Mozambique has highest rate of child marriages in SADC

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Mozambique has highest rate of child marriages in SADC

7:50 CAT | 20 Sep 2017

Mozambique occupies top spot among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in relation to early marriage, president of the Parliamentarian Women’s Office Francisca Domingos Tomás revealed in a parliamentary open day meeting in Magude, Maputo province, on Thursday (September 14).

Tomás said that Mozambique needed to wake up and find solutions to problems affecting Mozambican women, particularly premature marriages, and all Mozambicans should discuss the problem without partisan bias in order to eradicate this “social evil”.

“Society must invest in women’s education if it wants to develop, because educating a woman is educating a nation,” she said.

She backed a review of laws pertaining to women according to the current societal demands, saying that it was in this spirit that MPs dealing with women, family and child issues were holding the parliamentary open days.

Magude administrator Lázaro Mbambamba said that 120 cases of domestic violence and 13 premature marriages were recorded between January and August. To discourage this behaviour, the district’s Women and Social Action sector had held awareness meetings, disseminated information about the law and promoted radio debate on the matter, he said.

As a result, seven girls were rescued from premature marriages, two of whom returned to their families and four to school while still living with their husbands. One “reacted negatively to appeals”.

Poverty is blamed for putting women and girls in a situation of vulnerability, with reports suggesting parents force daughters to marry prematurely for material benefit.

In Namaacha district, cases have been reported of girls being raped and their parents then negotiating a fine with the rapist in exchange for not being prosecuted.

On this subject, Tomás explained that any member of the community could report child rape without the consent of the victim’s parents, as rape is a deemed sufficiently serious not to require the victim’s consent for an investigation to be opened.

Source: Notícias