It is with these issues in mind, that Equality Now has released ‘ Protecting the Girl Child: Using the Law to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Related Human Rights Violations,’ a detailed report illustrating that child marriage does not take place within a vacuum – it is part of a continuum of abuse experienced by a girl and is often linked with female genital mutilation, sex trafficking or force-feeding before marriage, rape, domestic violence and the removal of future opportunities as a result. There is no legal protection for girls like Lulu, who must rely on their own courage and the support of thinly-stretched non-governmental organizations when they face female genital mutilation, which is outlawed but largely unenforced, and child marriage. Tanzania’s law allows girls to be married at the age of 14 with a parent’s or guardian’s consent. Local organization Network Against Female Genital Mutilation met with her parents, who agreed return her dowry of eight cows and allow her to continue her education. At 14, having completed her primary education, she was forced into a polygamous marriage. Meanwhile, Lulu was subjected to female genital mutilation in Tanzania at the age of 4. Since there is no law in Mauritania forbidding child marriage or force-feeding, no action is being taken against anyone who may have been involved. L’Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille is calling for both laws to be enacted and implemented urgently.
But her own health deteriorated and twenty days later, she died aged 11 years-old. Khadijetou became pregnant in 2011 and gave birth by cesarean in order to save the life of her child. At the time of her wedding, she was extremely overweight. She was force-fed from the age of 7, and in 2010, she was married to a man 10 years older than her father. Khadijetou was born in Mauritania in 2002. Editor’s note: Jacqui Hunt is London director of Equality Now, an international human rights organization, which aims to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world.
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