Poverty drives young girls into child marriage
By Nomzamo Gwebu
Sharon Ncube (23) of New Lobengula suburb in Bulawayo metropolitan province says she was married before her15th birthday. Shenon was naïve to believe that marriage would usher a better life for her.
In Zimbabwe, child marriage is illegal, but scores of girls below the age of 18 are getting married each year. Sharon says her parents attempted to stop her from eloping with her boyfriend but she told them off and discouraged them from engaging law enforcement agents. She reveals that her parents succumbed to her wishes and allowed her to go and stay with her husband who was 25 at the time of their marriage.
“During the time we were dating, my husband was so caring that I thought our future would be great. I had no doubts eloping with him because I thought he would never hurt me,” says Sharon.
The seemingly blissful marriage did not last a year and Sharon says her husband turned out to be jealous and controlling.
“A year after my marriage, my husband became insecure about everything. The main source of the problems was that of jealous. My husband was always monitoring my movements and would question any men that I talked to. One day we went out with our friends to watch soccer at the local stadium. I bumped into an old male friend from high school and we started talking. My husband got jealous and hit the guy. He suddenly ordered that we should go home. He told me not to entertain strangers because he did not like it. I was forced to apologise although I knew that I had not done anything wrong,” says Sharon.
Sharon says that from that time, several incidents of a similar nature happened because it was difficult to avoid people completely. She recalls a day when her husband assaulted her after she had gone to visit her family.
“That night when I arrived home from visiting my family, my husband took me to the bedroom to check whether I had just had sex with someone. He inserted his fingers into my vagina. After that he forced himself on me,” says Sharon.
After this incident Sharon says she realized that her life was in danger. The sexual abuse occurred when she was 23 years old. Sharon says many young girls are getting into marriage without any idea of the challenges involved.
Irene Moyo (21) who also got married before the age of 18 says some girls run away to get married as a way of escaping from abusive families.
“Girls living in broken families like where parents are divorced and re-married or where one parent has died and the surviving spouse re-marries are most likely to experience abuse. It is the abuse that forces some girls below the age of 18 to get married,” says Irene.
Thembi Tshuma (38), a parent and a teacher at a local school attributes the problem to peer pressure from their friends and their boyfriends who give them money and gifts.
“Sometimes these young girls want to escape from their families because of poverty. If their parents cannot afford some luxuries, they turn to their boyfriends for support. Once they fall pregnant, they have no option but to elope, no matter how young they are,” says Thembi.
