Last month, reportedly an MNA in his late 50s, violating the Child Marriage Restraint Act, married a 14-year-old girl in Balochistan. The girl was not the only victim of the tradition of making girls of tender age brides of aged grooms, but many such heinous marriages occur almost every day across Pakistan.
These marriages directly or indirectly are facilitated, abetted and solemnized by some religious extremists. Unfortunately, many culprits of the crime go unpunished due to the lack of implementation of child marriage laws.
The practice of child marriage, which is incongruent with common sense and the legal system, deprives girls of the rights to a childhood, schooling, health, selection of husband of their own choice and protection from abuse, violence and discrimination. Moreover, underage marriage has a damaging effect on girls. It makes it hard for them to stay in school. It makes them prey to domestic violence and to many health problems.
Though child marriage is a global phenomenon, it is ubiquitous in Pakistan. According to the World Health Organization report, globally 12 million girls are married annually while under 18. It means one girl becomes a child bride after every three seconds. Of these girl brides, 21 percent are Pakistani.
Globally, some constructive initiatives have been undertaken to end child marriages. The global partnership consisted of over 1300 organizations worldwide, which was established in 2011 with the objective to make the world a child-marriage-free place, has made some encouraging progress. The partnership has succeeded in bringing about a decline in the global child marriage rate. It prevented around 25 million child marriages during the last decade. The partner organizations have been making collective efforts round the clock to end child marriages and empower girls to achieve and exercise all their rights.
We should help girls seek a carefree life beyond child marriages. To this end, some concrete measures are to be taken to stringently and effectively implement the concerned laws to bring an end to child marriages. Further, services of the liberal-minded Islamic religious scholars of a good repute should be availed as they may convince the people to give their girls the right to consensual marriage.
According to the partnership, a decade back child marriage was a taboo topic in many countries, and governments, leaders and communities could not dare talk about it. This is because of our efforts that it has now become such s prominent and significant issue on the global agenda. In 2016, child marriage was embedded in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To change the lives of vulnerable girls for the better, around 193 countries have committed to achieve target number 5.3 of the SDGs that aims to eradicate all damaging practices such as child, early and forced marriages by 2030.
During the last decade, Norway, Tanzania and Malawi banned child marriages. A number of states in Latin America, 24 states in Mexico and Islamic countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, UAE, and Bangladesh raised the minimum age of marriage to 18. Two years back in 2019, the Islamic religious scholars of Dakar and the Deputy Grand Imam of Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo issued fatwa against child marriage and set out marriage under 18 for both boys and girls as haram (forbidden).
But here in Pakistan the Islamic religious extremists strongly oppose the minimum age of marriage, 18, and term it a violation of Sharia Law. Hence, they have been obstacles in ending the practice of child marriages. They believe that, under Islamic jurisprudence, the age of puberty (between ages 8 and 13 in girls and ages 9 and 15 in boys) is the age of marriage.
We should help girls seek a carefree life beyond child marriages. To this end, some concrete measures are to be taken to stringently and effectively implement the concerned laws to bring an end to child marriages. Further, services of the liberal-minded Islamic religious scholars of a good repute should be availed as they may convince the people to give their girls the right to consensual marriage.
