Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Princess Mabel, sister in law to King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, wrapped up a four-day visit to Zambia to talk and learn about the harmful practice of child marriage. Zambia had the 16th highest rate of child marriage in the world: 42 % of girls are married by the age of 18.
Princess Mabel is chair of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. “The number of child brides globally is staggering: 15 million girls a year marry as children, that is one girl every two seconds. During this trip I was reminded of the individual stories behind those numbers: the girls who drop out of school to be married, who suffer violence at the hands of their husbands, who give birth when they are still children and who have every opportunity for a prosperous future taken away”, she said at the conclusion of the visit.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu remarked: “As a grandfather, it pains me to hear the stories of girls who have married as children. The suffering of so many of God’s daughters brings me deep sorrow, but the spirit of the girls we have spoken to is indomitable.”
He was pleased with the steps the government of Zambia was taking to end the practice. “It is encouraging to see that the government, civil society, traditional leaders and others in Zambia have recognised that child marriage has a devastating impact on girls and the nation as a whole. I am impressed by the determination of all those we have met who are working to bring an end to this scourge. But the challenge of child marriage remains pressing.”
Child marriage is a significant contributor to illiteracy (married girls almost always drop out of school), maternal mortality (girls under 18 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy or labour than women in their early 20s), gender based violence (married girls are highly vulnerable to forced sex and domestic violence), and HIV/AIDS (married girls are more likely to become infected with HIV than unmarried girls the same age).
© Royalblog: Source: Girls Not Brides; Photo by © GNB François D'Elbee
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