Child marriage threatens the lives of young girls in Iraq and Yemen. The children dream of getting new coloring books and playing with their friends. They dream of completing their education and becoming community leaders. Instead these girls get imprisoned and shackled in child marriages. Their lives are stolen from them and they may end up committing suicide or dying.
The phenomenon of child marriage has been present in Yemen for years. Families marry their young girls and boys off. Some are only eight or nine years old. The conflict in Yemen has greatly increased the number of child marriages, especially in the poorest areas.
According to a recent study, issued in 2021 by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, and limited to the governorates of Taiz, Sana’a, and Aden, the marriage rate for children (10 to 18 years) in the city of Taiz was at 17.9 percent of the number of vulnerable girls in 2014. In the capital, Sanaa, the rate reached 27 percent until 2020, and in the interim capital of the internationally recognized government, Aden, the rate was at 6 percent. The study indicated a high rate of early marriage among the vulnerable in all Yemeni governorates of Yemen. UNICEF, meanwhile, estimates that more than 4 million children from all segments of society were forcibly married in Yemen in 2021.
Considering that married life is dominated by family commitment and responsibilities that a small child cannot bear, the legal minimum age for marriage is 18 in many countries. In Yemen, the Personal Status Law, issued in 1992, set the minimum age for marriage at 15 and stipulated that it is not permissible to allow the marriage of a young male or female before turning 15 years old. However, this law did not end up being implemented.
Deaths among Yemeni women generally rose to more than 500 deaths per 100,000 births between 2019 and 2020. There are no specific statistics for marginalized women who got married at an early age and were exposed to pregnancy and childbirth complications that may have killed them.
Women´s rights are not progressing fast in Yemen since women are not allowed to be involved on the highest political level. Previous progress on issues like child marriage is the result of grass-roots activism and awareness campaigns targeting households as well as online campaigns. As of today, there is no law in Yemen prohibiting child marriage.
In Iraq meanwhile, child marriages are escalating in number. According to Iraqi law, the minimum age for marriage is set at 18 but there are girls who are married off at 12 or 15. The law also allows marriages for girls aged 15 with the approval of a guardian.
Some have used this law to marry off their young daughters for money since economic and security conditions have been poor in Iraq since the war against ISIS. As a result of the instability, child marriages have increased in the country.
“We do not know anything about marriage except for a white dress, a dance party, and a gathering of loved ones, but I found myself a wife and I have many responsibilities that must be fulfill.” These were the words of a group of girls who were forced into marriage in Iraq and their marriage lasted only a few months. The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq has revealed that the national courts registered more than 4000 thousand divorce cases with minors under 15 involved during 2020-2021.
The phenomenon of child marriage is affecting Iraq as a community and causes young girls to lose their lives. Sarah, a 14 year old girl, lost her life because her mother forced her to marry a 31-year old man. Sarah was being abused by her husband and sought refuge with her mother in a camp for displaced people. But her mother forced her to return to the abusive husband after it turned out that Sarah was two months pregnant. The abusive husband left Sarah but Sarah herself died during a clandestine abortion procedure.
As for the role of policy makers and activists in Iraq, they have been working hard in recent years to raise awareness on the dangers of child marriage. Women’s rights activists have made numerous appeals to the parliament to expedite the enactment of the Family Protection from Domestic Violence Act, which would ban child marriage. In the rural Dhi-Qar governorate, there was the awareness campaign “Against Early Marriage of Underage Girls” which informed residents that child marriage is a severe violation of children´s rights and called for tougher punishment of those adults marrying a child.
The girls of Iraq and Yemen risk being forced into marriage as minors and hence being robbed of their childhood. Forcing young girls to marry is like burying them alive.
