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Nicole T Chimedza (22)-Insurance and Risk Management MSU
The issue of child marriages is a complex one that is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are inferior to boys and men.
Gender inequality includes discrimination on the basis of sex or gender resulting in one gender being routinely privileged than the other.
This article is addressing gender inequality as portrayed by allowing early child marriages for girls so that they can perform domestic activities only while the boys are achieving their life goals.
Early marriages are robbing girls of their childhood experience and threatening their lives and health.
It has a lot of consequences and the girls have to suffer, sad isn’t it.
Early marriages are caused by different aspects but the primary issue is tradition and religion, also poverty and lack of education.
Some traditions are allowing early marriages and they believe that it protects the girl child from sexual harassment and also protects the family from stigma.
Some parents are under pressure of marrying off their daughters as early as possible in an effort to prevent her from becoming sexually active before marriage since it will bring dishonour to her family and community.
Many poor families marry off their daughters early age essentially as a strategy for economic survival.
By marrying off it means that the family has reduced its responsibility of feeding and clothing and paying for fees for the child.
Their responsibility is now less.
Lack of education and knowledge leads to families approving early child marriages.
Attending school and having higher levels of education protects girls from the possibility of early marriages. A disadvantage is that some countries view education of girls as less of a priority than educating boys.
That’s one area where gender inequality is portrayed .
They only think that a woman’s role is to be a wife and bear children but it is not necessarily the case, because women also have rights to education and achievement of their dreams.
Child marriages have many challenges and consequences such as: death during birth and contracting sexually transmitted diseases and also becoming a victim of domestic violence.
Girls who are married at early years run the risk of death during child birth or terrible injury since their bodies are not yet fully matured hence, the possibility of complications during labour thus affecting both the mother and the child.
They can be affected by illness again during childbirth and these risks also extend to the infant.
Often young girls are married off to older men who started being sexually active a long time ago and also who are sexually experienced hence the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases is very high and affects the girls in every area of their lives.
When they are married, they now have a responsibility of motherhood, sexual relations rather than playing with friends, going to school and dreaming about their dream jobs.
These early marriages can be solved by empowering the girl child and also giving information about the effects of early marriages.
Girls should be given access to high quality education in that sense they will have a deeper picture and knowledge about the consequences of early marriages.
Also, since some early marriages are caused by severe poverty the solution might be providing economic support since some families are marrying off their daughters because they want to reduce responsibility of feeding hence if offered incentives there will be no reason for marrying their daughters hence marriages will be lower.
There should be laws and policies that restrict child marriages in order to protect the girl child.
Girl child needs a bright future too rather than being forced into a marriage while others are getting on with their lives.
Online Reporter