A Malawi chief has annulled hundreds of child marriages and sent the children back to school! Senior Chief Inkosi Kachindamoto of Dedza applied Malawi’s new laws against underage marriage to terminate 330 marriages last month, stating: “I don’t want youthful marriages, they must go to school. No child should be found loitering at home or doing household chores during school time.”
Malawi has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world, with half of all girls married before they turn 18. According to Reuters, "Early marriage not only deprives girls of education and opportunities, but also increases the risk of death or serious childbirth injuries if they have babies before their bodies are ready. Child brides are also at greater risk of domestic and sexual violence."
In February, Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika signed a law banning child marriage and setting the minimum age for marriage at 18. When the law took effect, Kachindamoto sprung into action. “I have terminated 330 marriages of which 175 were girl-wives and 155 were boy-fathers,” she told reporters. “I wanted them to go to school and that has worked.” Since she realized that three-quarters of the marriages she annulled had been consented to by village heads, she also suspended four of them, sending a clear message to other officials who might consider allowing an illegal marriage. “We have no set our own by laws to govern everybody within my area,” she declared. “No village head, GVH [group village headman] or church clergy [is] to officiate marriage before scrutinizing the birth dates of the couple.”
Congratulations to Chief Kachindamoto for her decisive action against child marriage and in favor of education! To read more about her decision on This Is Africa, visithttp://bit.ly/1KvfSSG
In Yemen, Nujood Ali, a former child bride and an anti-child-marriage advocate, also speaks on behalf of the girls who are promised in marriage at shockingly young ages. To read about her, check out “I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced” for ages 15 and up at http://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-nujood
For several books for young readers about girls and the power of education, we recommend "Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education" for ages 7 to 10 (http://www.amightygirl.com/razia-s-ray-of-hope) and "A Girl Called Problem" for ages 9 to 14 (http://www.amightygirl.com/a-girl-called-problem).
For an excellent book full of ideas on how you can help change the lives of girls and women around the world, including helping to end child marriage, check out the recently released "100 Under $100: One Hundred Tools for Empowering Global Women" at http://amzn.to/1H9CoRl
To learn more about how girls and women are fighting back against oppression and transforming their communities, we highly recommend "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" athttp://www.amightygirl.com/half-the-sky and the accompanying documentary, for ages 13 and up, at http://www.amightygirl.com/half-the-sky-documentary
For an excellent multimedia report from National Geographic on the "Secret World of Child Brides," about the plight of the over 100 million girls in developing countries will become child brides in the next decade, at least half of whom will be 15 and under, visit http://bit.ly/1yVR8xu -- or learn more about this issue at Girls Not Brides athttp://www.girlsnotbrides.org/
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