Child marriage

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Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child and an adult or another child under a certain age, typically age eighteen.[1] The vast majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man,[2][3] and are rooted in gender inequality.[2][4]

Although the age of majority (legal adulthood) and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary across countries and therefore the marriageable age may be older or younger in a given country.[5] Even where the age is set at 18 years, cultural traditions may override legislation and many jurisdictions permit earlier marriage with parental consent or in special circumstances, such as teenage pregnancy.[6]

Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread and long-term consequences for child brides and child grooms.[2][5] For girls, in addition to mental health issues and a lack of access to education and career opportunities,[2] this includes adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy (including teenage pregnancy) and childbirth.[5] There is little research on boys in child marriages, but effects on boys include being ill-prepared for certain responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of access to education and career opportunities.[5] Child marriage is related to child betrothal, and it includes civil cohabitation and court-approved early marriages after teenage pregnancy.[7][8] Causes of child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowry, cultural traditions, religious and social pressures, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, illiteracy, and perceived inability of women to work for money.[4][9][10] Research indicates that comprehensive sex education can help to prevent child marriage.[11]

Child marriages have been common throughout history and continue to be fairly widespread, particularly in developing countries such as parts of Africa,[12][13] South Asia,[14] Southeast Asia,[15][16] West Asia,[17][18] Latin America,[17] and Oceania.[19] However, even in developed countries such as the United States legal exceptions still allow child marriage in 46 US states.[20] The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world. 2018 data from UNICEF showed that about 21 percent of young women worldwide (aged 20 to 24) were married as children; this is a 25 percent decrease from 10 years previously.[21] The countries with the highest observed rates of child marriages below the age of 18 were Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Nepal with rates above 50%.[22] Niger, Chad, Bangladesh, Mali and Ethiopia were the countries with child marriage rates greater than 20% below the age of 15, according to 2003–2009 surveys.[23][24] Globally, an estimated 12 million girls annually are being married under the age of 18.[25]

History

In 1533, 17-year-old Princess Emilia of Saxony was wed to George the Pious, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, then aged 48 years. Early marriages have been common in historical times, including in Europe.
Presentation of Marie Antoinette to Louis Auguste at Versailles, before their marriage. She married at age 15, on 16 May 1770.

Before the industrial revolution, in many parts of the world, including India, China and Eastern Europe, women tended to marry immediately after reaching puberty, in their mid-teens. Societies where most of the population lived in small agricultural communities were characterized by these marriage practices well into the 19th century.[26] Men tended to marry later in societies where a married couple was expected to establish a household of their own. That usually meant that men remained unmarried until they accumulated sufficient wealth to support a new home, and were married in their mature age to adolescent girls, who contributed a dowry to the family finances.[27]

In ancient and medieval societies, it was common for girls to be betrothed at or even before the age of puberty.[28][29] According to M.A. Friedman, "arranging and contracting the marriage of a young girl were the undisputed prerogatives of her father in ancient Israel." Most girls were married before the age of 15, often at the start of their puberty.[30] In the Middle Ages the age at marriage seems to have been around puberty throughout the Jewish world.[31]

Ruth Lamdan writes: "The numerous references to child marriage in the 16th-century Responsa literature and other sources, shows that child marriage was so common, it was virtually the norm. In this context, it is important to remember that in halakha, the term "minor" refers to a girl under twelve years and a day. A girl aged twelve and a half was already considered an adult in all respects."[32]

In Ancient Greece, early marriage and motherhood for girls existed.[33] Even boys were expected to marry in their teens. Early marriages and teenage motherhood were typical. In Ancient Rome, females could marry above the age of 12 and males could marry above the age of 14.[34] In the Middle Ages, under English civil laws that were derived from Roman laws, marriages before the age of 16 existed. In Imperial China, child marriage was the norm.[35][36]

In contrast to other pre-modern societies – and for reasons that are subject to debate – Northwest Europe was characterized by relatively late marriages for both men and women, with both sexes commonly delaying marriage until their mid-20s or even 30s.[27][26] The data available for England suggest that it was already the case in the 14th century. This pattern was reflected in English common law, which was the first in Western Europe to establish statutory rape laws and ages of consent for marriage. In 1275, sexual relations with girls under either 12 or 14 (depending on interpretation of the sources) were criminalized; a second law was made with more severe punishments for under the age of 10 in 1576. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British colonial administration introduced marriage age restrictions for Hindu and Muslim girls on the Indian subcontinent.[26]

A Scottish physician living in 18th century Syria reported that locals tried to contract marriages for their children at a young age, but the marriage was not consummated until the girl "had come of age". Evidence from 19th century Palestine suggests that husbands sometimes initiated sexual relations before their wife reached puberty, but that it was a rare occurrence, condemned socially and censured by sharia courts. Writing in 1830s, Edward William Lane observed that few Egyptian girls remained single by the age of 16, but socio-economic transformation, educational reforms and influence of Western norms brought significant changes, and by 1920 fewer than 10% of Egyptian women married before the age of 20. In 1923, Egypt's parliament set the minimum age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men.[37]

