Early and Forced Marriages

This article was written by Shirine Mohagheghpour, acting vice president of the PPFA International Division.

More than 100 years ago in Iran, my great-grandmother married.  She was nine years old; her husband was 72.  Family legend has it that she still played with dolls at the time of her marriage.  Her first child was born four years later, and by age 20 she was a widow with five children.  She never married again. After all, who would want to assume the economic burden of a woman with five children?  Some years later, her third child, my grandmother, also married.  Until the day of her wedding, she had not met her husband-to-be.  She was 18 at the time.  As she recalls that day, she peaked into the room where the ceremony would take place and saw two men:  one handsome; one not.  As many naïve young girls would do, she prayed for the handsome man.  Alas, her prayer wasn’t answered.  Her personal disappointment not withstanding, it’s tempting to look back and count this as progress.  Eighteen is, after all, the age of majority in most countries.  But there’s no denying that my grandmother’s marriage, while not quite as egregious as that of my great-grandmother’s, was also a forced marriage.  She had no say in whether she would marry or whom she would marry. 

The reasons for early marriage are numerous.  In many cultures, a girl’s main value is as a wife and mother. Poverty is also a persistent factor.  Often, young girls are pressured into marriage in order to reduce the economic burden on families or to bring resources into the family. And parents may think that early marriage offers protection against sexual assault or out-of-wedlock pregnancy.  Finally, early marriage can be a mechanism for ensuring obedience.

Whatever the reasons, we know that for girls, early and forced marriages limit their opportunities and are a major impediment to gender equality.  Once married, a girl’s formal education usually ends, thus reducing her economic opportunities.  Moreover, young brides have little control over resources and very limited power.  Indeed, the younger the girl is, the more likely it is that her husband is significantly older. The greater the age difference between her and her spouse, the more unfavorable the balance of power. 

Early and forced marriages also increase the risk that a girl will be the victim of violence, including sexual violence.  A 2005 UNICEF study shows that women who marry young are more likely to experience intimate partner violence.  Women who marry young are also more likely to be beaten or threatened, and to believe that a husband is justified in abusing them.

Early marriage also contributes to high levels of maternal morbidity and mortality. Married adolescents often lack basic knowledge about reproductive health and family planning, and find it difficult to negotiate contraceptive use.  There are often strong family pressures to bear children early in marriage.  Because the adolescent body is not yet fully developed, girls who marry early are at greater risk for pregnancy-related complications, including death. Girls between the ages of 10 and 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than women ages 20-24, and girls ages 16-19 are twice as likely to die. 

Young girls are also at increased risk for obstetric fistula, a debilitating condition that can cause chronic incontinence and pain, brought on by prolonged obstructed labor and often related to physical immaturity.  And young married girls are at increased risk of getting HIV/AIDS.

In addition to the social, economic, and health risks posed by early and forced marriages, such unions also violate an individual’s fundamental human rights.  Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, states that “men and women of full age … have the right to marry and to found a family, and that marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”  Early and forced marriages violate a girl’s human rights by excluding her from decisions regarding the timing of her marriage or the choice of her spouse.

It’s hard to know what my great-grandmother thought about her marriage or the circumstances of her life.  But it’s fair to assume that, given a choice, she would not have opted for marriage at age nine, and childbearing beginning at age 13.  And I know that my grandmother did not marry a man of her choosing.  She has spent her life ensuring that her grandchildren had more hope and greater opportunities.  She also made certain that we were not subject to the same violations and limitations that she was.  Once I turned nine the old maid jokes started, but no one was happier than my grandmother that I waited until I was much older to marry a man of my choosing.  And my biggest joy?  Watching my 98-year-old grandmother and 16-year-old daughter overcome the barriers of language, culture, and age to talk about …condoms.  Now that’s progress!