Three-quarters of girls in Niger are married before they are adults.1 Child marriage often amounts to slavery, for example, when girls have not given their free and full consent, are subjected to control, exploited and unable to leave, 2 so outlawing it is an important step towards protecting Niger children.
Right now young girls are being married off to older men.
Fati Yahaya at just 20 has been married twice, divorced once, and suffered a postpartum hemorrhage after the birth of her first child.3 With the age of consent for girls set at 15 years old, and many marrying younger with parental permission, thousands of girls like Zeinabou and Fati face a life of abuse and unrealized potential.
Former President Mahamadou Issoufou had publicly declared his intent to address the causes of child marriage but did not advance any policies to this effect before leaving office. Niger’s current President Mohamed Bazoum has also indicated that reducing child marriage is a priority for his government.4 In addition, a law has been proposed to change the age to 18 for girls but it is yet to be adopted.
Call on Niger’s President to outlaw the child marriage of girls.
Find out more about forced child marriage around the world by clicking here.
*Image copyright of ILRI/Stevie Mann: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri
Notes:
- http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/jahia-publications/documents/publications/2012/ChildMarriage_8_annex1_indicator-definition.pdf ↩
- http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/when-does-child-marriage-become-slavery/ ↩
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/girls-education-niger_564ddb93e4b031745ceff27b ↩
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-niger-politics/new-niger-president-bazoum-says-he-will-improve-education-security-idUSKBN2BP124 ↩
Marie A.,
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We must find a way to protect these young girls from forced marriage and
possible injury……. they are too young. We plead with President Mahamadou to address this issue, 18 is better but it STILL AN INSULT TO FEMALES. This must be stopped.
This is an insult to humannity. I fail to understand how other GOVERNMENT’S only enter into a dispute with foreign countries when there are economic or financial concerns. But they will trade with GOVERNMENT’S that allow this to happen. Government has forgotten why they were created. Save the people from experiencing oppression.
18 is much better than 15, and bear in mind that 18 would be the minimum age for marrying, if I understood well, and doesn’t mean that all girls will marry at the age of 18. Also, 18 as a minimum age would enable girls to at least be able to go through secondary education without dropping out because of early marriage.
Very sad that this continues. Please keep fighting!
Anything forced is not natural and hence harmful.
Is there anyone in his/hers right mind who’d want to be forced into anything? Would you?… Would I?…. Hell, NO! Stop it! Forced marriage equals rape!
Outlaw these pedophiles! How evil and disgusting.