Religious norms and laws

Most of the religions known in history have established a minimum age for marriage in one way or another. Christian canon law forbade the marriage of a girl before the onset the age of puberty,[38] and the Hindu holy book, the Vedas, proclaimed marriage after the age of puberty.[39] In the Vedas marriage is shown to be between two adult persons after the Brahmacharya stage.[40] The Vedas, specifically the Rigveda and Atharvaveda, have verses that clearly indicate that during the Vedic Period, girls married well after attaining puberty and were of a mature age.[41] The early Dharmaśāstra (Dharmasutras) also state that girls should be married after they have attained puberty[42] while some texts extend the marriageable age to before puberty.[43] In the Manusmriti, which was not implemented as law,[44] a father is considered to have wronged his daughter if he fails to marry her before puberty and if the girl is not married in less than three years after reaching puberty, she can search for the husband herself.[45]

Jewish scholars and rabbis strongly discouraged marriages before the onset of puberty,[30] but at the same time, in exceptional cases, girls ages 3 through 12 (the legal age of consent according to halakha) might be given in marriage by her father.[46][47] By Judaism, the minimal girl age, for marriage, was 12 years and one day, "na'arah", as mentioned in the ancient Talmud Mishnah books (compiled between 536 BCE – 70 CE, redacted in the 3rd century CE), Order Nashim Masechet Kiddushin 41 a & b.[48]

According to halakha girls should not marry until they are 12 years and six months old, "bogeret".[49][50] Although Moses Maimonides mentions in the Talmud Mishneh Torah (compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE) that in exceptional cases girls ages three through 12 might be given in marriage by her father,[46][51] he also clarifies in verse 3:19 of the same chapter that: "Although a father has the option of consecrating his daughter to anyone he desires while she is a minor or while she is a maiden, it is not proper for him to act in this manner".[52]

According to the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia, apocryphal accounts that, at the time of her betrothal to Joseph, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was 12–14 years old.[53]

Christian child marriage in the Middle Ages

Historically within the Catholic Church, prior to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the minimum age for a dissoluble betrothal (sponsalia de futuro) was seven years in the Template:Link texts. The minimum age for a valid marriage was puberty, or nominally 14 for males and 12 for females.[54] The 1917 Code of Canon Law raised the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females.[55] The 1983 Code of Canon Law maintained the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females.[56](c. 1083 §1)[lower-alpha 1]

English ecclesiastical law forbade marriage of a girl before the age of puberty.[58]

There is no minimum marriage age defined in traditional Islamic law, and the legal discussion of this topic centered primarily on women's physical maturity. Classical Sunni jurisprudence allows a father to contract a marriage for his underaged girl. Appropriate age for consummating the marriage, which could occur several years after signing the marriage contract, was to be determined by the bride, groom and the bride's guardian, since medieval jurists held that the age of fitness for intercourse was too variable for legislation.[59] This was based in part on the precedent set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as described in the hadith collections considered to be authentic by Muslims. According to these sources, Muhammad married Aisha, his third wife, when she was about six,[lower-alpha 2] and consummated the marriage when she was about nine.[lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 4] Some modern Muslim authors and Islamic scholars, such as Ali Gomaa, who served as the Grand Mufti of Egypt, doubt the traditionally accepted narrative and believe based on other evidence that Aisha was in her late teens at the time of her marriage.[60] As a general rule, intercourse was prohibited for girls "not able to undergo it", on the grounds of potential physical harm. Disputes regarding physical maturity between the involved parties were to be resolved by a judge, potentially after examination by a female expert witness.[59] The 1917 codification of Islamic family law in the Ottoman empire distinguished between the age of competence for marriage, which was set at 18 for boys and 17 for girls, and the minimum age for marriage, set at 12 for boys and nine for girls. Marriage below the age of competence was permissible only if proof of sexual maturity was accepted in court, while marriage under the minimum age was forbidden. During the 20th century, sharia-based legislation in most countries in the Middle East followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of competence, while raising the minimum age to 15 or 16 for boys and 13–16 for girls.[61] In 2019 Saudi Arabia raised the age of marriage to 18.[62]

Despite the fact that by the beginning of the 21st century, the laws of most countries established the general minimum age for marriage at 18 years, in many countries (and not only in developing or religious ones) there are exceptions that allow marriage before this age with the consent of the parents and/or by court decision. In some countries, a religious marriage is still recognized by the state authorities along with a secular marriage or even instead of it, in others, a registered civil marriage is mandatory.

Effects on each gender

Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, from their health (mental and physical), education and social development perspectives.[2] These consequences last well beyond adolescence.[63] One of the most common causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries was pregnancy and childbirth.[64] In Niger, which is estimated as having the highest rate of child marriage in the world, about 3 in 4 girls marry before their 18th birthday.[65][66]

Boys are sometimes married as children; UNICEF states that "girls [are] disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls."[4] Research on the effects of child marriage on underage boys is scant, which researchers state is likely because child marriage involving boys is less common and girls being at risk for adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy and childbirth.[5] The effects of child marriage on boys include being ill-prepared for certain responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of access to education and career opportunities.[5] As of September 2014, 156 million living men were married as underage boys.[67]

In its first in-depth analysis of child grooms, UNICEF revealed that an estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married as children. Of these, 1 in 5 children, or 23 million, were married before the age of 15. According to the data, the Central African Republic has the highest prevalence of child marriage among males (28 per cent), followed by Nicaragua (19 per cent) and Madagascar (13 per cent). The estimates bring the total number of child brides and child grooms to 765 million. Girls remain disproportionately affected, with 1 in 5 young women aged 20 to 24 years old married before their 18th birthday, compared to 1 in 30 young men.[68]

