Northern highlands of Ethiopia are still drenched into the age-old custom of child marriage. Despite international agreements and national laws, marriage of young girls is common practice in the region.
What does this proves, is a girl mere commodity than a human being in Ethiopia?
Is there no consideration for what a girl feels?
Parents think that marrying off a daughter at a young age can help them socially and economically, while also keeping the girl ’safe’ from unwanted sexual advances.
In addition, early marriage ensures that a girl hasn’t had sex before marriage with a boy or man who does not meet the family’s approval. Once a girl loses her virginity, it is virtually impossible to find a man who will marry her.
On asking, one of the native asserted that if their daughter stays with them for a long time then ‘people will think there is something wrong with us. We want her to marry and be happy’.
Statistically:
1. more than 50% of all girls endure the terrible fate of early marriage in Ethiopia
2. early pregnancies are the leading cause of death for girls age 15 to 19
3. Ethiopia has one of the highest number of early marriages in sub-Saharan Africa
4. 50% of girls are married before the age of 15
After marriage:
However, the condition hardly changes for a girl even after wedding. Once married, she is treated more like a servant than a wife. Even so, families dislike the idea of their daughters returning home, after a dispute. Since, they have already had the dowry paid by the son in law so they favor their daughter to endure than come home.
In many cases, the younger the girl, the more her family receives in the form of a dowry.
These forms of early marriages have made young girls more susceptible to domestic violence and venereal diseases such as AIDS, cervical cancer, malaria, death during childbirth, and obstetric fistulas.
Bottom line:
To stop child marriage, certain policies and programs must be framed that would educate communities and raise awareness. In addition, local and religious leaders must be engaged, parents must be involved and girls should be empowered through education and employment.
