Why is child marriage a form of violence against women and girls?
Violence against women and girls is a global problem that affects millions of women every year. In fact, it is estimated that one in three women and girls experience violence in their lifetime. Child marriage is a manifestation of that violence.
In many cases parents feel it is in their daughter’s best interest to marry at a young age: they believe marriage will protect her against physical or sexual assault. Yet, this belief is often mistaken. Child marriage puts women and girls at particular risk of sexual, physical and psychological violence throughout their lives.
Here are five reasons why this violation of girls’ most basic rights should prompt action:
1) We will not end violence against women and girls as long as girls marry as children
There is a growing and vocal movement of people around the world determined to put a stop to violence against women and girls. The scale of child marriage means that we cannot hope to achieve this without addressing a practice that leaves girls vulnerable to many different forms of violence.
Globally, more than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Without concerted action, this number could grow to over 1.2 billion by 2050.
2) Child brides are more vulnerable to physical violence
Girls who marry as children are particularly at risk of violence from their partners or their partners’ families. They are more likely to be beaten or threatened by their husbands than girls who marry later. The greater the age difference between girls and their husbands, the more likely they are to experience intimate partner violence.
Often married to much older men, child brides are more likely to believe that a man is sometimes justified in beating his wife than women who marry later. Globally, 44% of girls aged 15-19 think a husband or a partner is justified in hitting or beating his wife or partner in certain circumstances.
3) Marrying young subjects girls to insidious forms of violence – emotional and psychological
Child brides often suffer emotional pressure from their families, and husbands or in-laws can limit their ability to make decisions about their own lives and bodies. Forced sexual initiation and early pregnancy often have lasting effects on girls’ mental health.
Evelyn, from Liberia, was just 15 when she was forced to marry. Early on, she found it difficult to assert her wishes about whether or when to have a baby and she soon realised that, were she to use some form of contraception, her husband would leave her. She lived in fear that he would find out.
Growing evidence from sub-Saharan Africa shows that girls who marry early are at greater risk of contracting HIV/Aids or other sexually transmittable diseases. For instance, in Uganda, the HIV rate for adolescent girls between 15 and 19 was far higher for married girls (89%) than for unmarried girls (66%).
4) Child brides are more likely to describe their first sexual experience as forced
Child brides rarely have a say in whom, whether or when to marry. Melka, from Ethiopia, was 14 when she came home from school to discover she was to be married that day to an elderly man in her community.
“After the wedding”, she recalls, “they took me to his house in the next village. He started pushing me towards the bedroom. I didn’t want to go inside, but no one would listen to me”.
Melka is not alone in her situation. A recent study found that globally, girls who married before the age of 15 were almost 50% more likely to have experienced physical or sexual violence from their parents than those married after 18.
5) Action on child marriage send a clear message: violence against girls and women can never be excused in the name of tradition or culture
When girls marry before 18, their lives are all too often marked by an unspoken, yet very real, kind of violence; one that is happening, as Ela Bhatt of The Elders describes, “with the consent of society”.
“Despite the progress we have made”, Archbishop Desmond Tutu blogged, “this world remains a cruel and arbitrary one for too many women and girls” who are subjected daily to violence commonly accepted as tradition in many societies.
CHALLENGING VIOLENT PRACTICES IN GIRLS’ LIVES
Though complex, child marriage relies on a core assumption: that women and girls are somehow of lesser value. This leads to situations where acts of violence against girls are easier to justify.
Countering the normalisation of violence in the lives of girls and women forced to marry early is one of the greatest challenges in our efforts to stop gender-based violence. It will take courage, determination and coordinated action from all sectors of society to bring it to an end.
This blog was originally published to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November) and 16 Days of Activism to End Gender Violence in 2013. We are republishing it with updated statistics in 2017.