WUNRN
SOUTH SUDAN - MARRYING OFF YOUNG
GIRLS FOR BRIDE PRICE, AS COWS
- “Our
daughters are our only source of wealth. Where else do you expect me to get
cows from?” asks 60-year-old Jacob Deng from
Deng’s
attitude is a widespread one here as the practice of child marriage is still
supported in many South Sudanese communities, where girls are seen as a source
of wealth because of the bride price families are paid.
According to the Ministry of
Gender and Child Affairs, 48 percent of South Sudanese girls between the ages
of 15 and 19 are married, with some being as young as 12 years old when they
are married off.
Child marriage is part of the
traditions of many communities. “Once a girl reaches puberty she is already a
woman. As long as there is someone willing to pay many cows (for her), I will
marry off my daughter,” Deng tells IPS.
“Early marriage, violence against
women and many other things at the grassroots that women are suffering from are
because of customary law. We need to do something about it." Angelina
Daniel Seeka, NGO Leader
Fifty-year-old Biel Gatmai from
“It is better for a girl to get
married at a young age than to keep her in her parents’ house and she falls
pregnant. If her first child is born out of wedlock, whoever marries her later
will pay only a few cows,” Gatmai says.
As
President Salva Kiir appointed
a 55-member Constitutional Review Commission in 2012 to assess and improve on
the country’s current transitional constitution, which was adopted on Jul. 9,
2011, the day
The commission is expected to
submit the draft for a new constitution by December 2014.
According to the United
Nations, women and girls in
In mid-April the U.N. Mission in South Sudan
(UNMISS) said it was concerned about the role of women in the country given the
continuing inter-communal violence that regularly
threatens civilians, especially women and children. At least 1,600 people died
in 2011 in fighting between the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups, according to
the U.N.
In April, the head of UNMISS,
Hilde Johnson, told reporters in
Paleki Mathew Obur, director of
the local NGO South Sudan Women’s Empowerment Network, says they want the issue
of a minimum marriageable age addressed in the new constitution, as it is not
defined in the current transitional one.
“Different organisations have
gone to (
Angelina Daniel Seeka, from the
local NGO End Impunity, tells IPS that the root cause of child marriage lies
within customary law.
“Early marriage, violence against women and
many other things at the grassroots that women are suffering from are because
of customary law. So we need to do something about it. I hope we will come up
with something that can help women in the future,” she says.
Activists say that the
unwritten nature of customary law here serves as an opportunity for local
chiefs – who are almost all men – to interpret the law in any way they want.
According to Lorna James Elia,
head of the women’s organisation Voice for Change, the new constitution should
redefine customary law.
“What we are saying is that
there are areas in customary law that are very good and we can retain them. But
those aspects that are very discriminative, whether they are cherished by women
or cherished by men, should be dealt away with,” she tells IPS.
Under
But the practice remains
contentious, as many instances of customary law here are considered unjust. For
example, under customary law if a person commits murder their family
compensates the bereaved family by giving them a young female relative.
“We want the constitution to
include a clause making it clear that no human being is to be used to
compensate the family of a murdered person. There should be no child
compensation,” rights activist Buruna Ciricio said at a recent U.N.-backed
national women’s conference on constitutional development in
Customary law also forces a
widow to be “given” to a brother or relative of her late husband. She is not
eligible to inherit her husband’s land or property, and her “new husband” will
inherit in her stead and is expected to take care of her.
Once the new constitution is
finally drafted, it is expected to be debated in parliament in early 2015,
before it is signed into law.