Emeka OMEIHE
IN a landmark decision which is certain to bring succour to many beleaguered children, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has formally restricted marriages for persons below 18 years of age.
The kingdom’s Minister of Justice and Chairman of its Supreme Judicial Council, Sheikh Walid Al-Samaani, issued a circular announcing the restrictions. Henceforth, all marriages for persons above 15 but below 18 will now be referred to specialised courts to determine their suitability or otherwise.
Child marriage has had a long history in Saudi Arabia. For centuries an accepted cultural practice, it has enjoyed the support of the country’s influential clerics who have consistently argued that it does not violate the tenets of Islam.
However, increased national awareness of child rights issues and growing criticism from the outside world have combined to force changes over time. In January 2019, the country’s top advisory body, the Shura Council, voted for child marriage to be restricted to persons between 15 and 18 years.
Even though it is not yet a comprehensive ban on child marriage, there is no doubt that the restriction represents a major step in securing the rights of children in Saudi Arabia. Regardless of the claims of religious and cultural leaders, children are patently unfit for the physical, psychological and other requirements of marriage.
For one thing, their bodies are simply too underdeveloped to cope with the rigours of pregnancy and childbirth. The high prevalence of vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF), high blood pressure and other ailments among child mothers is grim testimony to this inescapable fact.
There is also the fact that early marriage often results in the truncation of educational careers, especially for girls. Forced to take up the responsibilities of housewife and mother to usually far-older husbands, these children almost always drop out of school and are thus denied the benefits and opportunities offered by education.
As the nation hosting Islam’s holiest shrines, Saudi Arabia’s actions have great significance elsewhere in the Muslim world. Now that it has formally restricted underage marriage, it is clear that what had previously been sanctioned as a religiously-justifiable practice is in fact a cultural phenomenon whose time has long passed.
The lesson is obvious for countries like Nigeria, where child marriage is rife in many of its northern states. The religious excuse for the practice is no longer tenable, and the negative consequences far outweigh whatever dubious advantages its defenders had ascribed to it.
Nigeria is at the epicentre of the global child marriage scourge. Nearly four in every 10 women in sub-Saharan Africa are married before the age of 18. In 2017, an estimated 43 per cent of Nigerian girls were married before 18, with 17 per cent married before 15. The country ranks 11th on the table of countries with the highest child-marriage rates.
Given these depressing statistics, it is no surprise that the country’s girls have made relatively little progress. Enrollment rates for girls in primary schools in the north-east and the north-west geopolitical zones is 47.7 per cent and 47.3 per cent, respectively.
Saudi Arabia has shown that centuries of convention cannot justify the violation of the human rights of children and Nigeria must imitate this worthy example.
A first step would be that of ensuring that more states pass the 2003 Child Rights Act; 11 of the country’s northern states have refused to do so, citing cultural concerns. That excuse is hard to justify in the light of the Saudi decision and greater energy should be spent in ensuring that the act is ratified by more states.
It is also important to step up the enlightenment campaign against child marriage. More prominent citizens must join the laudable efforts of individuals like the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano in explaining the disadvantages of the practice and the urgent need to end the outdated traditions which hamper the full development of children and youth.
Leave a Reply