Child Marriage: The Unending Challenge Confronting Communities In Ghana
BY Samira Larbie
SEVEN YEARS ago, Imam Ismail Mumuni (not his real name) married off his 14-year-old daughter Hajara (not her real name) as a second wife to his friend Yusuf at Elubo in the Western Region of Ghana. She was only in Primary Five when her father married her off. In the same neighbourhood, 14-year-old Ayisha Ibrahim was married off by her father who was afraid that she would be pushed into premarital sex to avoid the poverty the family has endured since she was born.
The three girls are representative of the over two million girls whose education is abruptly ended when they are married off due to the religious, cultural, and misplaced fears that communities in Ghana still have.
Child marriage is any union either formal or informal, where one of the parties is under 18 years old and is prohibited by law. Indeed, such marriages are considered a violation of human rights. According to a UNICEF report, 15 million girls worldwide marry before their 18th birthday. A breakdown of the above reveals that 41,000 girls get married every day; 28 girls get married every minute and a girl gets married every two seconds.
This is equivalent to 10 per cent of the world’s population (approximately 7.25 billion currently) six with around one in three (about 250 million) entering into the union before the age of 15.
In Ghana, one in five girls aged between 20 and 24 years, married before the age of 18. A breakdown of the regional data from the 2014 Demographic Health Survey showed that the Northern Region recorded 39.6 per cent cases of child marriage, Upper West 37.3 per cent, Upper East 36.1 per cent, Western 32.9 per cent, Central 29.5 per cent, Eastern 27.5 per cent, Ashanti 25.9 per cent, Volta 25.9 per cent, Brong Ahafo 23.9 per cent and Greater Accra Region 18.5 per cent. Children such as Hajara and Ayisha are denied an opportunity to enjoy their childhood, they are denied their right to education and the right to choose when and whom to marry. The public health implications for child marriages are enormous, contributing to the high maternal mortality rate, increasing the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, and increasing poverty and other socioeconomic challenges.
Factors
Some of the factors driving child marriage in Ghana include gender inequalities, teenage pregnancy, economic insecurity, ignorance, impunity, poor law enforcement and customary practices and social norms.
Sheikh Armiyawo Shaib, the spokesperson for the Chief Imam of Ghana, said in Islam, child marriages are prohibited.
“Even though the Quran does not fix the age of marriage, it does not support the marriage of a girl who has not attained maturity,” said Sheikh Armiyawo. According to the hadith, the collected traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) based on his sayings and actions, the Prophet got married to Ayisha (r.t.a) when she was only six years old, but he consummated the marriage when she had reached the age of maturity. Maturity, according to the hadith, is the age of majority which is equated with attaining puberty and demonstrating adequate mental development. Sheikh Armiyawo explained that when Ayisha (r.t.a) was betrothed to the Prophet (PBUH), she was handed over to Khadijah for training. “It is only after the bride attains maturity, or sound judgment, to handle her own property that she can receive her dowry; (Mahr). Without a dowry, no marriage is established,” he says.
This Quranic quotation makes the early, child and forced marriages unaccepted in Islam. For the marriage to be accepted, the woman has to first accept the dowry as a symbol that she has consented to it. However, in practice, parents often take the money without the knowledge of the girl, due to poverty. The girl only gets to know after everything has been concluded, when she is told a man has come for her hand in marriage and she is prepared to be taken to her husband. In such cases, the parents believe that the girls will be taken care of by the well-to-do men.
As in the case of Ayisha Ibrahim, who was married off at the age of 15, child marriage only entrenched the cycle of poverty. She said that her husband did not take care of her.
“I had to rely on my father to send me money to take care of my children and myself,” she said, adding that, she had to leave with her children after 25 years of frustration. The marriage was consummated when she reached the age of 18-19 years. According to Sheikh Armiyawo, a girl betrothed at an early age is not expected to live with her husband until she is fit for marital sexual relations (hata tutilqal-rijal).
“Betrothal can happen at any age, actual marriage comes later after attainment of puberty and sound judgment,” he said.
In instances where such a girl is to be married before the age of maturity, the kadhi is expected to appoint two matrons to examine the girl on her physical preparedness for marriage. If the matrons find that the bride is unfit for marriage at such an age, the marriage should not go ahead. In the instance when the girl reaches the age of maturity and determines that she is not interested in the marriage, the marriage stands annulled.
He explained that one of the conditions for giving a girl’s hand in marriage is her ability to consent to such a marriage. “For a marriage to be established in Islam, there has to be a proposal and acceptance (al-Ijaab waalqubuul); there has to be approved by both parents (ridaa waalidayn), there has to be payment of a dowry by the groom (al-mihr) and there have to be at least two male witnesses at the ceremony (shaahidayn ‘aadilayn), force a child: to be betrothed, be the subject of a dowry transaction, or be married, and the minimum age of marriage shall be 18 years.
Sheikh Armiyawo said that in addition to changing attitudes, reducing poverty, and providing communities with socio-economic opportunities would help eliminate child marriage.
Nationally, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection established a Child Marriage Unit in 2014 to promote and coordinate initiatives aimed at ending child marriage. Various non-governmental organisations also implement initiatives to fight child marriage. They include the Zakat and Sadaqa Trust Fund, which provides scholarships and other support to families who may be inclined to marry off their daughters due to poverty. The initiative backed by the Muslim Caucus and Staff of Parliament led by the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Doctor Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, provides families with food, shelter, education, health, and economic empowerment training.
“Providing skills training to girls who are at risk of child marriage, keeping the girls and boys in school through scholarships and the provision of free senior high school education, are just a few interventions that can encourage communities to break the cycle of early marriage,” said Sheikh Armiyawo.
In 2021, another non-governmental association, the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), introduced the Child Marriage-Free Community Alert Campaign, targeting 30 communities in six districts (Cape Coast Municipality, North Tongu District, Bongo District, Wa Municipality, Sagnarigu District and Asokore Mampong Municipality). – GNA