{"id":47648,"date":"2022-02-24T13:25:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T13:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47648"},"modified":"2022-02-24T13:25:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T13:25:05","slug":"at-un-palestinians-call-on-israel-to-end-apartheid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47648","title":{"rendered":"At UN, Palestinians call on Israel to \u2018end apartheid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early marriage blights lives of young girls in Lebanon\u2019s marginalized communities<\/h2>\n
\n

\nDUBAI: Nadia, 14, should be in school in her native Syria. Instead she is married to someone 13 years her senior in neighboring Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\nShe was married off by her father, Yasser, a Syrian refugee, on the promise of $8,000, half upfront and the rest when the marriage contract was signed.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHer suitor approached me when she was studying,\u201d Yasser told Arab News. \u201cHe promised he would treat her right and help me open a minimarket to better my finances. But he turned out to be a liar and an abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAmong refugees in Lebanon, Nadia\u2019s plight is not uncommon. Grinding poverty and a dearth of opportunities have forced many families to make similarly desperate decisions \u2014 in effect selling their daughters to secure a semblance of financial security.<\/p>\n

\nYasser regrets his decision. \u201cHer husband won\u2019t let her talk to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI called once. He overheard her saying baba (father) and then snatched the phone away. I felt like my heart was set on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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\nA campaign to highlight the plight of child brides went viral on social media thanks to a powerful image showing a middle-aged man posing with a 12-year-old girl on their wedding day. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nIn addition to the perils of poverty in exile, the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon must also endure the myriad of challenges facing their host country amid its crippling economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\nAdd to that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, political paralysis and the ongoing violence in Syria that militate against the return of displaced families, and the options for many appear bleak.<\/p>\n

\nAgainst such a backdrop, marrying off children is seen by some communities \u2014 including impoverished Lebanese \u2014 as one of the few avenues available to them.<\/p>\n

\nReem, who is Lebanese, was only 16 when she consented to an arranged marriage. She did not object to the idea because several of her friends and neighbors were also tying the knot at around the same time.<\/p>\n

\nOne of the main factors in her decision \u2014 which in reality was only partly her own to make \u2014 was a desire to ease the financial burden on her parents. Now, three years into her marriage, she feels trapped.<\/p>\n

\n
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\nA Lebanese woman holds a placard as she participates in a march against marriage before the age of 18, in the capital Beirut. (AFP\/File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cI wish I never went through it,\u201d she told Arab News. \u201cWhat did I know? I have a daughter. Where will I go with her? I thought I was helping my parents to have one less mouth to feed. Now it seems I added one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIn Lebanon and Syria, children continue to be married off, with neither government paying much heed. Under Lebanon\u2019s constitution, personal-status laws are decreed by each individual sect, combining common law with religious doctrine.<\/p>\n

\nAs a result, matters such as marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance are often governed by religious courts. Each of the major sects has a different legal age for marriage; for Catholics it is 14, Sunnis have raised it to 18, and Shiites have set it at 15.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the constitution: \u201cThe state guarantees that the personal status and religious interests of the population, to whatever religious sect they belong, shall be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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\nAya Majzoub, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, says the impact of child marriage on young girls is\u00a0\u201cdevastating.\u201d (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nCivil society groups in Lebanon have long urged the government to introduce an all-encompassing personal-status law.<\/p>\n

\nA report published by Human Rights Watch in 2017 said it would be a \u201ccommon sense measure\u201d to raise, without delay, the minimum age of marriage to 18 without any exceptions. Such a law was drafted that same year but never passed.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe impact on girls is devastating,\u201d Aya Majzoub, a researcher for HRW, told Arab News. \u201cThey are at heightened risk of marital rape, domestic violence and a range of health problems due to early childbearing.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cLebanon\u2019s parliament can help end this practice. The Lebanese government and local authorities should develop programs to prevent child marriages, such as empowering girls with information and support networks, as well as engaging parents and community members about the negative effects of child marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nIN<\/span>NUMBERS<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\n* 12 million girls under the age of 18 married off worldwide every year. (HRW)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n* 13 million additional child marriages estimated to occur in next 10 years due to the pandemic. (UN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n* 2030 is UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goal target year for eliminating marriage before age of 18<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe high number of children who have missed out on an education in Lebanon over the past two years, because of the pandemic and the economic crisis, has increased the likelihood of premature marriage, particularly among vulnerable refugee communities.<\/p>\n

