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Clerics` role in amending child-marriage Act
2007-12-11 09:49:18
By Lusekero Philemon
The Tanzania`s 1971 Law of Marriage Act, legalizes that a girl can be married at the age 14 and 15. This age therefore has been complained by human rights activists for the reason that child marriage is contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and it\'s a violation of human rights.
CRC stipulates that the right time for a girl to get marriage is 18 years. Human rights in Tanzania are struggling to speed up the LMA amendment process by involving all key players including clerics as the issue is moral, cultural and social aspect. In this article Our Reporter Lusekero Philemon has more detail on the matter.
Different societies have different perceptions on childhood, though governments have committed to safeguarding children from all forms of abuse and exploitation, as well as upholding their rights to health and protection from harmful traditional practices, which include child marriages.
According to CRC, Child marriage is a violation of human rights as it forces children to assume responsibilities and handle situations for which they are often physically and psychologically unprepared.
In places where child marriage is practised, girls rarely have any say on when and whom they marry. Once married, these young girls have little power and limited autonomy.
According to Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) the practice of girls marrying at the age of 14 or 15 is very common in sub-Saharan Africa including Tanzania.
Human activists, politicians and the public in general have a role to play on the matter. But without involving religious leaders-Muslim and Christian leaders will mean nothing towards speeding LMA amendment process.
Effective participation of religious leaders in the ongoing campaign against child-marriages will bear positive fruits if not victorious successes because of their prime role in nurturing peoples attitudes, believes, perceptions and moral integrity.
Religious leaders do all agree that currently child-marriage is moral, cultural and social problem that need immediate interventions.
More discussions are therefore needed before taking any deliberation that will lead to the amendment of 1971 Law of Marriage Act, which for many years has been complained by activists as it undermines developmental rights of the girl child and women in general.
Child marriages can be seen to contravene the rights of all children to protection, development and survival as defined throughout the CRC, as well as in other instruments that include articles reinforcing the right to marry based on full and informed consent.
Meeting in Dar es Salaam top Tanzania`s clerics say the issue of marriage according to their religions was very sensitive and needs to undergo several processes, before amending the said outdated Act.
Ally Baswaleh, representative from Prime Council of Muslim Organizations and Institutions in Tanzania says: ``This issue is very sensitive and needs more people to come in and air their views before taking any action.``
On our side as religious leaders, we`ll consult our scripts and see what says on this matter, he says, adding: ``Let`s give us (religious leaders) more time to work on it and come up with a concrete decision. This is due to the fact that marriage is a heavy contract that needs a special attention.``
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), Bishop Alex Malasusa says the 1971 Act, has several loopholes that deny girls among other things, the right to formal education. These need immediate interventions.
Marriage is an institution that needs its players to have knowledge-proper formal education. This requires partners to be treated equally in all aspects of life. But law makers aren`t talking any thing on the weaknesses of the Act, Bishop Malasusa says.
According to him early marriage can have serious harmful consequences for children, such as denial of girls` education.
Once married, girls tend not to go to school, and so they lose out on the benefits of education: better health, lower fertility, and increased economic productivity. They also lose out on any form of sexuality education, which is rarely taught before secondary school.
The ELCT cleric stresses that: ``A woman can have a rational decision only if she is knowledgeable. Hence there is a need for law making bodies to keenly look into the matter as the existing law is outdated.``
``Under normal circumstances it`s very difficult to draw the line between who is above 18 and the vice. On my view lengthening the time frame for marriage will negatively affect girls.
As they might commit adultery on the way, which is against God,`` said Sheikh Ramadhani Sanze of the Prime Council of Islamic Organizations and Institutions in Tanzania.
He explains that: ``The problem here is school curriculum. The curriculum demands pupils and students to spend more time in schools something that doesn`t correspond to girl`s biological changes.``
According to Sanze, by amending the Act will automatically increase age of marriages for girls. And will therefore cause another problem of having more children out of marriage.
He says early marriage makes the two partners enjoy life as both become more active in love affairs.
This according to him will make parents of that age have good time to bring up their children. He is therefore not comfortable with the idea of reforming the 1971 LMA.
``Here again, the problem of single parent will come in. This will increase crime rates as it happens now in South Africa,`` he said.
Suleiman Gologosi of the Muslim Council of Tanzania (Bakwata) says that, there is no way Tanzania can rush into the matter.
``It needs time as we religious leaders want to go through our scriptures, before coming out with one voice that will lead to the amendment of the Act.``
An independent Advocate, Evod Mmanda, says the existing marriage law infringes on girls’ rights of getting better education for their bright future.
``Marriage is a very complex institution of its own kind that needs couples who are matured enough to handle all family chaos. But at the 14 or 15 years, the girl can not meet all these challenges,`` Mmanda said.
The Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa) which is spearheading the amendment process notes that it is more usual for girls to be married to boys and men who are older than them while boys are more commonly married to girls of a similar age.
Such marriages may be arranged between two very young children as a means of maintaining or ensuring social, economic or political ties between families.
In other cases, girls may be married to too much older men who are more able to pay the dowries expected or demanded by a family. As such, girls are often the vulnerable party in child marriages, says Tamwa Executive Director, Ananilea Nkya.
She says: ``A 14 or 15 years girl has just completed her primary education if she enrolled on time and indeed, this level of education is insufficient for her to be able to manage challenges of the changing world.
``We are confident that the girl will be more productive and more responsible mother and citizen of this land if left to pursue her career and married at requisite age preferably above 18 years of age.``
Premature marriage, also denies the girl child informal knowledge as at the age of 15 the girl is in transition from childhood to adulthood, and she needs time to learn some adult life skills before becoming matured person, according to Tamwa official.
On health aspect, medical practitioners and nutritionists have made it clear that a girl at the age of 15 or 14 is still growing and her body needs more nutritional care for appropriate growth in order to cross over from child hood to adult stage.
To deliver at this age is considered unhealthy and dangerous as girls are not matured physically or psychological to have children and in most cases may be deformed during the process.
There is also medical evidence that many girls of that age bracket give birth by way of surgery which is dangerous to the life of the mothers and the babies.``
Other health problems include premature pregnancies that cause higher rates of maternal and infant mortality.
Most girls enter marriage with little or no information about their reproductive health, including contraception, safe motherhood, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Because they cannot abstain from sex or insist on condom use, child brides are often exposed to such serious health risks as premature pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and, increasingly, HIV/Aids.
Physical, emotional and sex are some of the common issues in child marriages. In addition, children who refuse to marry or who choose a marriage partner against the wishes of their parents are often punished or even killed by their families in so-called `honour killings`.
Moral decay, greed and changing patterns of socialization due to globalization have fueled the increasing number of child wed-locks in the country and perhaps in the continent.
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