Causes

According to UNFPA, factors that promote and reinforce child marriage include poverty and economic survival strategies; gender inequality; sealing land or property deals or settling disputes; control over sexuality and protecting family honour; tradition and culture; and insecurity, particularly during war, famine or epidemics.[69] Other factors include family ties in which marriage is a means of consolidating powerful relations between families.[69]

Dowry and brideprice

A traditional, formal presentation of the bride price at a Thai engagement ceremony

Providing a girl with a dowry at her marriage is an ancient practice which continues in some parts of the world. This requires parents to bestow property on the marriage of a daughter, which is often an economic challenge for many families. The difficulty to save and preserve wealth for dowry was common, particularly in times of economic hardship, or persecution, or unpredictable seizure of property and savings. These difficulties pressed families to betroth their girls, irrespective of her age, as soon as they had the resources to pay the dowry. Thus, Goitein notes that European Jews would marry their girls early, once they had collected the expected amount of dowry.[70]

A bride price is the amount paid by the groom to the parents of a bride for them to consent to him marrying their daughter. In some countries, the younger the bride, the higher the price she may fetch.[71][72] This practice creates an economic incentive where girls are sought and married early by her family to the highest bidder. Child marriages of girls is a way out of desperate economic conditions, or simply a source of income to the parents.[73][74][75] Bride price is another cause of child marriage and child trafficking.[9][10][76][77]

Bride kidnapping

Depiction of bride kidnapping
Main article: Bride kidnapping

Bride kidnapping, also known as bridenapping,[78] marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a male abducts[79] the female he wishes to marry. Bride kidnapping has been practiced around the world and throughout history. It continues to occur in countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and parts of Africa, and among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in Europe.

In most nations, bride kidnapping is considered a crime rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage. However, even when the practice is against the law, judicial enforcement remains lax in some areas. Bride kidnapping occurs in various parts of the world, but it is most common in the Caucasus and Central Asia.[80] Bride kidnapping is often (but not always) a form of child marriage.[81] It may be connected to the practice of bride price, and the inability or unwillingness to pay it.[82]

Debt repayement

Main article: Money marriage

Money marriage refers to a marriage where a girl, usually, is married off to a man to settle debts owed by her parents.[83]

Persecution, forced migration, and slavery

Social upheavals such as wars, major military campaigns, forced religious conversion, taking natives as prisoners of war and converting them into slaves, arrest and forced migrations of people often made a suitable groom a rare commodity. Bride's families would seek out any available bachelors and marry them to their daughters, before events beyond their control moved the boy away. Persecution and displacement of Roma and Jewish people in Europe, colonial campaigns to get slaves from various ethnic groups in West Africa across the Atlantic for plantations, Islamic campaigns to get Hindu slaves from India across Afghanistan's Hindu Kush as property and for work, were some of the historical events that increased the practice of child marriage before the 19th century.[70][84][85]

Among Sephardi Jewish communities, child marriages became frequent from the 10th to 13th centuries, especially in Muslim Spain.[86] This practice intensified after the Jewish community was expelled from Spain, and resettled in the Ottoman Empire. Child marriages among the Eastern Sephardic Jews continued through the 18th century in Islamic majority regions.[86][87][88]

Fear, poverty, social pressures and sense of protection

English stage actress Ellen Terry was married at age 16 to George Frederic Watts who was 46 years old, a marriage her parents thought would be advantageous; later she said she was uncomfortable being a child bride. Terry died at the age of 81, in 1928.

A sense of social insecurity has been a cause of child marriages across the world. For example, in Nepal, parents fear likely social stigma if adult daughters (past 18 years) stay at home. Other fear of crime such as rape, which not only would be traumatic but may lead to less acceptance of the girl if she becomes victim of a crime.[89] For example, girls may not be seen as eligible for marriage if they are not virgins.[90] In other cultures, the fear is that an unmarried girl may engage in illicit relationships,[91] or elope causing a permanent social blemish to her siblings, or that the impoverished family may be unable to find bachelors for grown-up girls in their economic social group. Such fears and social pressures have been proposed as causes that lead to child marriages. Insofar as child marriage is a social norm in practicing communities, the elimination of child marriage must come through a changing of those social norms. The mindset of the communities, and what is believed to be the proper outcome for a child bride, must be shifted to bring about a change in the prevalence of child marriage.[92]

Extreme poverty may make daughters an economic burden on the family, which may be relieved by their early marriage,[93] to the benefit of the family as well as the girl herself. Poor parents may have few alternatives they can afford for the girls in the family; they often view marriage as a means to ensure their daughter's financial security and to reduce the economic burden of a growing adult on the family.[6][94] Child marriage can also be seen as means of ensuring a girl's economic security, particularly if she lacks family members to provide for her.[95] In reviews of Jewish community history, scholars[96][97][98] claim poverty, shortage of grooms, uncertain social and economic conditions were a cause for frequent child marriages.

Drawings by young Syrian refugee girls in a community centre in southern Lebanon promote the prevention of child marriage.

An additional factor causing child marriage is the parental belief that early marriage offers protection. Parents feel that marriage provides their daughter with a sense of protection from sexual promiscuity and safe from sexually transmitted infections.[6][72] However, in reality, young girls tend to marry older men, placing them at an increased risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection.

