Bad Rap For The Middle East

The Truth About Child Brides

With countries like Oman, Egypt and Jordan leading the way for women’s rights and education, the Middle East is beginning to shed its undeserved label as the child bride capital of the world. But it doesn’t mean the problem is over. Far from it.

For as long as I can remember, to the uninformed public, the flash point of child brides and its sickening problems has been the Middle East. Google Child Brides and you’ll find pages and pages of stories detailing how Yemeni lawyer Shada Nasser helped a 10-year-old divorce her 30-year-old husband and is now spearheading the cause to raise Yemen's legal age of marriage. This is the “go-to” story that all of us against underage marriage have pointed at in recent months to showcase the dangers of this cultural phenomenon.

Stories like this make many think the Middle Eastern countries are the only ones where young girls are sold into marriage. But, lo and behold! ALO’s research shows that it is not the case and it is more prevalent in the rest of the world—Bangladesh, Niger and Chad to start with.

This is backed by a new report from the humanitarian group World Vision showing that countries in the Middle East do not even crack the Top 15 in terms of percentage of women with the most brides under age 15 (see sidebar on page 00). Here, there, everywhere—it really doesn’t matter where it occurs—and it’s nothing new. Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rob Lowe, Roman Polanski, Errol Flynn and many others all allegedly had trysts with minors or were accused of taking advantage of underage girls. The difference between the consenting young women in the celebrity cases and child brides is that the children are typically not mature enough for or interested in sex but are forced by their families to marry older men. This is the horror story, and it is a start, but it is still somewhat of a consolation that the numbers around the world—especially in the Middle East—are dwindling.

There's a lot of evidence that when girls are allowed to progress into womanhood while attending school and then go on to get jobs, everybody benefits. Society advances from their work, and when they do marry, their families are healthier. Poverty, illiteracy, and outdated customs often keep girls around the world from living up to their potential and fulfilling their true destiny. Each year millions of girls are married off when they are just kids.

As a mother of a family without the cultural and economic pressures that lead parents to marry off their young daughters, I wanted to learn why this path is traveled and what measures are being taken to prevent it.

My research starts with the northern Ethiopian village of Maych’ew (pop. 10,000) where they’ve mainly avoided the genocide of war and, it seems, have ignored Father Time. The village still functions as it has for centuries as a patriarchal society. In Maych’ew, child brides are the norm with 65 percent of girls born there becoming brides before the age of 14.

Afework Tadesse is a precious 10- year-old girl. At seven she was given a book of poems from a missionary visiting from Canada. She looks at it every day and longs for the day she could actually read the words. Instead she is destined to live the life of her mother and aunts. A life of sweeping, mopping, washing, cooking and conceiving. “There’s a story of a girl who left the village and become a very successful teacher,” Afework told me. “I’d want to be like her.” She is determined to follow that example, but most likely to no avail. In Maych’ew nobody pays attention to the dreams of impulsive young ladies.

“My sister was 11 when she got married,” she recalls. “No one quite explained what was happening. They dressed her up, and we went as a family to the wedding. No one knew what was happening. It seemed like a party, but then my sister wasn’t living with us anymore. I wish she was still here. Partly so I could see her and partly so I won’t be next.”

Afework is endearing to the eye, less than four feet tall with a crooked smile and a loving giggle. She’s a product of the country’s poor villages where families struggle to survive on about a dollar a day. For her family, one less mouth to feed makes a huge difference. Still she dreams of a different life. She’s not sure if that life will be better, “only different.” That difference for her could save the death of her childhood.

Looking at Ethiopian law, it says that girls must be 18 years old to marry. Yet, underage marriages happen, and if there is a hint that authorities might find out, weddings are held in the middle of the night, under cover of darkness. Once the marriage has taken place, almost everyone is reluctant to help law enforcement.

Puberty is fast approaching for Afework. As soon as she hits puberty, she’ll be sent to her husband who she has been promised to. Her innocence will be sacrificed to an arranged marriage to a man 32 years her senior. A dowry—perhaps a small cash sum or food producing livestock or jewelry— will be paid to Afework’s family, and the cycle where an estimated 45 million young teen and preteen girls are married off long before their time will continue.

The genesis of change is evident in many regions through the Middle East, and around the world as child advocacy groups wrestle with the problem of enforcing the written law.

Egypt: Last year, Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) concluded a series of studies revealing disturbing rates of illiteracy and school dropouts among the country’s female population—a whopping 51 percent. The result was a direct correlation with early marriage and poor health conditions. “A high illiteracy rate limits women's accessibility to formal labor markets, remunerated economic activities and political participation,” says Hoda Rashed, the head of NCW's Education and Science Committee. The Council unveiled an eight-year program where female illiteracy could be nearly eliminated by 2015. So far the plan is working, with dropout rates five percent lower this year, A greater resistance towards getting married too young is the prevalent mindset

Oman: Oman has actively promoted female education with impressive results. "Omani women have been working in various fields and actively participate in the national development process,” says Dr. Suad M.A. Sulaiman Suad, member of State Council and chairperson of Social Committee. “Oman is one of the most advanced countries in the Gulf region as far as women's rights are concerned. We enjoy equal political, social and economic rights. It is something you will be hard pressed to find in most countries around the world."

Jordan: King Abdullah II says, “It would be impossible to build the future without the vital participation of women and the younger generation, especially with these categories constituting half of the population of the Arab world. They are the hope of the future, not only of the region but the whole world. Our education programs will continue to support and lead.”

 

• Pages:
• 1
• 2

Insider Sub stories