The Sunday Mail
On October 11th, Zimbabwe joined the international community in observing the International Day of the Girl Child. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the world to recommit to supporting every girl to develop her skills, enter the workforce on equal terms and reach her full potential. The Sunday Mail has taken heed of this call, especially at a time when child marriages are robbing the girl child of her full potential. In this story, we publish how a child bride has managed to redeem her life after three years of marriage.
For the Katurusa family of Mhangura, early child marriages have been a curse that have robbed their daughters of prospects of a bright future.
Mrs Patricia Katurusa’s first daughter got married at 15. Unfortunately, she contracted HIV and succumbed to an HIV/Aids related illness as a teenage bride.
After this loss, Mrs Katurusa never imagined that her other daughter would be wooed into an early marriage.
Then the calamity knocked on the family’s door again. Florence Katurusa, the family’s third daughter, got into an early marriage.
Florence was impregnanted at the age of 16 and had to get married, thereby abandoning her Ordinary Level studies.
“At first, the marriage was great. My husband was loving,” she recalls.
“Then after a while, things changed. There were times when my husband would become physically violent.”
“Many times, I feared for my life. I was scared that he would infect me with sexually transmitted infections,” she said.
Whenever things got worse, Florence would seek refuge at her parents’ place.
“Florence and her husband would always fight. She would pack her bags and come here. After a few days, her in-laws would come and take her back.
“It was only on the fifth incident that Florence decided it was enough,” said Mrs Katurusa.
After giving birth to one child and enduring three unbearable years of marriage, Florence, now aged 19, finally left her husband.
“My father came to get me,” she said.
“I was busy being a mother and a housewife and forgot about my dreams. I regret getting married at such a young age,” she said.
“Though it was a hard decision to go back home and face my family and friends, it had to be done.”
Florence’s predicament brought back sad memories to her mother.
“Losing my first daughter to HIV at such a tender age was a painful experience and I had thought that my other children would not fall into the same trap. I had hoped that Florence would complete her studies and secure a bright future for herself,” said Mrs Katurusa.
The Sister to Sister programme was Florence’s wake-up call.
“I learnt a lot from the programme; about self-sustenance, family planning, sexual and reproductive rights,” said the young mother.
“During the sessions, I realised that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. However, l learnt that it is never too late to correct such mistakes.
“I’m now an entrepreneur as l seek to look after my son.”
She is now an advocate fighting against child, early and forced marriages.
“I want to help other girls who might be in a similar situation. I tell them to go school. Education is power and you become powerless without it.”
The Sister to Sister programme encourages young girls to pursue their dreams without the inconvenience of early marriages and HIV infection.
Despite its pervasiveness, forced early marriage is rarely seen as a human rights violation. Nonetheless, it violates Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as several other human rights treaties, notably the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty.
In Zimbabwe, child, early and forced marriages are illegal; yet an estimated 34 percent of girls are married before they turn 18.
The Marriage Act [Chapter 5:11], which governs civil marriage, states that the minimum age of marriage is 16 years for girls and 18 for boys. The Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07], which governs customary marriages at law, does not set a minimum age limit at for marriage
Both these laws contradict the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which is the highest legal instrument in the country. The Constitution defines marriage as a consensual union between a man and a woman, both of whom should have reached at least eighteen years of age.
Makonde district Aids coordinator, Mrs Yvonne Chavhunduka, called for the laws to be aligned with the Constitution inorder to combat child marriages.
“We need to urgently close the gap on the laws. Many perpetrators use this discrepancy to defend themselves for sexually violating girls.” Mrs Fungai Sadzi, Makonde district development officer in the Ministry of Gender, said there is need for a holistic intervention in dealing with child marriages.
“From our engagements with young girls, we have found out that due to poverty, parents are encouraging their young daughters to get married,” said Mrs Sadzi.
“It’s only when the girls get into those marriages that they realise that all that glitters isn’t gold. The young girls require comprehensive sexuality education for them to understand the implications of early marriages. They need to delay sexual debuts.”
Children under 15 years of age account for 9, 5 percent of all people living with HIV. Zimbabwe currently has at least 1, 4 million living with HIV.
According to a 2012 United Nations study, one in three girls in the developing world will be married by her 18th birthday.
The consequences for child marriages are appalling. While their education and childhood are cut short, the child brides often suffer a traumatic initiation into sexual relationships, are put at risk of domestic violence and STIs, and have the chance of a career or better life taken away.
Mrs Chavhunduka buttressed this point.
“The girls are forced to bear children before their bodies are fully grown. This puts their health at risk of birth complications,” she said.
Statistics indicate that worldwide, pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 and 19.
Worldwide, a quarter of all new HIV infections are of women aged between 15 and 24. The majority of these young women live in sub-Saharan Africa where six out of every 10 people living with HIV are women.
Child marriage, defined as a formal marriage or informal union before the age of 18, is a sad reality for both boys and girls, although girls are the most affected.
The prevalence of child marriage in Zimbabwe varies per province.
Mashonaland Central leads with 50 percent, followed by Mashonaland West at 42 percent, Masvingo at 39 percent, Mashonaland East at 36 percent, Midlands at 31 percent, Manicaland (30 percent), Matebeleland North (27 percent), Harare (19 percent), Matebeleland South (18 percent) while Bulawayo has the least prevalence rate at about 10 percent.
According to World Health Organisation, 14.2 million girls under the age of 5 are forced into marriage each year.
Most of these come from India, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Research indicates that marriage before the age of 18 is influenced by various factors ranging from poverty, orphan hood, family honour, legislated minimum sexual consent and marriageable age, religious and cultural values.”
