Married as carried: child marriage, a tacit social conspiracy?
Stolen childhood, broken dreams, bruised heart, at least 33.5 % of girls aged 12-17 are sent into
marriage each year in Benin. According to the last demographic survey, this figure will double in 2050
if the problem is not handled seriously. The root causes of the phenomenon are said to be poverty,
lack of education, poor application of the law protecting children in Republic of Benin. The
consequences are dramatic: child marriage is highly contributing to increased rates of maternal and
neonatal death , rise in Gender Based Violence cases , exacerbation of the vicious cycle of poverty, etc.
Child marriage takes many forms in Benin: sometimes the marriage promise is even made while the
girl is still in the womb of her mother to “strengthen friendship links”, sometimes the girl child is
exchanged against another girl-to-marry in her future family-in-law, some other times she is just used
to pay a debt. The girl child is forced to become an adult while she is still playing with her dolls. She is
dropped out of school while her good marks promise her to a bright future. Many times she is married
to her tormentor who raped and impregnated her to “avoid dishonor to the family”. She is engaged in
an adventure of which she doesn’t even guess the destination. She just undergoes her destiny decided
for her without her… or rebels like Pena 15 years old, who empoisoned her 55 years old husband after
1 month of marriage, tired of having to bear his assaults every day and night. Unfortunately when this
kind of situation occurs, these little babies victim of a system, victims of society undergo the rigor of
law, are treated like criminals because marriage deprive them from their status of child, and banned
from their own families and villages. This situation is even worst for girls with disabilities, like Faty who
was sterilized by force after she was raped and gave birth to two boys without herself knowing who
her aggressor was.
Whose fault is it then? Everybody seem to be culprit and the silent associates of what I call “crime
against humanity”: the corrupted leaders who don’t ensure a fair distribution of national resources,
the parents who don’t provide for the basic needs of their girls, the parents who use their girls as a
financial resource for the family, the neighbor who doesn’t report cases of child marriage, the boys
and men who engage in sexual intercourse with teenagers and impregnate them, the development
agents who don’t design enough strategies against child marriage, the media who don’t inform enough
on the scope of the problem in our country, the law makers who don’t provide comprehensive
measures against child marriage, the law enforcers who don’t punish perpetrator of violence against
children especially the girl child, you and me, … each of us is to be blamed.
The good news is that there are international, regional and national provisions for child protection. We
need to put a specific emphasis on education for all, including the parents. It’s the only way to build
the girls’ resilience and inform all about the rights of a girl to say “NO to early marriage”; girls just have
the right to choose when they want to marry and with whom they want to spend their life. And the
law needs to be enforced to protect them.