Protection through marriage may play a specific role in conflict settings. Families may have their young daughters marry members of an armed group or military in hopes that she will be better protected. Girls may also be taken by armed groups and forced into marriages.[95]

Religion, culture and civil law

Although the general marriageable age is 18 in the majority of countries, most jurisdictions allow for exceptions for underage youth with parental and/or judicial consent.[69] Such laws are neither limited to developing countries, nor to state religion. In some countries a religious marriage by itself has legal validity, while in others it does not, as civil marriage is obligatory. For Catholics incorporated into the Latin Church, the 1983 Code of Canon Law sets the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females.[56](c. 1083 §1)[lower-alpha 1] In 2015, Spain raised its minimum marriageable age to 18 (16 with court consent) from the previous 14.[99] In Mexico, marriage under 18 is allowed with parental consent, from age 14 for girls and age 16 for boys.[100] In Ukraine, in 2012, the Family Code was amended to equalize the marriageable age for girls and boys to 18, with courts being allowed to grant permission to marry from age 16 years if it is established that the marriage is in the best interest of the youth.[101]

Many states in the US permit child marriages, with court's permission. Since 2015, the minimum marriageable age throughout Canada is 16. In Canada the age of majority is set by province/territory at 18 or 19, so minors under this age have additional restrictions (i.e. parental and court consent). Under the Criminal Code, Art. 293.2 Marriage under age of 16 years reads: "Everyone who celebrates, aids or participates in a marriage rite or ceremony knowing that one of the persons being married is under the age of 16 years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years."[102] The Civil Marriage Act also states: "2.2 No person who is under the age of 16 years may contract marriage."[103] In the UK, marriage is allowed for 16–17 years old with parental consent in England and Wales as well as in Northern Ireland, and even without parental consent in Scotland.[104] However, a marriage of a person under 16 is void under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.[105] The United Nations Population Fund stated the following:[69]

In 2010, 158 countries reported that 18 years was the minimum legal age for marriage for women without parental consent or approval by a pertinent authority. However, in 146 countries, state or customary law allows girls younger than 18 to marry with the consent of parents or other authorities; in 52 countries, girls under age 15 can marry with parental consent. In contrast, 18 is the legal age for marriage without consent among males in 180 countries. Additionally, in 105 countries, boys can marry with the consent of a parent or a pertinent authority, and in 23 countries, boys under age 15 can marry with parental consent.

Lower legally allowed marriage age does not necessarily cause high rates of child marriages. However, there is a correlation between restrictions placed by laws and the average age of first marriage. In the United States, per 1960 Census data, 3.5% of girls married before the age of 16, while an additional 11.9% married between 16 and 18. States with lower marriage age limits saw higher percentages of child marriages.[34] This correlation between higher age of marriage in civil law and observed frequency of child marriages breaks down in countries with Islam as the state religion. In Islamic nations, many countries do not allow child marriage of girls under their civil code of laws. But, the state recognized Sharia religious laws and courts in all these nations have the power to override the civil code, and often do. UNICEF reports that the top eight nations in the world with highest observed child marriage rates are Niger (75%), Chad (72%), Mali (71%), Bangladesh (64%), Guinea (63%), Central African Republic (61%), Mozambique (56%), and Nepal (51%).[22]

Marriageable age in religious sources

Judaism

Ancient Rabbis set the age of marriage for every Israelite at 18 years old; males are expected to be married by 20 years old in teenage marriage and females can stay unmarried but must be celibate.[106]

In Rabbinic Judaism, males cannot consent to marriage until they reach the age of 13 years and a day and have undergone puberty. They are considered minors until the age of twenty. The same rules apply to females, except their age is 12 years and a day. After twenty, males are not considered adults if they show signs of impotence. If females show no signs of puberty and males show no signs of puberty or do show impotence, they automatically become adults by age 35 and can marry.[107][108]

A large age gap between spouses, in either direction, is advised against as unwise.[109] A younger woman marrying a significantly older man however is especially problematic: marrying one's young daughter to an old man was declared as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution.[110]

A ketannah (literally meaning "little [one]") was any girl between the age of 3 years and that of 12 years plus one day;[111] she was subject to her father's authority, and he could arrange a marriage for her without her agreement.[111] However, after reaching the age of maturity, she would have to agree to the marriage to be considered as married.[112][113]

Catholic Church

The minimum ages of consent for marriage in the Catholic Church are 14 for girls and 16 for boys. Being underage constitutes a diriment impediment. That is, a marriage involving an underage bride or groom is canonically invalid. A Conference of Bishops may adopt a higher age for marriage, but in that case, the higher age only creates a prohibitive impediment, that is, a marriage involving a bride or groom above the Church's minimum age but below that set by the Conference is valid but illicit. Permission to marry against a civil authority's directive requires the permission of the Ordinary, which, in the case of sensible and equal laws regarding marriage age, is not usually granted. The permission by the Ordinary is also required in case of a marriage of a minor when their parents are unaware of his marriage or if their parents reasonably oppose the marriage.[114]

