Download Ayse Akin

CHILD BRIDES
Prof. Dr. Ayşe Akın
Başkent University Medical Faculty, Public Health
Department & Woman- Child Health and
Family Planning Research and Implementation Center
Adolescence
Childhood
0
10
19
Age
15 18
24
Youth
Young people
50 % of world population is under the age of 25.
85% lives in devoloping countries.
CURRENTLY THERE ARE OVER
60 MILLION CHILD BRIDES
IN VARIOUS REGIONS OF THE WORLD
 Child brides are unfortunately the reality of the
world and Turkey
 It is the violation of women’s rights
Each year:
 All over the world, 16 million girls gave births (over a hundred
tousand of them take place in Turkey)
 This year’s subject of World’s population day is announced by
UNFPA as “adolescents’ pregnancies”
In reality, early and / or forced marriages,
son preferences, dowry practices , berdel all
based on similar grounds;
Which are:
 Powerty
 Patriarchal structure
 Gender discrimination
 Lack of education in society but especially
the women’s lack of education
 Low status of women (lack of education
economical dependency etc.)
Right to Make Choice for Marriage and
Family Building
 Every person, male or female, has the
right to choose when and whom to marry
or not.
 No one can be forced to marry for any
reason.
 No one can be forced to pursue an
unwanted marriage or a marriage with an
unwanted person.
Some Reasons behind early and forced marriages:





Economic reasons (bride price is seen as an
income for the family)
Social belief that a woman must be protected
by and belong to a man, that belief is
perpetuated by patriarchal traditions and
religious beliefs
“Honor”, as defined for women by some
cultures ,also has a role to play in early
marriages,since marriage is seen to be a
method of keeping woman’s body under control
Role models also constitute a reason
There are women who are married off to take
care of family members with disabilities or
with chronic illness
Some Consequences of early marriages:





Early marriage, an obvious result of gender
inequality, is one of the major obstacles before
equal opportunities
Early marriages mean increased risk for
phisical,emotional,verbal and sexual violence
against women
Early marriages interrupt girls’ schooling
/education, in their future life cannot benefit
from employement opportunities
Early marriage means early motherhood in
most cases. MMR for women between the ages
of 15- 19 are four times higher than in older
ages
Early pregnancy increases risks of miscarriage
and stillbirth and prematur birth
International Regulations:
 International documents consider “child marriage” as a
human rights violation (ie.Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948)
 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) "States
Parties in any condition shall protect children against any
forms of exploitation, that could damage the well-being
of children."
 CEDAW (1979) (women should have the same rights as
men in terms of voluntarily choose a spouse and marry)
 Child marriage is the violation of human rights (Universal
Convention on Human Rights (item16)
 According to this item “marriage act can only be made by the free
and complete consent of the couples
 Child marriage is also the violation of several items of the
“Convention on Rights of the Child”
 Due
to early marriages; In developing
countries nearly 82 million young girls
stop their education.
 Most of the 16 million adolescents
who give birth each year, are facing
serious health consequencies due to
pregnancy complications.
 Early pregnancies: Maternal death in
young women aged between 15-19
four times more than women in their
early twenties



According to the sociologists, population in
developmental stage (age between 14-19) is
defined as socially immature.
Individuals in this age group, are considered as
they are insufficient in adapting to the
necessary social roles and have not completed
their social development.
Therefore, the girls married in this age range
break away from their friends , loose their self
confidence and cannot participate in community
activities after marriage.
In Early Marriages;
 Girls are imprisoned a life long dependent on husband
by her own family.
 Moreover, families consider these unacceptable social,
medical and legal facts as “normal”
 As child marriages usually take place in the form of
unlawful marriages, child brides, deprive of civil rights,
that is gained legal marriage.
 Child brides who failed to continue their education
because of marriage, and thus deprived of the right to
education, are also deprived of right to work, and
participation in production.
 This situation causes the decline in the status of women
in society, and being exposed to more intense gender
discrimination.
Some Information / Data on Child Brides in Turkey;





15.5% according to General Directorate of Population
and Citizenship Affairs
General Directorate of Population and Citizenship
Affairs doesn’t register the early marriages based on
religious wedding.
Estimation of Rate of child brides in Turkey today: 30
- 35%
In Turkey, one of every three married women had
child marriage
According to Turkey – DHS, 2008 , age of marriage
for girls decreased to 12
EARLY MARRIAGES
The definition of the concept of child bride changes
according to the law in Turkish legal system.
Girls under the age of 17, according to the Turkish Civil
Code,
 Girls under the age of 18, according to the Law on Child
Protection,
 Girls under the age of 15, according to the Turkish Penal
Code, are treated as child brides.

