early marriage
CHAPTER TWO
REASONS OF CHILD MARRIAGE
Every girl has dreams about her wedding day. After all, it is supposed to be one of the most important days of her life. But somehow it is doubtful that somewhere in that dream any girl imagines she would still be an actual child on that day. Yet that is the reality for many child brides in many different parts of the world
Despite many countries in Africa enacting marriageable age laws to limit marriage to a minimum age of 16 or 18 depending on the jurisdiction, underage marriages are still very common. Poverty, religion, tradition and conflict make the incidence of child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa wide spread. In many tribal systems, a man pays a bride price to a girl’s family in order to marry her. Sadly in many parts of Africa, this payment decreases as the girl gets older. Even before puberty, it is common for a married girl to leave her parents to be with her husband. Many child marriages are poverty related with the parents of the girl needing the bride price to feed, clothe, educate and house the rest of the family. This automatically puts a halt to the girl’s education and exposes her to diverse health problems. In Nigeria, like other African countries, traditional customs, deep-rooted cultural mores and religious beliefs tend to compete with and in many cases overshadow the common laws and statutory laws with regard to some issues. Issues relating to women are mostly affected resulting in incidences such as child marriage. Child marriage was a common form of marriage in Nigeria, which unfortunately, is still practiced in some rural communities especially in the Hausa culture in the northern states of Nigeria. Under this practice a girl from birth was betrothed to a man to whom she will be formally married to between the ages of eight and ten . The issue of choice of partner for the girl-child is the duty of the family members or the father who takes into consideration different factors in making a choice.
REASONS OF CHILD MARRIAGE
Every girl has dreams about her wedding day. After all, it is supposed to be one of the most important days of her life. But somehow it is doubtful that somewhere in that dream any girl imagines she would still be an actual child on that day. Yet that is the reality for many child brides in many different parts of the world
Despite many countries in Africa enacting marriageable age laws to limit marriage to a minimum age of 16 or 18 depending on the jurisdiction, underage marriages are still very common. Poverty, religion, tradition and conflict make the incidence of child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa wide spread. In many tribal systems, a man pays a bride price to a girl’s family in order to marry her. Sadly in many parts of Africa, this payment decreases as the girl gets older. Even before puberty, it is common for a married girl to leave her parents to be with her husband. Many child marriages are poverty related with the parents of the girl needing the bride price to feed, clothe, educate and house the rest of the family. This automatically puts a halt to the girl’s education and exposes her to diverse health problems. In Nigeria, like other African countries, traditional customs, deep-rooted cultural mores and religious beliefs tend to compete with and in many cases overshadow the common laws and statutory laws with regard to some issues. Issues relating to women are mostly affected resulting in incidences such as child marriage. Child marriage was a common form of marriage in Nigeria, which unfortunately, is still practiced in some rural communities especially in the Hausa culture in the northern states of Nigeria. Under this practice a girl from birth was betrothed to a man to whom she will be formally married to between the ages of eight and ten . The issue of choice of partner for the girl-child is the duty of the family members or the father who takes into consideration different factors in making a choice.