Rendered/PDF/Partnering0for00program0report02015.pdf">more than 14%</a>.</p>
<p>Research has also shown that one extra year of education increases a girl’s <a href="http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/files/file_GirlsCount.pdf">future wages</a> by between 10% and 20%. And greater investments in girls’ education <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-07/the-economic-benefits-of-educating-women">raises a country’s</a> gross domestic product by close to 0.2% annually.</p>
<p>Sadly, as the story of Naisiae and Oloibon reveals, much remains to be done. In pastoralist communities particularly, girls’ lives are still entangled within a culture whose custodians happen to be men. The traditional cutting of female genitals and early marriage are far more of a priority there than a girl’s education. In Kenya, about <a href="http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/kenya/">one in every five girls</a> is out of school because of forced early marriages that were preceded by genital cutting.</p>
<p>This is not merely a Kenyan nor even just an African problem. Globally, about 60% of girls with no or less education are married by their <a href="http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures">18th birthday</a>. That’s <a href="http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures">compared with</a> 10% of their peers who’ve completed secondary education. It’s estimated that if the trend isn’t arrested now, more than <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/3/child-marriages-39000-every-day-more-than-140-million-girls-will-marry-between-2011-and-2020">140 million girls</a> will become child brides by 2020.</p>
<p>What can be done to avoid this statistic becoming a reality?</p>
<h2>Time for action</h2>
<p>In Naisiae’s case, the civil society organisation in question noticed that she did not meet the cut-off points for admission to a secondary school of her choice, visited her family and persuaded her to repeat Grade 8 at another primary school. It helped her to get a place at an academy in another faraway county near the Kenyan capital.</p>
<p>She went missing the night before she was due to report to her new school.</p>
<p>Nobody knows who colluded with Oloibon in planning this forced marriage. The civil society organisation has tried to track him down, to no avail – at the beginning of the school term in May 2016 he was apparently on “honeymoon” with his child bride at a coastal resort. The authorities don’t want to pursue the case: Oloibon is, after all, a powerful chief priest.</p>
<p>By telling Naisiae’s story, the African Population and Health Research Centre – where I work – and civil society organisations hope to push those who bear a duty into taking action.</p>
<p>In the short term, it’s time for countries’ laws to be applied. Both Kenyan and international law have declared it <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kenyalawblog/highlights-of-the-marriage-act-2014/">illegal</a> to marry someone younger than 18. Those who break the law, as Oloibon has done, must be prosecuted.</p>
<p>Another way to start reversing this terrible trend is through education – the education of men, that is. Men in pastoralist and semi-pastoralist communities need to be taught about how important girls’ education is to everyone in a society. </p>
<p>For now, we wait for news of Naisiae. It’s time for her to come home and return to school. She is a child, not some man’s wife.</p>
<p><em>⁺ Not her real name</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Moses Ngware receives funding from African Population and Health Research Center. He is affiliated with the African Population and Health Research Center.
</span></em></p>Girls’ lives are still entangled in a culture whose custodians happen to be men.Moses Ngware, Senior Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562312016-03-17T13:41:38Z2016-03-17T13:41:38ZHow schooling can save African girls from becoming child brides<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115272/original/image-20160316-30211-tv7m8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young girl from Kenya's Pokot tribe weeps as she's led away from her home by her future husband's family.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siegfried Modola </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of African girls are <a href="http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/region/sub-saharan-africa/">becoming wives</a> every year. In Niger, <a href="http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures">about 75%</a> of girls will become child brides before they turn 18. In Chad and the Central African Republic the figure is <a href="http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures">68%</a>.</p>
<p>Some countries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-needs-to-be-done-to-keep-child-marriages-trending-down-43419">like Ethiopia</a>, are recording some important victories in the fight to protect girls from becoming child brides. But the practice remains alarmingly common and is growing. In a 2013 report on the issue, the United Nations Children Emergency Fund <a href="http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Marriage_Report_7_17_LR..pdf">warned</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there is no reduction in the practice of child marriage, up to 280 million girls alive today are at risk of becoming brides by the time they turn 18. Due to population growth, this number will approach 320 million by 2050. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The same report says that population growth rates will cancel out any of the gains currently being made in reducing child marriages.</p>
<p>How can child marriages be stopped? The answer, <a href="http://www.icrw.org/publications/more-power-her-how-empowering-girls-can-end-child-marriage">research suggests</a>, lies in improving girls’ access to basic education – and in changing school curricula so that both girls and boys realise women can contribute a great deal to their societies if they are not just married off and forgotten. </p>