This inconsistency between the laws causes the
inefficiency in fighting against the early
marriages of the girls from traditional families
Some findings from the field study of the 2010-2011 carried
out by Flying Broom-Uçan Süpürge-Turkey)




Women and girls are not aware of their rights but
demand to know them
Girls demand that awareness raising campaigns to
prevent early and forced marriages should target
families , with a spesific focus on the father/ men
There is lack of awareness in many public officials as
well as local governments.
Women who experience early marriage do not want their
daughters to experience.These women tend to say
‘women should get married after the age of 25’; ‘When
they have a job’; Some don’t even want their daughter
to get married in the first place.
Some activities to fight against early marriages
in Turkey



A Sub Commission was established at the
Turkish National Grand Assembly to investigate
the causes and consequences of early marriages
GD of the Status of Woman is planning to carry
out a nationwide study on early marriages in
Turkey
Several research and advocacy activities have
been carried out by the University Research and
Implementation Centers as well as by the NGOs
in Turkey





According to physicians, the age range 14-21 is the maturation
period of reproguctive system . The girls in this age range
have not completed reproductive and sexual development yet.
Thus, after marriage, married girls in this age range may have
serious health problems such as, inability to conceive,
miscarriage, premature birth, difficult labor, increased BP in
pregnancy, and cervical cancer
Girls who are not ready to have sex biologically and find
themselves in sexual acts by child marriage, may have
several sexual and reproductive disease, and also
permanent psychological problems.
Thus, it is not sociologically and medically acceptable to
make girls marry before the age of eighteen for any
reason.
.
Some unwanted consequences of
adolescent pregnancies/births:
 Malnutrition, anemia
 Adolescent mother may ignore or injure herself or her
baby.
 As development of the pelvis completed at 20-22 years of
age, difficult birth in adolescent pregnancies are common.
 "Pregnancy poisoning", called "toxemia", "eclampsia“ is
more frequent.
 Miscarriage, stillbirth
 Excessive bleeding,
 Premature birth and low birth weight infants are more
common
 Compared to births aged 20-24, Pregnancy and
childbirth-related deaths (maternal mortality) in the age
group 15-16 are 3-4 times greater.
Problems in adolescent mothers and their babies:
Their Babies
Lack of access to health services  Being unwanted child
Pregnancy poisoning
 Intrauterin growth
Anemia
retardation
Difficult delivery
 Low birth weight
Severe bleeding
 Prematurity
Frequent pregnancies
 Stillbirth
 Unwanted pregnancies
 Infant mortality
Induced abortions
 Growth retardation
Stillbirths
 Child abuse
Maternal mortality (2-5 times
 School failure and
higher)
dropping out of school
Leaving education
 Unemployment / poverty
Loosing working opportunity
Poverty
Divorce and separation
VIOLENCE
Adolescent Mother
According to 2008 DHS Turkey
20.9 % of women aged 15-19 years, illiterate /
didn’t finished primary school
 9.6% of women aged 15-19 years are married

 36,5%
of women age of 15-19 had one live birth,
3,7% had two live births, 0,6% had three live
births.
 Contraceptive


method usage in this age group:
Any method: 40.2
Any modern method: 17.6
Distribution of mothers or pregnant women aged 15-19 years
according to some characteristics (2008 – DHS Turkey)
Characteristics
Already mother
%
Pregnant to first child
%
Beginners to bear
children%
15
16
17
18
19
Place of settlement
Urban
Rural
Region
West
South
Middle
North
East
Education
Illiterate/unfinished primary
school
Primary school
Secondary school
High school and more
Total
0.4
1.7
1.3
6.6
9.4
0.0
0.5
3.1
3.1
3.5
0.4
2.2
4.4
9.7
12.9
3.1
6.5
1.9
2.1
5.0
8.6
3.8
3.2
4.2
3.1
4.4
1.8
1.3
3.3
1.5
1.8
5.5
4.5
7.5
4.6
6.1
5.5
1.6
7.2
3.4
0.7
2.6
3.9
4.2
0.3
1.3
2.0
7.6
1.0
3.9
5.9
Age

If the current trend is continued during the next
decade there will be 142 million child brides in the
world , which means 14.2 milion child brides per year
Early marriages, berdel, son
preference, are serious burden on
girls not only the mental health of the
women but physical and social health
as well
 Although all those practices are
violation of women's human rights.
 Unfortunatelly in many societies all
those are accepted as "normal”

SOLUTION
WE SHOULD GIVE HER
A CHANCE !!
 The







mismatch / discrepancies between laws
in Turkey should be eliminated and the
marriage of girls before completing the age
of 18 should be prohibited.
Raise awareness in the community on “early
marriages are the violation of human rights”
Ensuring Gender Equality
Empowering woman and raising the
Status of Women
Changing Social Structure of the
community
PREVENTION OF POVERTY



Negative cultural values legitimized by
misinterpretation of religious and
traditional codes, must be discarded.
Liquidation of negative cultural values is
possible by placing the values based on the
laws, civilized social orders, scientific
approaches, instead of only religious and
traditional morality, in the society.
Decision makers / policy makers have not
only an important role to play on this issue
but also obligations to full fill.
Solution continue…..
The most effective actions / strategies;
 Integrating gender perspective into main
plans, programs, laws and regulations of the
country (gender mainstreaming-GEM)
 GEM, should be considered in the
preparation phase of legislations,
 To achieve this, decision-makers must have
a "gender sensitive perspective”
 Words should be translated into actions
to ensure the implementation of the laws
and regulations.