Married Too Young

May 06

More than 50 per cent of girls in Yemen get married before the age of 18. Oxfam and its partners are concerned that early marriage is perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

“I wouldn’t wish any girl to go through what I have faced, and I won’t allow my little girls to be married as young I was,” says Shafika*, who got married when she was 13-years-old.

It is not uncommon for girls in Yemen to find themselves married off as soon as they reach puberty. Young girls become wives and mothers without having the chance to grow up themselves. As a result, they suffer from health risks caused by early sexual relations, pregnancy, and childbirth.

“I first got pregnant when I was 14 years old,” says 22-year-old Shafika, now a mother of six. “In every pregnancy, I faced complications during the birth, and my children and I suffer from ongoing malnutrition.”

Shafika is one of the women that Oxfam’s partner organisations met during research in Hodiedah Governorate in western Yemen. Our studies have found that early marriage damages girls’ education, health, and skills-development, and holds communities back in the struggle to overcome poverty.

As well as causing high maternal and child mortality rates, early marriage forces girls to miss out on their education, which in turn affects women’s ability to promote their own children’s health and education. Shafika’s parents took her out of school in the fifth grade so she could get married. Her husband dropped out of school at the same time, and he now makes a precarious daily living by selling vegetables.

So why do so many families choose early marriage for their children? “My father agreed with his friend that I would marry his son, to take the burden of my keep off my family,” says Shafika. Many parents consider daughters to be a drain on the family income. With 41 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, the economic situation is sometimes a contributing factor, but this practice is also driven by deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs and religious interpretations.

Local communities are eager to promote intermarriage because it strengthens kinship ties between families. People often don’t realise the harm done to the girls and to the communities.

In response, Oxfam partner organisations have launched an awareness-raising campaign about the consequences of early marriage. It is being led by the Women’s National Committee (WNC), the Women’s Studies and Development Centre, and a network of local organisations called the ‘Shima Network’.

Because early marriage is rooted in cultural and religious traditions, it is not going to be an easy issue to challenge. But these groups are prepared to speak out. Public education through such means as plays, leaflets, and media coverage, will be combined with campaigning work, calling on the government to adopt 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage.

"We have buried our heads in the sand for too long,” says the WNC’s Hooria Mashoor. “Early marriage jeopardises development. We can’t ignore it. We have to have courage to face this issue.”

*To protect the woman’s identity, the name has been changed.

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