AfricaPress-Tanzania: UNDERAGE wives are likely to leave schooling and face increased risks of poverty, domestic violence and high rates of maternal mortality.
Quite a lot of studies have also uncovered the affliction on single mothers abandoned to take care of children and becoming increasingly poor.
As a result, in the face of parents’ excuse of marrying off daughters to ease the financial burden on their families, they are welcoming a lot of miseries not only to the girls but also to the family and nation at large.
It is commendable that the government has put a lot of effort and resources to fight against this vice.
However, members of the public and parents still have a lot to do in order to completely make this problem a thing of the past.
Child marriage is a truly global problem that cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities.
Child brides can be found not only in Tanzania but in every region in the world, from the Middle East to Latin America, South Asia to Europe.
According to statistics from Amref Africa, if there is no reduction in child marriage, the global number of women married as children will reach 1.2 billion by 2050.
At its heart, child marriage is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are somehow inferior to boys and men.
Child marriage is a complex issue to say the least, and it is driven by poverty, lack of education, cultural practices, and insecurity.
In many communities where child marriage is practiced, girls are not valued as much as boys – they are seen as a burden on their family.
Marrying your daughter at a young age can be viewed as a way to ease economic hardship by transferring this ‘burden’ to her husband’s family.
Child marriage is also driven by patriarchal values and the desire to control female sexuality, for instance, how a girl should behave, how she should dress, who she should be allowed to see, to marry, etc.
Families closely guard their daughters’ sexuality and virginity in order to protect the family honor.
Girls who have relationships or become pregnant outside of marriage are shamed for bringing dishonor on their family.
Today, we have a unique opportunity to act on this momentum and accelerate our efforts to help change the lives of girls and young women all over the country.
Ending child marriage requires work across all sectors and at all levels.
As we raise voices against all evils, it’s high time we recognized that wedlock is a padlock for girls, thus, we should devote all our vitalities, efforts and resources to let our young girls marry at their right time.
