Wasila
Umar, a 14-year-old child bride, made news in April when she killed her husband
and four of his friends through food poisoning. Wasila’s case as a child
bride was not the first but attracted public attention because it resulted to
murder after 17 days of marriage to her husband. She alleged it was a forced
marriage to a man she did not love and didn’t want to have relationship with.
It was a violation of the right of the girl. The judge acquitted her. In the
northern part of Nigeria, 43% of girls are married off before their 18th
birthday. 17% are married before they turn 15 according to reports by UNICEF.
The Child Rights Act of 2003 sets the national legal minimum age of marriage at
18. To be effective, however, state assemblies must take necessary measures to
implement the Act, and to date, only 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states have taken
concrete steps to execute the minimum age of marriage.
While data shows a 9% decline in the prevalence of child marriage since
2003, action is needed to prevent thousands of girls from being married in the
coming years. If present trends continue, UNFPA estimates that 4,615,000 of
girls will be married as children by 2030. Child marriage is wrong
because it exposes children to the risks of too-early pregnancy, child bearing,
and motherhood before they are physically and psychologically ready. This could
lead to death. This could also lead to risk of sexual violence and HIV
infection. According to reports, One of the most commons causes of death for
girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries is pregnancy and child birth.
To further complicate matters, Nigeria has three different legal systems
operating simultaneously—civil, customary, and Islamic—and state and federal
governments have control only over marriages that take place within the civil
system..
Most religions, over
history, influenced the marriageable age. For example, Christian ecclesiastical
law forbade marriage of a girl before the age of puberty. Hindu vedic scriptures mandated
the age of a girl's marriage to be adulthood which they defined as three years
after the onset of puberty. Jewish scholars and rabbis strongly discouraged
marriages before the onset of puberty. In contrast, some Islamic marriage
practices have permitted marriage of girls below the age of 10,
because Sharia
law is based in part on the life and practices of Muhammad,
the Prophet. The Prophet married Aisha, his third wife, when she was about age six, and
consummated the marriage when she was about age nine. Some mainstream Islamic scholars
have suggested that it is not the chronological
age that matters; marriageable age under Muslim religious law is the age when
the guardians of the girl feel she has reached sexual
maturity. Such determination of sexual maturity is a matter of
subjective judgment, and there is a strong belief among most Muslims and
scholars, based on Sharia, that marrying a girl less than 13 years old is an
acceptable practice for Muslims
Wasila
Umar, a 14-year-old child bride, made news in April when she killed her husband
and four of his friends through food poisoning. Wasila’s case as a child
bride was not the first but attracted public attention because it resulted to
murder after 17 days of marriage to her husband. She alleged it was a forced
marriage to a man she did not love and didn’t want to have relationship with.
It was a violation of the right of the girl. The judge acquitted her. In the
northern part of Nigeria, 43% of girls are married off before their 18th
birthday. 17% are married before they turn 15 according to reports by UNICEF.
The Child Rights Act of 2003 sets the national legal minimum age of marriage at
18. To be effective, however, state assemblies must take necessary measures to
implement the Act, and to date, only 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states have taken
concrete steps to execute the minimum age of marriage.
While data shows a 9% decline in the prevalence of child marriage since
2003, action is needed to prevent thousands of girls from being married in the
coming years. If present trends continue, UNFPA estimates that 4,615,000 of
girls will be married as children by 2030. Child marriage is wrong
because it exposes children to the risks of too-early pregnancy, child bearing,
and motherhood before they are physically and psychologically ready. This could
lead to death. This could also lead to risk of sexual violence and HIV
infection. According to reports, One of the most commons causes of death for
girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries is pregnancy and child birth.
To further complicate matters, Nigeria has three different legal systems
operating simultaneously—civil, customary, and Islamic—and state and federal
governments have control only over marriages that take place within the civil
system..
Most religions, over
history, influenced the marriageable age. For example, Christian ecclesiastical
law forbade marriage of a girl before the age of puberty. Hindu vedic scriptures mandated
the age of a girl's marriage to be adulthood which they defined as three years
after the onset of puberty. Jewish scholars and rabbis strongly discouraged
marriages before the onset of puberty. In contrast, some Islamic marriage
practices have permitted marriage of girls below the age of 10,
because Sharia
law is based in part on the life and practices of Muhammad,
the Prophet. The Prophet married Aisha, his third wife, when she was about age six, and
consummated the marriage when she was about age nine. Some mainstream Islamic scholars
have suggested that it is not the chronological
age that matters; marriageable age under Muslim religious law is the age when
the guardians of the girl feel she has reached sexual
maturity. Such determination of sexual maturity is a matter of
subjective judgment, and there is a strong belief among most Muslims and
scholars, based on Sharia, that marrying a girl less than 13 years old is an
acceptable practice for Muslims