Islam

In classical Islamic law, suitability for marital relations is conditional on physical maturity (bulugh) and mental maturity (rushd). Classical jurists did not stipulate a minimum marriageable age because they did not believe that maturity is reached by everyone at a specific age.[115][116][103][117][118] Büchler and Schlater observe that "marriageable age according to classical Islamic law coincides with the occurrence of puberty. The notion of puberty refers to signs of physical maturity such as the emission of semen or the onset of menstruation". Traditional schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhaahib) define the age of full legal capacity to enter marriage as follows:[119]

Male age Female age Notes
Shafi'i 15 15
Hanbali 15 15
Maliki 17 17
Hanafi 12–18 9–17 Marriageable age is whenever the person reaches puberty, which may vary person to person. Listed ages are when Hanafis presume puberty occurs in males and females.[120]
Jafari 15 9 Shia

According to Büchler and Schlater, while marriageable age is not the same as legal majority under civil law, these age limits may correspond.[119]

The 1917 codification of Islamic family law in the Ottoman Empire distinguished between the age of competence for marriage, which was set at 18 for boys and 17 for girls, and the minimum age for marriage, which followed the traditional Hanafi ages of legal majority of 12 for boys and 9 for girls. Marriage below the age of competence was permissible only if proof of sexual maturity was accepted in court, while marriage under the minimum age was forbidden. During the 20th century, most countries in the Middle East followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of competence, while raising the minimum age to 15 or 16 for boys and 13–16 for girls. Marriage below the age of competence is subject to approval by a judge and the legal guardian of the adolescent. Egypt diverged from this pattern by setting the age limits of 18 for boys and 16 for girls, without a distinction between competence for marriage and minimum age.[61] In 2020, Saudi Arabia officially banned all marriages under the age of 18.[121] The push to ban child marriage was initially opposed by senior clergy, who argued that a woman reaches adulthood at puberty.[122] However, by 2019 the Saudi Shura Council had outlawed marriages under the age of 15, and required court approval for those under 18.[123]

Politics and financial relationships

Child marriage in 1697 of Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, age 12 to Louis, heir apparent of France age 15. The marriage created a political alliance.

Child marriages may depend upon socio-economic status. The aristocracy in some cultures, as in the European feudal era tended to use child marriage as a method to secure political ties. Families were able to cement political and/or financial ties by having their children marry.[124] The betrothal is considered a binding contract upon the families and the children. The breaking of a betrothal can have serious consequences both for the families and for the betrothed individuals themselves.

Consequences

Birth rates per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years, worldwide.

Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls that last well beyond adolescence.[63][125] Women married in their teens or earlier struggle with the health effects of pregnancy at a young age and often with little spacing between children.[90] Early marriages followed by teen pregnancy also significantly increase birth complications and social isolation. In poor countries, early pregnancy limits or can even eliminate a woman's education options, affecting her economic independence. Girls in child marriages are more likely to suffer from domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and marital rape.[63][126]

Health

Child marriage threatens the health and life of girls.[127] Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the main cause of death among adolescent girls below age 19 in developing countries. Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their 20s, and girls under the age of 15 are five to seven times more likely to die during childbirth.[72] These consequences are due largely to girls' physical immaturity wherefore the pelvis and birth canal are not fully developed. Teen pregnancy, particularly below age 15, increases risk of developing obstetric fistula, since their smaller pelvises make them prone to obstructed labor.[72] Girls who give birth before the age of 15 have an 88% risk of developing fistula.[72] Fistula leaves its victims with urine or fecal incontinence that causes lifelong complications with infection and pain.[128] Unless surgically repaired, obstetric fistulas can cause years of permanent disability, shame to mothers, and can result in being shunned by the community.[117][129] Married girls also have a higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, and malaria than non-married peers or girls who marry in their 20s.[72]

Child marriage also threatens the lives of offspring. Mothers under the age of 18 years have 35 to 55% increased risk of delivering pre-term or having a low birth weight baby than a mother who is 19 years old. In addition, infant mortality rates are 60% higher when the mother is under 18 years old. Infants born to child mothers tend to have weaker immune systems and face a heightened risk of malnutrition.[117]

Prevalence of child marriage may also be associated with higher rates of population growth, more cases of children left orphaned, and the accelerated spread of disease.[130]

Illiteracy and poverty

Child marriage often ends a girl's education, particularly in impoverished countries where child marriages are common.[131] In addition, uneducated girls are more at risk for child marriage. Girls who have only a primary education are twice as likely to marry before age 18 than those with a secondary or higher education, and girls with no education are three times more likely to marry before age 18 than those with a secondary education.[69] Early marriage impedes a young girl's ability to continue with her education as most drop out of school following marriage[132] to focus their attention on domestic duties and having or raising children.[133] Girls may be taken out of school years before they are married due to family or community beliefs that allocating resources for girls' education is unnecessary given that her primary roles will be that of wife and mother.[95] Without education, girls and adult women have fewer opportunities to earn an income and financially provide for themselves and their children. This makes girls more vulnerable to persistent poverty if their spouses die, abandon them, or divorce them.[63] Given that girls in child marriages are often significantly younger than their husbands, they become widowed earlier in life and may face associated economic and social challenges for a greater portion of their life than women who marry later.[95]

Domestic violence

Married teenage girls with low levels of education suffer greater risk of social isolation and domestic violence than more educated women who marry as adults.[72][134] Following marriage, girls frequently relocate to their husband's home and take on the domestic role of being a wife, which often involves relocating to another village or area. This transition may result in a young girl dropping out of school, moving away from her family and friends, and a loss of the social support that she once had.[6] A husband's family may also have higher expectations for the girl's submissiveness to her husband and his family because of her youth.[90] This sense of isolation from a support system can have severe mental health implications including depression.

Large age gaps between the child and her spouse makes her more vulnerable to domestic violence and marital rape.[135] Girls who marry as children face severe and life-threatening marital violence at higher rates.[136] Husbands in child marriages are often more than ten years older than their wives. This can increase the power and control a husband has over his wife and contribute to prevalence of spousal violence.[95] Early marriage places young girls in a vulnerable situation of being completely dependent on her husband. Domestic and sexual violence from their husbands has lifelong, devastating mental health consequences for young girls because they are at a formative stage of psychological development.[63] These mental health consequences of spousal violence can include depression and suicidal thoughts.[90] Child brides, particularly in situations such as vani, also face social isolation, emotional abuse and discrimination in the homes of their husbands and in-laws.

Women's rights

The United Nations, through a series of conventions has declared child marriage a violation of human rights. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination of Women (‘CEDAW’), the Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC’), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights form the international standard against child marriage.[69] Child marriages impact violates a range of women's interconnected rights such as equality on grounds of sex and age, to receive the highest attainable standard of health, to be free from slavery, access to education, freedom of movement, freedom from violence, reproductive rights, and the right to consensual marriage.[63][137][138] The consequence of these violations impact woman, her children and the broader society.[how?]

Development

High rates of child marriage negatively impact countries' economic development because of early marriages' impact on girls' education and labor market participation.[132] Some researchers and activists note that high rates of child marriage prevent significant progress toward each of the eight Millennium Development Goals and global efforts to reduce poverty due to its effects on educational attainment, economic and political participation, and health.[132]

A UNICEF Nepal issued report noted that child marriage impacts Nepal's development due to loss of productivity, poverty, and health effects. Using Nepal Multi-Indicator Survey data, its researchers estimate that all girls delaying marriage until age 20 and after would increase cash flow among Nepali women in an amount equal to 3.87% of the country's GDP.[139] Their estimates considered decreased education and employment among girls in child marriages in addition to low rates of education and high rates of poverty among children from child marriages.

International initiatives to prevent child marriage

In December 2011 a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/66/170) designated October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child.[140] On October 11, 2012 the first International Day of the Girl Child was held, the theme of which was ending child marriage.[140]

In 2013 the first United Nations Human Rights Council resolution against child, early, and forced marriages was adopted; it recognizes child marriage as a human rights violation and pledges to eliminate the practice as part of the U.N.'s post-2015 global development agenda.[141][142][143]

In 2014 the UN's Commission on the Status of Women issued a document in which they agreed, among other things, to eliminate child marriage.[144]

The World Health Organization recommends increased educational attainment among girls, increased enforcement structures for existing minimum marriage age laws, and informing parents in practicing communities of the risks associated as primary methods to prevent child marriages.[145]

Programs to prevent child marriage have taken several different approaches. Various initiatives have aimed to empower young girls, educate parents on the associated risks, change community perceptions, support girls' education, and provide economic opportunities for girls and their families through means other than marriage. A survey of a variety of prevention programs found that initiatives were most effect when they combined efforts to address financial constraints, education, and limited employment of women.[146]

Girls in families participating in an unconditional cash transfer program in Malawi aimed at incentivizing girls' education married and had children later than their peers who had not participated in the program. The program's effects on rates of child marriage were greater for unconditional cast transfer programs than those with conditions. Evaluators believe this demonstrated that the economic needs of the family heavily influenced the appeal of child marriage in this community. Therefore, reducing financial pressures on the family decreased the economic motivations to marry daughters off at a young age.[146]

The Haryana state government in India operated a program in which poor families were given a financial incentive if they kept their daughters in school and unmarried until age 18. Girls in families who were eligible for the program were less likely to be married before age 18 than their peers.[146]

A similar program was operated in 2004 by the Population Council and the regional government in Ethiopia's rural Amhara region. Families received cash if their daughters remained in school and unmarried during the two years of the program. They also instituted mentorship programs, livelihood training, community conversations about girls' education and child marriage, and gave school supplies for girls. After the two-year program, girls in families eligible for the program were three times more likely to be in school and one tenth as likely to be married compared to their peers.[146]

In the other free program the Global Campaign for the Prevention of Child Marriage (GCPCM) has been launched in March 2019, and the primary goal of this Campaign is raising awareness and illuminating people's minds to address child marriage in the world.[147][148]

Other programs have addressed child marriage less directly through a variety of programming related to girls' empowerment, education, sexual and reproductive health, financial literacy, life skills, communication skills, and community mobilization.[149]

In 2018, UN Women announced that Jaha Dukureh would serve as Goodwill Ambassador in Africa to help organize to prevent child marriage.[150]

Tipping point analysis

Researchers at the International Center for Research on Women found that in some communities rates of child marriage increase significantly when girls are a particular age. This "tipping point", or age at which rates of marriage increase dramatically, may occur years before the median age of marriage. Therefore, the researchers argue prevention programs should focus their programming on girls who are pre-tipping point age rather than only girls who are married before they reach the median age for marriage.[151]

Prevalence data

Prevalence data by country
Country % Females married < 18 Year of assessment Article Ref
File:Flag of Afghanistan.svg Afghanistan 35% 2015 Child marriage in Afghanistan [152][153]
 Angola 30% 2017 Child marriage in Angola [154]
 Bangladesh 59% 2018 Women in Bangladesh#Child marriage [155]
 Burkina Faso 52% 2018 [155]
 Central African Republic 68% 2018 [155]
 Chad 67% 2017 [156]
Template:DRC 37% 2017 Child marriage in Democratic Republic of the Congo [157]
 Cameroon 31% 2017 Child marriage in Cameroon [158]
 Republic of the Congo 33% 2017 Child marriage in Republic of the Congo [159]
 Eritrea 41% 2018 [155]
 Ethiopia 40% 2017 Child marriage in Ethiopia [160]
 India 27% 2015-16 Child marriage in India [161][162]
 Ivory Coast 27% 2017 Child marriage in Ivory Coast [163]
   Nepal 40% 2018 [155]
 Niger 76% 2018 [155]
 Nigeria 43% 2017 Child marriage in Nigeria [164]
 Malawi 42% 2018 [155]
 Madagascar 41% 2018 [155]
 Mali 52% 2017 Child marriage in Mali [165]
 Mauritania 37% 2018 [155]
 Mozambique 48% 2018 [155]
 Pakistan 12% 2013 Child marriage in Pakistan [152]
 Senegal 31% 2017 Child marriage in Senegal [166]
 Sierra Leone 39% 2018 [155]
 Somalia 45% 2017 Child marriage in Somalia [167]
 South Sudan 52% 2017 Child marriage in South Sudan [168]
 Uganda 40% 2018 [155]
 Zimbabwe 32% 2017 Child marriage in Zimbabwe [169]

Sets of prevalence data based on surveys for selected countries as per UNICEF are provided in the table below.[170]

Percentage of men aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2016
Country %age
 Angola 6
 Armenia 0.4
 Belize 22.2
 Bolivia 5.2
 Côte d'Ivoire 3.5
 Ethiopia 5
 India 4.2
   Nepal 10.3
 Timor-Leste 1.2
Template:TAN 3.9
 Uganda 5.5
Percentage of men aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2017
Country %age
 Burundi 1.4
 Haiti 1.6
 Laos 10.8
 Nigeria 3
 Senegal 0.6
 Sierra Leone 6.5
Percentage of men aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2018
Country %age
 Albania 1.2
 Benin 4.8
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 15; Time Period: 2016
Country %age
 Angola 7.9
 Armenia 0
 Burundi 2.8
 Bolivia 3.4
 Côte d'Ivoire 7
 Ethiopia 14.1
Template:GUI 19.2
 India 6.8
 Myanmar 1.9
   Nepal 7
 Paraguay 3.6
 Sri Lanka 0.9
Template:TAN 5.2
 Timor-Leste 2.6
 Turkmenistan 0
 Uganda 7.3
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 15; Time Period: 2017
Country %age
 Haiti 2.1
 Laos 7.1
 Nigeria 18.2
 Senegal 8.4
 Sierra Leone 12.9
 Peru 2.6
 Philippines 2.2
 Tajikistan 0.1
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 15; Time Period: 2018
Country %age
 Albania 1.4
 Indonesia 0.6
 Iraq 7.2
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2016
Country %age
 Angola 30.3
 Armenia 5.3
 Burundi 19
 Bolivia 19.7
 Côte d'Ivoire 27
 Ethiopia 40.3
Template:GUI 51.2
 India 27.3
 Myanmar 16
   Nepal 39.5
 Paraguay 21.6
 Sri Lanka 9.8
Template:TAN 30.5
 Timor-Leste 14.9
 Turkmenistan 5.7
 Uganda 34
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2017
Country %age
 Haiti 14.9
 Laos 32.7
 Nigeria 43.5
 Senegal 28.8
 Sierra Leone 29.9
 Peru 19
 Philippines 16.5
 Tajikistan 8.7
Percentage of women aged 20–24 years married or in union before age 18; Time Period: 2018
Country %age
 Albania 11.8
 Indonesia 11.2
 Iraq 27.9

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 While canon 1083 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law sets the minimum age for a valid marriage at 16 for males and 14 for females,[56](c. 1083 §1) canon 97 defines a person younger than 18 year of age as a minor and subject to parental authority.[56](cc. 97 §1, 98 §2) The authorization of the local ordinary must precede the celebration of the marriage of a minor if the marriage "cannot be recognized or celebrated according to the norm of civil law" or if the parents of a minor are "unaware or reasonably opposed".[56](c. 1071 §1,2° and 6°) Each conference of bishops can "establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage".[56](c. 1083 §§1–2) Canon 1072 requires that pastors discourage "marriage before the age at which a person usually enters marriage according to the accepted practices of the region."[56](c. 1072) Edward N. Peters explains that canon 1083 "authorized episcopal conferences to recognize the concrete circumstances of marriage in their own territories and to raise the ages for licit marriages within a given nation" to more than the minimum age for a valid marriage.[57] Other canons that regulate marriage in general also apply, for example persons "who lack the sufficient use of reason" or "who suffer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted" "are incapable of contracting marriage."[56](c. 1095)
  2. ↑ some sources suggest age at marriage as six and some as seven, see Denise Spellberg (1996), Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0231079990, pp 39–40
  3. ↑ Most sources suggest age at consummation as nine, and one that it may have been age 10; See: Denise Spellberg (1996), Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0231079990, pp. 39–40;
    The Ahmadiyya minority sect has published Pakistan's Muhammad Ali view that Sahih al-Bukhari is unauthentic, and argued that Aisha may have been a teenager; See: Ali, Muhammad (1997). Muhammad the Prophet. Ahamadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam. ISBN 978-0913321072.
    However, Ahmadiyya sect views about Islam and its history are widely disputed by mainstream Islam. See: Siddiq & Ahmad (1995), Enforced Apostasy: Zaheeruddin v. State and the Official Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan, Law & Inequality'-, 14: pp. 275–284.
  4. ↑ See:
    • L. Ahmed, Women and the Advent of Islam, Signs, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Summer, 1986), pp. 677–678;
    • Cynthia Gorney, "Too Young to Wed – The secret world of child brides", National Geographic, June 2011, quote: "'If there were any danger in early marriage, Allah would have forbidden it,' a Yemeni member of parliament named Mohammed Al-Hamzi told me in the capital city of Sanaa one day. 'Something that Allah himself did not forbid, we cannot forbid.' Al-Hamzi, a religious conservative, is vigorously opposed to the legislative efforts in Yemen to prohibit marriage for girls below a certain age (17, in a recent version), and so far those efforts have met with failure. Islam does not permit marital relations before a girl is physically ready, he said, but the Holy Koran contains no specific age restrictions and so these matters are properly the province of family and religious guidance, not national law. Besides, there is the matter of the Prophet Muhammad's beloved Ayesha—nine years old, according to the conventional account, when the marriage was consummated."

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  126. ↑ "I have a right to | BBC World Service". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  127. ↑ "Yemeni child bride dies of internal bleeding". cnn.com.
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  129. ↑ "Health Consequences of Child Marriage in Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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  133. ↑ "Individual Characteristics and Use of Maternal and Child Health Services by Adolescent Mothers in Niger". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  134. ↑ Haberland, Nicole, Eric L. Chong, and Hillary J. Bracken. 2006. A world apart: the disadvantage and social isolation of married adolescent girls. Brief based on background paper prepared for the WHO/UNFPA/Population Council Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents. New York: The Population Council
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  141. ↑ Stuart, Hunter (16 October 2013). "Country With The Most Child Brides Won't Agree To End Forced Child Marriage". Huffington Post.
  142. ↑ "UN Takes Major Action to End Child Marriage | Center for Reproductive Rights". Reproductiverights.org. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  143. ↑ Girls Not Brides (27 September 2013). "States adopt first-ever resolution on child, early and forced marriage at Human Rights Council". Girls Not Brides. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  144. ↑ Liz Ford. "Campaigners welcome 'milestone' agreement at UN gender equality talks | Global development". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  145. ↑ Chandra- Mouli, Venkatraman; Virginia Camacho, Alma; Michaud, Pierre-Andre (2013). "WHO Guidelines on Preventing Early Pregnancy and Poor Reproductive Outcomes Among Adolescents in Developing Countries". Journal of Adolescent Health. 52 (5): 517–22. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.03.002. PMID 23608717.
  146. ↑ 146.0 146.1 146.2 146.3 Parsons, Jennifer; McCleary-Sills, Jennifer. 2014. Preventing child marriage: lessons from World Bank Group gender impact evaluations. enGender Impact : the World Bank's Gender Impact Evaluation Database. Washington, DC : World Bank Group.
  147. ↑ "The Global Campaign for the Prevention of Child Marriage". cpnn-world.org. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  148. ↑ "The Global campaign for the prevention of child marriage". World News TV, UK. 24 May 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
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  151. ↑ Jain, Saranga, and Kathleen Kurz. 2007. New Insights on Preventing Child Marriage. International Center for Research on Women. Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  152. ↑ 152.0 152.1 "Child marriage database". UNICEF. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  153. ↑ Bahgam, S; Mukhatari (2004). "Study on Child Marriage in Afghanistan" (PDF). Medica Mondiale: 1–20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  154. ↑ "Angola", Girls Not Brides
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  156. ↑ "Chad". Girls not brides. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  157. ↑ "Democratic Republic of the Congo". Girls not brides. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  158. ↑ "Cameroon", Girls Not Brides
  159. ↑ "Congo", Girls Not Brides
  160. ↑ "Ethiopia", Girls Not Brides
  161. ↑ Srivastava, Roli (6 March 2018). "India's child marriage numbers drop sharply, driving down global rate: UNICEF". Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  162. ↑ "Child marriage widespread in Bihar, Rajasthan and Bengal: Unicef report". India Today. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  163. ↑ "Cote D'Ivoire", Girls Not Brides
  164. ↑ "Nigeria", Girls Not Brides
  165. ↑ "Mali", Girls Not Brides
  166. ↑ "Senegal", Girls Not Brides
  167. ↑ "Somalia", Girls Not Brides
  168. ↑ "South Sudan", Girls Not Brides
  169. ↑ "Zimbabwe", Girls Not Brides
  170. ↑ "Data Warehouse - UNICEF DATA". www.unicef.org. United Nations Children's Fund. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

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