Tanzanian women leaders root for change of marriage law

Tanzania’s Parliament Speaker Dr Tulia Ackson has proposed the adoption of 21 years as the minimum age for a girl to get married in the country.

“I think that 18 years is still unfit for a child to get married since she is still young to handle marriage duties at such an age. They should be focusing on their studies in high school,” Dr Tulia said adding that she cannot allow her daughter to get married at the age of 18.

According to the United Nation’s 2021 report, more than 650 million women alive today were became wives when they were children.  Child marriage is a global issue that is fueled by gender inequality, poverty, unfavourable social norms and insecurity.

Globally, 19 per cent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married. And while child marriage is most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, no country is unsusceptible

When a girl gets married, they drop out of school to look after the home, children and extended family.

“Rates of early marriage have substantially increased among children forced by conflict into displacement camps and crowded homes,” says new data released by Save the Children 2022.

Tanzania has one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates, almost two out of five girls in Tanzania are married before their 18^th birthday. Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) 2015 shows that 31 per cent of women between 20 to 24 years were married when they were under 18 years.

Tanzania’s Law of Marriage Act of 1971, section 13 (1) permits girls aged 15 years to get married while boys are only allowed to get married at 18 years.

With the backlash and concerns posed by women and girls of this law, Authorities have begun working on finding achieving a court judgement that allows sections of the law to be changed.  Recently, Tanzania ministers’ shared a statement highlighting their position on the matter and how they taking serious action to follow it up and ensure reformation and amendment to the law.

This year, the Minister for Social Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups Dr Dorothy Gwajima made a statement to the government and the citizen: “Community development together with the committee of Law and constitution will sit in session to make amendments to the marriage Law, “she said

Rebeca Gyumi who is the executive director at a girl initiative organisation is working on the front line on the process of amending articles 13 and 17 of the Marriage Act.

It is not only that people under the age of 18 are children and are incapable of making the right decisions about marrying or getting married but, child marriages deny children the right o access education and freedom of thought.

In cooperation with UNICEF who were invited alongside different stakeholders and different organisations fighting for the protection of children’s rights and the end to child marriage in Tanzania, many joined the call for action.

Judge Robert Makaramba from Tanzania stated that, “We must have the separation of the Laws of the country and politics so as to generate equal treatment rights and justice.”

According to the Human Right Watch report of 2020, girls who were often pulled out of school to marry found it difficult to return to school after marriage.

Not only this, girls who became pregnant or married were frequently expelled. This is due to how the  Tanzanian Government policy does not allow schools to include students who are married or become pregnant to continue attending lessons.

Another concerning issue is that girls who marry early are more likely to experience domestic and sexual violence and have lower levels of education. As such, eliminating Child Marriage is also one of the targets included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) .

The severity of the issue is a growing concern as child marriage continues to happen in different countries. According to UNICEF, one in every five girls is formally married or in an informal union before reaching the age of 18. Despite laws against it, child marriage is a human rights violation that remains a widespread practice globally. In the least developed countries, the number of girls married as children doubles by 36 per cent every year.

Due to how Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, it disproportionately affects girls.

Amina Daud Hassan, a woman Member of Parliament  who is in the law and the constitution committee says: “The community development members met concurrently to discuss the marriage law amendment and will continue discussing and presenting it.”

Article 13 of the constitution of the Republic of the Union of Tanzania 1977 has stated that all people are equal and no one is above the Law. Article. 14 has specified the rights to live and reservation of life from the society.

Tanzania is among the country that signed various agreements that fight discrimination against women (CEDEW) and the agreement of the extension of the rights of African women (Maputo Protocol) which has given special clauses to defend and protect women’s rights.

Activists have requested that the security and defence agencies pursue appropriate legal action against these suspects in order to serve as a deterrent to anyone else who commits acts of sexual violence against the girl child.

The government should swiftly amend the 1971 marriage law through the Ministry of Constitution and Law to give girls more opportunities to pursue their goals and advance their personal development.

In Tanzania, the campaign, which started in the Mara Region where child marriage is rampant creates awareness in communities about the rights of girls and the responsibility of all people to uphold them. It is part of a larger African Union initiative to end child marriage across the continent

There is no single solution, actor or sector to end it, we must all work together. That looks different from one community to the next. Solutions must be local and contextual and integrated according to Girls Not Brides. Child marriage violates girls’ rights to health, education and opportunity.

Tanzania’s Marriage Act of 1971 sets the minimum marriage age for girls at 15 with parental consent and 18 for boys. It permits the marriage of 14-year-old children when a court is satisfied that special, although unspecified, circumstances exist.

Fatuma Kimwaga who is an advocate for Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) says the organisation is working hard to defend the rights of children and women in general.

“Our campaign is to ensure that we are fighting against early marriage that cut short their dreams due to early marriage and they also suffer from the effects of poverty, they drop out school leading to early pregnancies,” she stated.

To end the practice by 2030, the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress must be significantly accelerated. Without further acceleration, in ten years more than 120 million additional girls will marry before their 18th birthday.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute