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For El Hadji Souley Moussa, a 60-year-old retired bank employee in
It is no wonder that a
population and health survey conducted in 2012 by the Ministry of Public
Health, and released this July, revealed that 75 percent of girls get married
before the age of 18 in this Sahelien country of 16 million in West Africa. According to the study, young
girls aged between 15 and 19 years are the most vulnerable.
In 2011 the United Nations Children’s Fund State
of the World’s Children report ranked
“Socio-cultural pressures, particularly the desire to have a child
before the first marriage anniversary often forces the young girl to prove her
fertility a few months after marriage.” -- sociologist Salissou Habou
Yahaya Issa, a guidance counsellor at the Ministry of
National Education, told IPS that parents who marry off their young daughters
usually cite their religion as the reason.
“For us Muslims, marriage holds an important place in
our lives,” Aminatou Abdou, 53, a housewife in
Not all Muslims share this view. “There is
misinterpretation of the religion. Islam advocates social wellbeing. This is
why I am against prematurely marrying off a daughter because this has bad
implications for her health,” Malam Issa Dogo, a religious preacher, told IPS.
“Those who marry off their daughters early do so
because of ignorance. Islam is a religion which is against lack of knowledge,”
he added.
According to Abdou Sani, an anthropology doctorate
student at the
Early marriages result in early pregancies, which
compromises the girls’ future as many do not go to school once they are of
marriageable age. Medical sources indicate that 40 percent of young brides fall
pregnant a few months after marriage.
“Socio-cultural pressures, particularly the desire to
have a child before the first marriage anniversary often forces the young girl
to prove her fertility a few months after marriage,” Salissou Habou, a
sociologist in Niamey, Niger’s capital, told IPS.
According to 2011 statistics from the Ministry of
Public Health, teenagers make up 19 percent of women of reproductive age and
contribute 14 percent to the total female fertility in this country.
“Less than 40 percent of teenagers go for antenatal
care,” Hadjara Tinni, a midwife based in
According to Tinni, because young girls fall pregnant
before their bodies are mature, they are twice as likely to die during
childbirth than women who over the age of 20.
According to the Ministry of Public Health’s 2011
survey, the rate of maternal mortality in
“Survivors often suffer from illnesses such as
obstetric fistula,” Hassan Idrissa, another midwife in
“We must educate and keep young girls at school in
order to put an end to this situation,” urged Hadiza Issoufou, a teacher and
member of the Nigerien Association for the Defence of Human Rights.
However, the draft law drawn up in 2002 setting the
minimum age for marriage at 18 is still being opposed by religious
associations.
“The situation of teenage girls is a major concern,
but unfortunately a large segment of the population is ignorant about the
problem,” declared Dr. Makibi Dandobi, Nigerien population minister on World
Population Day on July 11.