The forgotten girls

Shut your eyes for two seconds, and one girl is married off before she turns 18.  In the one minute it might take you to finish three of these paragraphs, 28 girls would have been married off. That will be 15 million girls this year alone. A catastrophe is hitting one half of the world’s […]

Shut your eyes for two seconds, and one girl is married off before she turns 18. 

In the one minute it might take you to finish three of these paragraphs, 28 girls would have been married off.

That will be 15 million girls this year alone. A catastrophe is hitting one half of the world’s population: women. And it begins with girls.

Girls, especially when they turn 10, are at a pivotal point when their future can mean the future of the world, according to the State of the World’s Population report, released by the United Nations Population Fund.

At that age, a girl arrives at a “vulnerable point in her life,” said the report.

“She must negotiate a tricky transition to adulthood, with its rapid changes in body and brain, and dramatic shifts in family and social expectations. Although risks abound for both girls and boys, gender discrimination makes these worse for girls in almost every way.  

“Public policies often focus on young children or older adolescents, failing to adequately manage the potential risks 10-year-old girls might face,” it added.

“If her rights are not well protected, through appropriate laws, services and investments, the chance to bloom in adolescence and become a fully fledged adult forever slips away.”

The chance for full-fledged adulthood slips away when a girl marries before she is old enough. The definition of “old enough” is tricky across cultures and countries. Adult age confers voting power, and maturity age confers marriage in many parts of the country.

Picture the 10-year-old girl in a world that truly values her worth, said the SWOP report. 

“No one thinks she is ready for marriage or childbearing until she is at least 18. No one expects her to abandon school for paid work or household chores. She goes to a good school that is clean, safe and close to her home. She has enough nourishing food for her growing body and developing brain.   She is protected and has the same opportunities as boys to explore the world around her, make friends and participate freely in social interactions.”

Some 15 million under-age girls married off every year miss out on that, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Worldwide 700m women alive today were married before they turned 15.

And 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are in Africa. 

The continent has started a campaign to end the practice, after the African Union met in 2014. With support from African first ladies, it declared two-year campaign with a target to end child marriage in Africa-and around the world-by 2030.

Fifteen African countries have launched the campaign so far. Nigeria is the 16th.

Women’s groups are fighting to peg a maturity age that will ensure girls remain in school a few more years.

Without education and empowerment, girls are more likely to grow up and remain in poverty through adulthood, and mother new generations of equally poor children.

Uneducated and poor girls in Nigeria were married off eight years younger than the average, while girls with some education got married at an average age of 21, compared with 15 on average.

“We are saying the age of maturity should be 18 years, when she’s mentally and physically responsible,” said Aisha Alhassan, minister for women affairs and social development.

“Child marriage threatens girls’ lives and health, and it limits their full potential,” she said at the launch.

The campaign is “an attempt to save the lives of adolescent girls pressed into marriage too early, many of whom become pregnant and are at a higher risk of complications in pregnancy or childbirth”, said Mohamed Fall, representative for UNICEF in Nigeria.

“These complications are a leading cause of death among adolescents girls in countries like Nigeria; a cause of death that is unnecessary and unacceptable,” he added.

Girls marrying and giving birth early are exposed to harm, according to experts. At ages less than 18, they are more likely to suffer fistula, die while giving birth or give birth to stillborn babies.

Children born to child mothers are more likely to suffer from stunting and wasting.

At a pre-launch briefing, Dr Habib Sadauki, country director for Engender Health, which supports fistula repair and rehabilitation, said up to 200,000 women live with the condition, majority of them younger than 18, and abandoned by husbands and family after the onset of fistula.

Now they stand to be abandoned by their nations too.

“The world has already done well in many ways for the 10-year-old boy,” said the SWOP report. “It is past time to do equally well for the 10-year-old girl.”