Ending child marriage in Pakistan

Senator Kamran has tirelessly campaigned for the approval of her proposed legislative tool against underage marriages

Hats off to Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sehar Kamran who has tirelessly campaigned for the approval of her proposed legislative tool against underage marriages –– the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2017 –– after the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior described it as un-Islamic. The Senate panel later reconsidered the bill following the dogged pursuit of the mover. Senator Kamran was not present when the bill was rejected earlier. The bill will again be placed before the upper house next month and if approved, it will then go to the lower house of parliament or the National Assembly.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), up to three per cent of girls are married in Pakistan before the age of 15 years and 21 per cent are married before they turn 18. These statistics are based on the findings of the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) for 2012-13. You don’t need to be a scientist to understand that when such a large number of girls are married in their childhood, it results in high rates of maternal and child mortality and this is one of the key reasons that Pakistan’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) still stands at 276 per 100,000 live births and Pakistan’s newborn mortality rate is at 55 per 1,000 live births. We all know that Pakistan failed to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets related to maternal and child health.

Besides the health consequences, there are so many other aspects of child marriage which are not good for the child herself, her family and society at large. Based on these facts, child marriage is considered one the most important child-protection issues and therefore the conferences of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on child protection in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, in 2007 and Cairo, Egypt, in 2009, respectively, adopted both the Khartoum Declaration and Cairo Declaration whereby the Islamic countries were called upon to raise the minimum marriageable age to 18 years. “Participants call upon all OIC member states to raise the age of marriage to 18, ensuring full consent and registration of marriage” reads the Cairo Declaration. Similarly, the Khartoum Declaration states “take the necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls and all harmful traditional or customary practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, in the light of the relevant declarations, instruments, and conventions”.

Many, if not all, Muslim countries have increased the minimum marriageable age, including Bahrain: 21 years for both women and men, Libya: 20 years, Eritrea years 21 for men and 18 years for women, Algeria: 19 years, Qatar: 18 years, United Arab Emirates: 18 years, Lebanon: 18 years, Albania: 18 years, Morocco: 18 years, Oman: 18 years, Bangladesh: 18 years, Kyrgyzstan: 18 years, Kazakhstan: 18 years, Mali 21 and 18, Nigeria: 18 years, Tajikistan: 18 years, Sierra Leone: 18 years, Mauritania: 18 years, Kosovo: 18 years, Comoros: 18 years and Djibouti: 18 years. Many Islamic countries have the minimum marriageable age at 17 years and many more are considering raising the minimum marriageable age. All these Islamic countries and many non-Islamic countries have raised the minimum marriageable age as it is crystal clear that child marriage  is a grave threat to the lives and prospects of young girls. It violates their rights, denies them their childhood, disrupts their education, jeopardises their health, and limits their opportunities.

Marriage is a contract in Islam and the Quran [4:21] refers to marriage as a mithaq, ie, a solemn covenant or agreement between husband and wife, and enjoins that it be put down in writing. Since no agreement can be reached between the parties unless they give their consent to it, marriage can be contracted only with the free consent of the two parties -- which makes it clear that such a contract cannot be entered into by children. How a child can be expected to go into a lifelong contract when he or she is not expected to drive and/or vote? Marriage is a lifetime contract and a child who does not even understand what a contract is cannot be expected to choose her or his life partner and based on this fact chid marriage cannot be Islamic at all.

Pakistan’s human rights review, Universal Periodic Review (UPR), is scheduled to be held this month. In its last UPR in 2012, there were several recommendations related to child marriage which were accepted by the government of Pakistan, including a recommendation by Canada to “take steps to implement laws and policies with a view to eliminating early and forced marriage”. Similarly, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its Concluding Observations and Recommendations about Pakistan’s 5th Periodic Report in 2016 while welcoming the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act of 2013 which has raised the minimum marriageable age for both boys and girls to 18 years, raised concerns about the difference between the minimum legal age for boys (18 years) and girls (16 years) in all other provinces and recommended that the minimum marriageable age for girls be raised to 18 years.

Keeping in view the negative effects of child marriage on girls and children, its health, education and social consequences for girls, OIC conferences’ recommendations from Khartoum and Cairo, steps taken by a number of Islamic countries to raise minimum marriageable age in light of the Quranic verses [4:21], Pakistan’s constitutional and international obligations being party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other core conventions and being the newly elected member of the UN Human Rights Council, it’s high time that both houses of parliament fulfilled their responsibility of enacting the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2017 without any bias related to party affiliations, etc. It’s worrisome that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Javed Abbasi opposed it at the Standing Committee meeting. It is hoped that the PML-N lawmakers in the Senate and the National Assembly will support the bill and put the country on the right track with respect to the rights of children and women. I request all members of the Senate and the National Assembly to support the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2017 and not make any unfavourable decision based on some distorted historical facts and cultural taboos.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2017.

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