WUNRN
Egypt – Despite Legal Restrictions, Underage
Marriage Persists in Rural Egypt
The parents of 5- and 8-year-old cousins
whose engagement was announced on Facebook will be examined by the Minister of
Population Hala Youssef.. (photo by THE CAIRO POST)
By Ahmed Fouad - August 26, 2015
CAIRO — Eid Albanna, an Egyptian from South Sinai,
posted a photo of the engagement ceremony of his daughter
Salma, 5, to her cousin Youssef, 8, on Facebook July 21. He did not expect
the wave of criticism that ensued,
nor was he prepared for the controversy over underage
marriage the photo sparked in Egypt.
On July 23, Albanna expressed his
opinion to El Watan newspaper about the criticism leveled against him
because of the photo, which, according to him, is tradition in Egypt. Salma’s brother, Ahmed
Albanna, told Youm7, “The issue is not worth all the hype. The parents
have said that Youssef is Salma’s, and such a thing happens a lot in Egyptian
families.”
Albanna was criticized by
Facebook-based activists, the National Council for Childhood and
Motherhood and by children's rights activists like lawyer Mahmoud Badawy,
who described the engagement as a violation against children’s rights and
the result of a lack of awareness. Some activists mocked the engagement and the
families of the two children on Facebook.
As the criticism grew harsher, Albanna had to
delete the photo. He wrote on Facebook that the engagement was merely a joke between him,
his sons, relatives and friends.
On July 23, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood
filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry against the children’s
parents in an effort to block the engagement and marriage until
both parties reach legal age. The council also set up a hotline for
Egyptians to report these marriages.
Though Salma and Youssef’s engagement may
have been a joke, underage marriages are all too real. In rural Upper Egypt and
some border and remote governorates, traditions are strong. M.R., a man from
Matrouh governorate, told Al-Monitor that in most cases, marriages in the
governorate are performed within the families or tribes, and from the day she
is born, every girl is destined to marry one of her relatives once she
attains puberty. He added that there is nothing wrong with this practice,
saying, “Marriages can take place at the age of 14 for girls and 16 and above
for boys, as [people of Upper Egypt] prefer early marriages for girls.”
O.A., an engineer from the Qena governorate
in Upper Egypt, told Al-Monitor that he rejects the idea of underage marriages.
He said that although they are no longer common in the centers of the
Upper Egypt governorates, they are still widespread in the villages and
hamlets of Upper Egypt, as awareness and education levels
there are low.
M.A., a lawyer from the South Sinai
governorate, told Al-Monitor that people’s acceptance or rejection of early
marriages is not correlated with one’s education level and that they
are a matter of personal freedom. He said, “I have completed my university
studies, and I do not reject early marriages. Many early marriages succeed and
some fail, just as marriages at an older age. Early marriages are not harmful
to the future of the girls, and
most of the girls here see themselves married in the future, rather than
educated or involved in the labor market. Early marriages do not necessarily
mean that girls were forced to do it, for their consent is a must.”
N.Z., a housewife from the Qena
governorate, told Al-Monitor that she married her cousin at the age of 15
and had been engaged to him since the age of 10. She added that she is
living a happy life and has no problems with her husband.
The amended Child Law No. 126 of 2008 prohibits marriages for people under the age of 18.
Previously the legal marriage age in Egypt had been 16.
However, there are still many ways for
marriage officiants in Egypt to circumvent the law and the Egyptian
penal code. The falsification of marriage contracts by marriage officiants who
claim incorrect ages for either party to the marriage is
punishable with a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of 300
Egyptian pounds ($38), in accordance with Penal Code Article 227-1.
Notably, the falsification of marriage contracts makes “a huge
fortune” for the officiants involved, according to M.A., a
certified marriage officiant who spoke on condition of anonymity.
M.A. said that the only supervisory authority
overseeing marriage officiants in Egypt is the marriage registry, which is
responsible for checking the authenticity of the parties’ documents. Yet with
the growing population and busy registry offices, it has become difficult for
officials to check the authenticity of all marriage documents.
Also, because many residents of certain areas have no official
documents, marriage officiation regulations have given
the Nuba people, as well as those of the New Valley governorate, the Red Sea
governorate, the Matrouh governorate and Sinai, the right to submit a
certificate in which two of the parties’ relatives attest to their age,
provided that this certificate is certified by the mayor or his deputy.
M.A. pointed out that this clause lends
itself to tampering by the relatives in collusion with local mayors.
He noted that there are many underage marriages made by "customary"
marriage contracts and "marriage validation" contracts. Customary
contracts did not previously result in the recognition of
any civil rights, such as the right to obtain a family registry
or to register children, nor were resulting children entitled to
health care and education. Marriage validation contracts bestow at least
the right to register children for their health care and education
rights. He added that the situation has changed when a court ruling in
April 2015 found customary marriage contracts were sufficient proof for birth registration and other
rights. Although M.A. supports the court decision, he said he expects the
number of underage marriages to increase, as the fear of children being
denied birth certificates and health services including
vaccinations had for some been a deterrent to avoid underage
marriages.
An article in El Watan reported
that marriages performed through marriage validation contracts, which are often
used in underage marriages, reached 40% of marriages in Egypt, although a CNN
report did not include Egypt among the top 10 countries in underage marriage.
It should be noted that the minimum age for marriage varies from
one country to another, and that Spain, for instance,
raised the minimum age for marriage from 14 to 16 years in July 2015.
Underage marriage is widespread in some areas, but the failure of Egypt’s legislative system “has hindered the response to this tradition and its subsequent disadvantages,” Azzat Al-Ashmawi, former secretary-general of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, told Al-Monitor.