Worldwide, 200 million girls have been married off before the age of 15. Child marriage is most common in places like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — 16,000 girls have dropped out of schools in Zambia in one year because of child marriage. “We want girls to be future leaders, to prosper,” says Igone Wina, the Vice President of Zambia, who has recognized the harm child marriage is doing to her country.
Vice News traveled to the Petauke District of Zambia to interview a 14-year-old girl, Dialess, from the Nsenga people, who is getting married off to a 48-year-old man in exchange for a cow for her mother.
Before her marriage, Dialess must go through a 30-day ceremony that trains her how to respect and please her husband, becoming what is essentially a domestic servant. “[They expect] obedience to my husband’s orders and whatever he wants me to do,” Dialess said. “They taught me how to handle my husband in bed and how to deal with him. I should always prepare meals and I need to do things quickly,” (quote translated to English by Vice News).
Dialess must be pulled out of school to get married because she has to dedicate herself and her life to her new husband. “I loved school, they taught me how to read,” she said. “I can’t go back to school now. I don’t feel good because they made me stop school to get married,” (quote translated to English by Vice News).
Child marriage is a big issue that plays a role in delaying the economic growth of Zambia. “[Child marriage] is an ingrain practice that’s keeping Subsaharan Africa mired in generational poverty,” said Gloria Steinem, an American journalist and social activist. Child marriage is a way for families stuck in poverty to make money because they usually receive a dowry payment. For Dialess, her mother receives a cow in exchange for the marriage. “Getting married at an early age destroys your future,” (quote translated to English by Vice News) said a seventh grade girl who attended the same school as Dialess.
Many of these child brides get pregnant not long after their marriages. Dialess and other teenage girls are not physically or mentally mature enough to have a child, putting them and their babies at risk. “[Dialess] will not be able to deliver in a normal way. She needs a Cesarean section,” said Dr. Joop Jansen, a gynecologist working at St. Francis Mission Hospital, the closest hospital to Dialess’s village. “Her pelvis is not fit yet for delivery.”
Child marriage is also a problem in other African countries such as Nigeria, Niger, and Ethiopia. In northern Ethiopia, the minimum age for marriage is 15. Similarly to Zambia, the law is often ignored and rarely enforced. The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) is a non-profit advocacy organization trying to enforce the law and prevent unlawful marriages.
“People saying that girls don’t get sexual intercourse until the age of 15 is a myth, because [one of our girls] is only 12. She’s already married, she’s divorced, and she’s selling liquors for a living. We also help a 10-year-old girl. When she first came to us we were so shocked that we took her pictures to remind us there is a lot to do,” said a founding member of the EWLA. “Girls of 8, 9, 10, 11, are married, and the parents do that for economic reasons and for alliances with good families.”
