Peshawar: Razia, (not her real name), is 14 years old and married with underage boy of 15 years about a year ago. Razia, who belongs to Khyber district, said that her parents decided a match for her after she was born.
“In our area, marriage proposals are agreed on birth,” Razia said.
She said that their parents did not ask for the couple consent before marrying them. “We are married off as soon as assuming puberty,” she said.
Razia said that the underage marriage was taking its toll on her and badly affecting her health. “I have been barely married for a year but am feeling feeble due to absence of proper food,” she said.
She said that her inability to perform household chores was resulting into constant grumbling from her in-laws. “This squabbles often result into flare up on part of my husband and usually ended at physical violence,” she said.
She said that due to her early age marriage, she suffered two miscarriages in about a year and half, which has weakened her greatly.
Besides, she said that due to ill-treatment at the hands of in-laws and physical weakness she was facing constant mental anxiety.
“I request all parents to take pity on their daughters and do not marry off them at early age,” she said, adding that because what she had endured in brief span of her married life, she would not betroth her children at an early age.
Saifur Rehman, (not his real name), her husband, said that he was 15 years old. He said after they get married, his wife told him that their match was of families making and not of their own will.
He said that after being married at young age, he left seminary where he was memorizing Holy Quran. “After getting married, responsibilities of married life on piled on forcing him to stop attending madrassah,” he said.
These days, he is working a laborer in private company. He said that due to underage marriage, he was in great mental pressure. “My parents chide me all the time, which was causing me a great mental stress,” he said.
Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018, states that 3.6 percent of girls under the age of 15 were married off while 18.3 percent of girls married off are under 18
On the other hand, Child Marriage in Pakistan: A Report on Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2020 prepared by UN Women stated that during 2019-2020, given 32 percent incidence of child marriage in KP, almost 36,000 women could have joined labour force had they not been married below 18.
“In other words, the labour force participation could have been 13 percent higher if these child brides would have participated in labour force. Similarly, as child marriage decreases the agency of the bride and hence the bargaining power [and it resulted into] indirect cost through lack of agency and reduced bargaining power incurs an aggregate wage loss of PKR 278 million/month to young brides as a whole,” the report said.
Imran Takkar, a child rights activist said that child marriage was a pressing social issue that spawns various other problems. He said that the right to education was essential for every child aged 5 to 16; however, it was obstructed due to child marriage. Mr Additionally, Mr Takkar said, early marriage was also linked to maternal and child mortality, along with various health issues. “Early marital responsibilities, coupled with domestic conflicts, contribute to mental and psychological disorders affecting not only the immediate family but rippling through the entire society,” he said.
Besides, he said that it was crucial to recognize that issues like population growth and economic challenges were intertwined with the complex ramifications of early marriage.
Mr Takkar said that to curb child marraiges, a bill was drafted in 2014 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the supervision of the KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission, on which stakeholders from all walks of life were consulted and given ample opportunity to express their opinions. However, he said that this this bill was still awaiting its approval by the provincial assembly.
“Although, from time to time, the relevant government ministers promises, this bill passage was still in limbo,” he said.
Besides, he said that Pakistan has not only signed but also ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. This convention provides that every individual below the age of 18 years was called a child. In addition to this, the convention had four basic principles including non-discrimination, best interest of children, survival and development and participation i.e. expression of opinion
He said that early age marriage was a negation of the basic principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on which the entire agreement stands.
In addition to this Sustainable Development Goals also aim at eradication of child marriage from the world by 2030 and Pakistan is also a part of the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’.
Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, chief khateeb of KP and prayer leader at the historic Mahabaat Khan mosque of Peshawar said that Mufti Muhammad Shafi Usmani, the former grand mufti of Pakistan had also urged to discourage child marriage.
He said that there was a discussion about the health of boys and girls at a young age, so he believed that health was the most important thing for a person and in the religion of Islam, the health of a person was very important.
He said that there was some health institutions where he heard some briefing about thousands of women’s deaths were caused by childbirth-related issues. “In Pakistan, we have fewer health facilities but these things are on record and there is no bar to them in the Shariah, because if health cannot allow it, then there is no meaning,” he said.
Maulana Qureshi said that he had repeatedly given an opinion at the Islamic Ideological Council that kids should be treated as same and education for boys and girls must be parents’ priority.
He said that every girl must be educated up to the minimum matric or twelve classes before marriage so that at least she can live her life well and the problem of early marriage will be solved to a great extent.
On the other hand, religious have agreed that there was a need for complete awareness in this regard, especially for parents, to discourage early marriage.
Besides, he said that consent of both the boy and girl was essential in Islam. “My message to parents is that the rights that are for men should be given to women as well, especially for the development of girls,” he said.
Dr Riffat Aziz, a gynecologist said that either marrying at an early age or old age predisposed women to multiple medical problems especially in bearing children and general health.
“Marrying at a young age is a risk factor for cervical cancer anemia low birth weight of offspring high blood pressure and eclampsia during pregnancy and delivery,” she said.
She said that they face multiple cases on daily basis where girls married at a very you age suffer recurrent miscarriages which destroyed their physical and mental health. “Even severely anemic girls suffer parturition hemmorges, fits and untimely death,” she said.
Ammara Iqbal, a psychologist with International Rescue Committee said that early age marriage often resulted into mental problems. She said that child marriage affects the functioning of the child psychologically and physically but psychological health or mental health directly affects the child’s behavior when he/she gets married and for them, it is very difficult to accept the changes either of home, schooling, play and bodily. “Forcing them to get married at early age distorts their own rights to education, play and even hormonal changes can affect the psychological health of the child,” she said.
Besides, Ms Iqbal said that shooling gets affected because of the excessive emotional burden
She said that parents must understand the psychological health of the child before taking such decisions. Besides, she said that school teachers shall observe the behavioral change and report them to the competent authority while parents must develop a healthy relationship so that children can tell them about their preferences.
Nilofar Bakhtiar, chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women said that there was an increase in the rate of child marriages in KP because of a lack of education.
She said that public have to pay attention to the education of girls and the previous governments tried to pass a bill that would focus the lens on this issue many times but the people sitting in the assembly did not support it.
Ms Bakhtiar said that women’s education, their issues or successes were not on the agenda of politicians. “Despite political leaders taking votes from women and holding processions as polling agents, women are not included in their agenda when women’s issues are brought up,” she said.
She said that they were rying to get the child marriage bill passed by the assembly in the coming government in KP. She said that this bill was presented in the assembly for the first time in 2009, and so far, it has been rejected six to seven times.
Ms Bakhtiar said that MPAs did not support them in passing this bill.
She said that politicians were less likely to agree to outlaw the child marriage as compared to religious scholars.
