4:35pm
Girls in Nigeria are being married off at very young ages. They have to leave their homes and live with the husband, who can be twice her age. It’s estimated that more than half of the young girls who are being married off, do so before the age of fifteen. Marriage is mostly determined by the cultural values and or poverty of the young girl’s family. The people of Nigeria believe that the longer a girl waits to marry the higher she is at risk for becoming promiscuous. They don’t want their girls to become “loose” and become pregnant outside of marriage.
What the families fail to realize is that there can be multiple nigativemimpacts on the girls life because of wedding early. 12 million girls of school-going age are being denied education to instead be married off to satiate some inconsiderate person’s lust. Early childbearing is a major cause of obstetric fistula, which tissue is torn when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and bladder and or rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor.
Slowly laws are being made to prohibit things like this from happening. In Jigawa, one of Nigeria’s predominately Muslim states, they have passed a law that prohibits the marriage of under aged children. However the law doesn’t specify an age, it simply says that the adolescent cannot marry until they have reached “puberty”. So in this case the judge will decide if the adolescent will be able to marry or not. Originally the law said 18 was the limit, but the recently changed it to suit the liking of the community. Although this law was made in early 2007, the residents haven’t seen it being enforces and don’t take it seriously. One resident stated that even if they did begin to force it, that people would still break the law. They feel that it is better to marry your daughter and go to jail than to have a grandchild outside of marriage. The government says that they are aware that the child rights law is not being enforced at the moment. They stated that “We first want to sensitise the people on the existence of the law and its provisions and once we are sure they are fully aware of the law, we can then prosecute non-compliance with the law.”
Reading this article really upset me. It was like the government was saying “yeah, were trying to do something about it, but not really.” I think that if they really cared, then they wouldn’t be so lenient about it. They need to be harsher with their enforcement of the laws. Even 18 is pretty young to marry. The families don’t make it any better. They have no problem with marrying their daughters off at 15, knowing that they can’t take on the challenges of being a mother when they’ve barely hit puberty. It’s like you baby sister having a child.
1 comment:
I think that this idea of early marriages for females is not a new concepts. I think it seems traditionally acceptable that a girl especially if she is the only girl of a family -- to be married off at a young age. I think it is assumed that the younger they are the more sacred and virtuous their bodies are and the girls themselves will birth babies only during these marriages.
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