Early/forced marriages in Ghana: Child bride demands change
“Child marriages must stop. We simply cannot force our girls into early marriage, and those who have the responsibility to end this practice must act now!”
This is the cry of 18-year-old Sherrifatu Iddi Suleiman from Mamprusi in the North East Region who was forced into an early union with a man.
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“I was forced to drop out of JHS when I was kidnapped at age 13 by an uncle and given to a man to pacify him “ for an infraction that I still don’t know”.
Sherrifatu was in an informal union with the man who already had two wives until he formally married her at age 15.
“My father is dead. If he were to be alive this would not have happened,” she stated
“I could not hide my desperation to be in school, which earned me maltreatment from my husband. I got pregnant and had a child.
“Though I had become a mother, I still felt like a child and was frustrated. I managed to find some money, left my daughter with my sister and ran away from my husband and my marital home. I am now a head porter, struggling to make ends meet.
Sherrifatu has not gone back to the village where she lived since she ran away. Her goal is to improve on the quality of her life.
“Even if I am unable to go back to school, I will learn a trade and use my skills to earn a living. My aim is that my daughter will have a better life.
Mission
Sherrifatu is set on a mission to be the ‘voice’ for the many voiceless girls who find themselves in the same predicament, and says so at the least opportunity without batting an eye.
Convinced that the powers that be have not done enough to curb this menace, she said, “It still beats my imagination how communities can accept that a girl can be kidnapped and given out in marriage and still remain silent.”
Ghana’s situation
Forced child marriages, which are happening in some communities in this country, are some of the cultural practices that must be condemned.
Despite signing on to international resolutions, national laws and efforts by various national and international organisations, child marriage in Ghana remains a phenomenon of concern with very limited empirical evidence to support programme interventions to deal with the practice.
The findings of a 2019 multi-method study on child marriage in Ghana show that various socio-economic and cultural factors such as education, teenage pregnancy and poverty influence child marriage.
In Ghana, there is some commitment towards curbing child marriage. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection established a Child Marriage Unit in 2014 to promote and coordinate national initiatives aimed at ending child marriage in Ghana. In 2016, the unit, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other key stakeholders, developed a National Strategic Framework on Ending Child Marriage in Ghana. The framework is to ensure effective, well-structured and well-guided collaboration between state and non-state institutions.
However, efforts to address socio-cultural norms/practices to help end child marriage need to be intensified.
Consequences
Child marriage brings consequences that violate the basic rights of girls, many of which are impossible to mitigate, correct or reverse, says the 2020 State of the World’s Population (SWOP) report published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The consequences include truncated education, poor health, often related to pregnancy and childbirth: the threat and actual experience of gender-based violence: social exclusion, leading to depression; restricted mobility and domestic responsibilities.
The report, titled, ‘Against my will: Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality’, notes that premature motherhood is common among child brides. One of the most harmful results of child marriage is that it leads to early pregnancy and early childbirth. Girls are usually not ready physically, emotionally, intellectually and financially to be mothers at such young ages.
They are more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month of life, the report said.
Another major risk to girls having babies too young is obstetric fistula, a preventable condition where vaginal delivery results in a hole between the birth canal and bladder and/or rectum, leaving the women incontinent, which often results in them being rejected by their husbands and becoming outcasts in their communities.
Ending child marriage
According to the report, ending child marriage was ultimately about upholding the rights of girls and women everywhere.
“When all girls are able to enjoy their rights, benefits accrue to all-- including better health, more productive labour forces and progress towards gender equality. An end to girls’ hope and dreams, a human right violation and a harmful practice, an obstacle to ending poverty and inequality and achieving growth and stability, the cost of child marriage is so large that its elimination must become a global priority, the report concludes.