Marriage practices fail to secure girls’ consent

Only 20 percent of girls who were married off at an early age were able to continue their education after marriage, said a study.

Around 90 percent of them were school-goers when their families decided to marry them off, according to the study titled "Policy Brief on Consent to Marriage and Best Interest of Girls", conducted by Care Bangladesh.

Around 246 such girls and 106 parents from Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, Narail, and Bagerhat participated in the study.

The findings were revealed at a roundtable at The Daily Star Centre yesterday, jointly organised by Care Bangladesh and The Daily Star.

According to the study, marriage practices fail to secure girls' consent and defend their best interests, which often leads to psychosocial problems.

While 56 percent of participants believed consent refers to giving their opinions freely regarding marriage, 36 percent viewed consent as something that would make their parents happy whereas 5 percent considered silence as consent, said the report.

As per the report, 52 percent of the marriages were not registered due to the perception of child marriage as a crime in society, non-practice of marriage registration, and unwillingness of the grooms' families.

While everyone knows child marriage is a crime, many are unaware that girls have the right to give consent regarding their marriage. Education empowers girls to know their rights and express their opinions, especially when it comes to saying "no" to such questionable social norms, said Sara Hossain, honorary executive director of BLAST.

"Poverty and social insecurity push parents to choose early marriage as they fear that their daughters will face different forms of harassment otherwise. However, such decisions take away the girls' right to choose the way they want to pursue their lives," she added.

"Since child marriage, early marriage, and forced marriage are different from each other, can we apply the same laws while dealing with them? When a victim of gender-based violence is married off to protect her dignity, who gives consent there?" stressed Fauzia Moslem, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad.

There must be a strong monitoring system to analyse local government initiatives, functionality of adolescent clubs, and implementation of laws to curb child marriage and strengthen our young girls, she added.

"It's not possible to create a gender-neutral society with gender-blind laws that have no impact analysis. Unfortunately, our social norms are so prominent that they defeat and challenge legal procedures," said Prof Tania Haque of the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Dhaka University.

"Voluntarism, leadership, and knowledge of basic skills can help a girl grow and take her own responsibility. Thus, educational institutes must practise these activities strictly. A little more investment could bring a massive change," she added.