Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 5 December: Two years ago this month, l received a desperate call from community gender champions from Matobo district alerting me of a planned wedding in their village between a 15-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man.
The champions said that the girl consented to this marriage because it was the only way to save her family from poverty. With only 48 hours to act, I joined forces with the courageous community gender champions who fought tirelessly, calling the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Ministry of Social Welfare and the police in the Matebeleland South Province of Zimbabwe to intervene.
The clock was ticking, but our determination was unshakable. On the day of the planned wedding the gender champions and the police got to the wedding venue ahead of the proceedings. Guests had arrived, but we managed to stop the wedding. We managed to spare one girl the agony of child-marriage.
As l look around today, l am met with a heart breaking reality that nothing has changed, the practice persists and is even escalating. Child marriages continue to plague our communities, taking away the dreams and aspirations of young girls in Zimbabwe.
As we observe the Sixteen days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Zimbabwe’s alarming child marriage statistics demand urgent attention. As the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela once said: ‘’When it comes to violence against women, there are few practices as harmful, or as widespread, as early marriage.’’
The 2024 Voice and Choice Barometer reveals that poverty and social imbalances amongst communities drive child marriages. This has resulted in parents and guardians giving away their girl-child to the highest bidder trying to escape financial poverty. A case study by Rozaria Memorial Trust in the Barometer states that a staggering 50% of girls in the Mashonaland Central province of South Africa are trapped in child marriages.
According to an article by the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (2024), child marriage remains a critical issue and cause for concern in Zimbabwe despite the progressive legal frameworks that have been enacted in a bid to fight this practice. This is attributed to weak enforcement mechanisms within communities.
Alarmingly, UNICEF (2023) statistics reveal that about a third (34%) of Zimbabwe’s girls are already married before the age of 18; in most cases without their consent and with severe consequences for their health, further robbing them of their childhood, education and future prospects.
What if girls had a chance to be children: to get an education, to pursue her dreams, to build a future she desires, without being forced into marriage?
Imagine being one of the girls married off every day, forced to leave school and forgo your childhood to take up adult responsibilities before you are physically, financially, intellectually and psychologically ready to do so.
Soon, you are pressured into sexual activity and are expected to bear children. You may not even understand how your body functions yet, let alone know that you have a right to access contraception or where those services may be available. You are forced into becoming a mother while you are still a child yourself, and there goes the high maternal mortality.
Memory Banda, a prominent human rights activist from Malawi says child marriage is an international problem that needs urgent attention. It is about getting girls in school and keeping them there. It is about ensuring they have access to sexual and reproductive health services. It is about giving them economic opportunities. All the ingredient we need to unlock a brighter future for Zimbabwe’s girls lie in ending this ruthless practice called child marriage!
I am launching an advocacy campaign titled, “She is a child, not a mother”, an initiative set to emphasise that girls are children who deserve education, protection and empowerment, not wives and definitely not mothers.
It is not enough for child-marriages to be illegal. There is need for policies that promote and support girls’ completion of secondary schooling to effectively reduce child marriages. There is also a need for the Government to invest in the girl child’s education and social investment to eradicate poverty among the communities, because poverty has been reported to be a huge driver of child-marriage.
Communities are at the heart of ending child marriage. Religious and traditional leaders often have a hand in officiating and legitimising child marriage. Let us partner with these community leaders, shift their mindsets through educating them on the dangers of child marriage and empowering them to bring positive change within their spheres of influence to end the practice.
Let us rebuild shattered dreams and restore the futures stolen by child marriage! You can do this by supporting the #SheIsAChildNotaMother campaign!
(Nothabo Sibanda is a WOSSO fellow. For more on Child Marriages go to the Harmful Practices chapter of the 2024 Voice and Choice Barometer)