#myTake

The multiple- award winning movie, Hidden Figures portrays the brilliance and tenacity of three women, Katherine, Dorothy and Mary who were behind the scenes at NASA, working tirelessly to launch an astronaut- John Glenn, into space. Mind you, I’m no movie critic and neither is this a movie review. However, I cite Hidden Figures because it shows the length girls can go to becoming iconic, given the right conditions to do so.

Quite recently, there has been a growing awareness of ‘child marriages’ where the lens is now on garnering enough support to stop the act altogether. We may have heard of this abhorrent practice at some point in the past but frankly, I thought it had ceased. Only to see and hear people talk about it with fervor, showing that the act never really ended or had any semblance of ending. 

Well, I thought to add my voice to the outcry and I hope to God that it goes a long way to end this shameful, inhumane and criminal act.

A child is described as a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority. The father of empiricism, John Locke describes a child as a tabula rasa, (Latin for blank slate) needing to be nurtured to becoming a useful member of society.  Children, thus, must be shielded from the corrupting influences of society. This goes to explain that a child is someone who biologically, mentally, psychologically, socially and emotionally is not yet formed to make big life decisions such as marriage. Looking at marriage as a legal contract, a child in this case, is considered minor and if entering into a contract with a minor makes a contract null and void, why do child marriages persist? This begs the question, why then, are child marriages on the rise? The UNFPA, (United Nations Population Fund) has attributed child marriages to two major reasons, being; poverty and gender inequality. Statistics show that one in every 3 girls gets married off before the age of 18 and one in every 9 girls before age 15.

Sadly, it’s the girl child again. The same one that had to fight to be sent to school. Well, it seems the battle never ended. It just took another form.

Now, consider this, a girl child below age 18 lacks the fortitude and energy required in marriages to be shipped off to be married to, usually, someone three to four times her age. Oh hoh! She is now getting to know her own body yet is forced to accommodate life in her. She knows very little about reproductive health. She is struggling to decipher her mood swings. She is yet to understand the concept of being an adult. She daydreams. She’s caught between being a pilot and being a belly dancer; at this point it doesn’t really matter because she knows a girl is allowed her dreams. Well, or so she thought. Before she knows it, though no choice of hers, she must meet sexual demands, become a child-wife and eventually, a child-mother. 

Now, talk of choices, she is robbed of them. Totally! Even that of becoming a belly dancer. The ‘when’ and ‘to whom’ to marry decisions are denied her.  Not to talk of the direct health risk she faces from carrying a pregnancy with her not-fully developed system as well as having to birth a child as a child and the complications that that presents. 

If we as a people can recognize the vicious cycle this criminal act poses, we can better help break it.  And the cycle is this, once a child is forced into marriage which inevitably follows with pregnancy, school ceases to be a priority, thereby causing said child to drop out of school thus, crushing her dreams. Eventually, the offspring from these marriages tend to fall behind and fare worse than those from girls who stayed in school. And the tendency for the children from child marriages to follow in the same sickening trend is alarmingly, high. 

Why should this keep happening even in the face of near-universal commitments to see the end of child marriages? The laws against child marriages exist. Yes, they do. However, it’s about time the girl child is forewarned through discussions, outreach programmes and awareness campaigns.

We all, must rise to promote programmes and legislation designed to end child marriage, support evidence-based, girl-centered investments that empower girls with the information, skills and services they need to be healthy, educated and safe, helping them make a successful transition to adulthood as well as work to support the needs of married girls particularly in family planning and maternal health. And in doing so, we’ll curb if not drive out the incidence of child marriages completely and help the UNFPA in its goal of eradicating the shameful act.

Again, I mention Hidden Figures, saying, “Katherine, Dorothy and Mary” wouldn’t have achieved the feat they did had they been married off as children. By the way, I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the movie…yet.

#Ghana60yearsOn

#SaveHerDaughters

#EndChildMarriages

#FemtheFuture

#GirlsNoTbrides

mz_Scenah📝