<h2>Proven links between education and empowerment</h2>
<p>Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have some of the world’s <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR/countries/ZF-XN?display=map">lowest levels</a> of school enrolment and completion. The situation is <a href="http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/fs-31-out-of-school-children-en.pdf">particularly dire</a> for girls – they account for 55% of the region’s children who aren’t at school, and 52% of its out-of-school adolescents. A <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/19036">study</a> by the World Bank that explored the links between child marriage and education found that child marriage and underage pregnancies collectively contribute to between 15% and 20% of school drop-outs in the region. </p>
<p>Other <a href="http://www.ungei.org/files/Child_Marriage_Trends3.pdf">research</a> has suggested that any girl who completes ten years of education is six times less likely to be pushed into marriage before she turns 18 than a less-educated peer. <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/eliminating-child-marriage-boost-girls-education">Early enrolment</a> has also proved to be key – the younger a girl is when she starts school, the greater her chances are of not becoming a child bride.</p>
<p>So what is it about education that can make such a difference to a girl’s prospects of becoming a child bride? Quite simply, education is a <a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/51442/Azubike_Sexual_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">dynamic tool</a> for change. It has the power to transform individuals’ lives and improve their social standing. It also empowers girls to understand and claim their rights – particularly in the areas of further education and their own reproductive health. At its best, education will equip girls to choose and create their own futures rather than those imposed by their families and communities.</p>
<p>Educating girls also has a hugely positive impact on their communities. It <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/GMR/images/2011/girls-factsheet-en.pdf">can</a> lower maternal mortality, improve children’s health, lower birth rates and help women to find jobs – which in turn boosts economies.</p>
<h2>Limited access, patriarchal curricula</h2>
<p>There are two reasons that education in many parts of Africa is not changing girls’ lives. The first relates to access; the second to curriculum content.</p>
<p>Many girls don’t receive the family support they need to start, stick with or complete their education. This is partly because girls are simply <a href="http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/MaputoProtocol_JourneytoEquality.pdf">not valued</a> in the same way as boys. Traditional gender norms in many African societies mean that parents view their daughters as little more than a drain on limited family resources. They do not invest money in a daughter’s education and skills acquisition, preferring to marry her off at an early age. These marriages produce dowries and reduce the perceived “burden” on a girl’s family.</p>
<p>Even if a girl does go to school and is supported by her family, she may find the curriculum itself problematic. Far too many classroom examples, storybooks and texts describe a society in which boys and men are bright, curious, brave, inventive and powerful – while girls and women are silent, passive and invisible. Girls are presented as being little more than “marriage material” and their education focuses on turning them into good wives. This inevitably reinforces the perception that a “good marriage” is the most important way to promote and secure a girl’s well-being in society. </p>
<h2>Avenues for change</h2>
<p>There has been some good news about child marriage rates from Ethiopia, Niger and Mozambique. A civil society organisation in Ethiopia successfully increased girls’ school attendance rates and delayed marriages by giving a <a href="http://www.popcouncil.org/research/building-an-evidence-base-to-delay-marriage-in-sub-saharan-africa">sheep or cow</a> to parents who promised not to marry off their daughters. Ethiopia has done well by reaching out to community leaders to explain the value of educating and empowering girls.</p>
<p>There are some other avenues that could be explored. For instance, the people (most of them women) who run girls’ education campaigns should be supported with leadership and technical training. Families should be taught about the option of <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-standards-miss-the-nuance-in-local-child-labour-41367">flexible schooling</a>, which allows girls to work and earn money while not dropping out of the school system entirely.</p>
<p>Such campaigns also shouldn’t ignore girls who are already married. They could teach girls, their husbands and their husbands’ families about alternative, non-formal education models – such as the flexible schooling structures I’ve described above. </p>
<p>In addition, African governments need to adopt and enforce both legal and social protection mechanisms that focus on girls’ education. Some legislation already exists, but it’s time for it to be applied. For instance, governments must engage with article 10(3) of the African Union Charter’s protocol on <a href="http://www.achpr.org/files/instruments/women-protocol/achpr_instr_proto_women_eng.pdf">women’s rights</a> to ensure that they make enough money available specifically for educating girls.</p>
<p>Governments, activists and civil society organisations also need to start addressing broader societal issues of sexism, patriarchy and the oppression of women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56231/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Addaney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education can be a powerful tool to stop the practice of child marriage. It empowers girls, and their success can ultimately boost their communities.Michael Addaney, Assistant researcher at the Quality Assurance and Planning Unit, University of Energy and Natural ResourcesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.