(CNN)When Fatimetou was 13-years-old she was forced to marry a much older man. She kept running away, but her family kept sending her back.
"I could not look at him," says the girl from Mauritania, in west Africa.
"And then when I saw his face I thought: 'I really hate that man.'"
Her story is not unusual in this part of the world.
Briggite, from the Democratic Republic Congo, was 13 when she gave birth.
Amina, from Sierra Leone, was 15 when they sold her to a husband.
Nafissa was married when she was 16, becoming pregnant three months later. Her first baby was stillborn.
These girls -- whose names have been changed to protect their identities -- are just three of millions of child brides across Africa whose lives are permanently altered by harmful cultural practices.
In an alarming new study, UNICEF estimates that the total number of child brides in Africa will rise from 125 million to 310 million by 2050.
Slow rates of reduction and ballooning populations are the main cause of the projected increases.
Early marriage is most prevalent in a vast belt across Africa stretching from Somalia in the east to Guinea in the west.
Entrenched religious and cultural practices, and limited economic prospects, push girls into the margins and into harmful early marriages.
"When you look at the projected numbers, it is particularly alarming to us because we know the impact on a girl who gets married before the age of 18, the impact on her health, the impact on education, the impact on the whole country," Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, told CNN.
He says the practice feeds into a cycle of poverty that could be broken by focusing on girls' rights and education.
It is sad to know that our laws allow this ill practices. These are just young girls, they should be allowed to be at least 18 and even then, they should be allow to choose who to spend the rest of their lives with. This is a very serious issue. WE NEED TO STOP THIS MADNESS
No comments:
Post a Comment