\nA recent report titled Searching For Hope published by UNICEF, the UN\u2019s children\u2019s agency, revealed that 31 percent of children in Lebanon are out of school and that enrollment in classes had dropped to 43 percent in the current academic year.<\/p>\n

\nThe figures are thought to be much worse among refugee communities, where in many cases children have little access to any education at all.<\/p>\n

\nAid agencies have made efforts to end the custom of underage marriage by raising awareness of the effects it has on girls\u2019 lives and the potential for traumatic physical damage to pre-teens whose bodies are not sufficiently developed to endure the rigors of childbirth.<\/p>\n

\nKAFA, which translates as \u201cenough\u201d in Arabic, is a Lebanese nongovernmental organization that was established in 2005 with the aim of eliminating all forms of gender-based violence and exploitation.<\/p>\n

\n
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\nBesides legal reforms and active public-awareness campaigns, aid agencies believe the key to ending child marriage is poverty reduction and providing vulnerable communities with economic security. (AFP\/File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nIn 2016, it launched a campaign to highlight the plight of child brides. It also provides psychosocial support to survivors.<\/p>\n

\nThe campaign went viral on social media thanks to an extremely powerful image that showed a middle-aged man posing with a 12-year-old girl on their wedding day.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBased on the abused women who come to our center, our statistics show that 20 percent of them were actually child brides,\u201d Celine Al-Kik, supervisor of the KAFA support center, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is a link between violence and child marriages. We are permitted by law to intervene and provide legal assistance when the underage girl is kidnapped, and when her parents oppose her marriage when her suitor has her convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBesides legal reforms and active public-awareness campaigns, aid agencies believe the key to ending child marriage is poverty reduction and providing vulnerable communities with economic security.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cFamilies experiencing the economic crisis in Lebanon are increasingly resorting to marrying off young girls as a coping strategy for the deepening crisis,\u201d Nana Ndeda, policy director with Save the Children, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is important that the economic drivers of child marriage are urgently addressed. Girls who marry are most likely to drop out of school and have limited access to decent work. Child marriage is a violation of human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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\nYoung Lebanese girls disguised as brides hold a placard as they participate in a march against marriage before the age of 18, in the capital Beirut on March 2, 2019. (AFP\/ANWAR AMRO\/File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nRawda Mazloum, a Syrian refugee, campaigns on the issues of women\u2019s rights and gender-based violence in the camps of eastern Lebanon\u2019s Bekaa Valley.<\/p>\n

\nShe organizes community workshops and partners with local nongovernmental organizations, such as KAFA, to try to raise awareness about the growing rates of child marriage, divorces and violence within the Syrian refugee community.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe youngest girl I know of (who got married) was only 13,\u201d Mazloum told Arab News. \u201cHer parents, like the rest, were struggling. These girls often get abused. They are not aware of their rights as they are still children. They are victims of ignorance, poverty and war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAs the crises on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese border bleed into one another, the daily fight for survival, and the desperate decisions that come with it, is unlikely to end soon.<\/p>\n

\nA report published in 2019 by Save The Children in Lebanon, titled No I Don\u2019t, lists poverty, conflict and lack of education as the primary factors driving child marriage.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
\nA report published by Human Rights Watch in 2017 said it would be a \u201ccommon sense measure\u201d to raise, without delay, the minimum age of marriage to 18 without any exceptions. (AFP\/File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nHowever, it notes that child marriage can also be a means by which families try to protect their daughters from sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

\nParents who have married off young daughters often say security is a key motivation. Indeed, when refugees and impoverished households live in densely populated spaces among many strangers, there is a higher perceived risk of sexual harassment and violence toward girls.<\/p>\n

\nProviding a male figure who can offer protection is often a consideration. In the case of Yasser and his daughter Nadia, however, the opposite proved to be the case.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI thought I was offering her a better alternative, a better life,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cBut he wasn\u2019t serious about her. He used her for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early marriage blights lives of young girls in Lebanon\u2019s marginalized communities DUBAI: Nadia, 14, should be in school in her native Syria. Instead she is married to someone 13 years her senior in neighboring Lebanon. She was married off by her father, Yasser, a Syrian refugee, on the promise of $8,000, half upfront and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}