Before she becomes a bride, let her be a girl

On the International Day of the Girl, coming up on October 11 (tomorrow), we are reminded of a simple but often overlooked truth: girls' rights cannot be separated from their right to childhood. This year's theme, "End Child Marriage. Invest in Girls' Rights", asks us to look beyond the progress we celebrate and confront the gaps that still shape millions of girls' lives. It ends with leaving school, being married too young or becoming a mother before the age of 18. We often tell girls they can become whatever they aspire to be, but what about those who are never given the space to aspire at all? Before we ask what a girl can become, we must first ask whether she has been given the freedom to imagine what she could be.

According to UNICEF, around 650 million girls globally are living with the consequences of being married before the age of 18, while Pakistan is home to an estimated 19 million child brides. Child marriage remains one of the most painful manifestations of inequality. In parts of rural and tribal Pakistan, marriage is still treated as the expected destination for a girl as though she is simply born to become someone's wife. Poverty, limited access to education, concerns about girls' safety, social pressure and the belief that investing in a son's future matters more than investing in a daughter's can all push families towards early marriage.

It is a question of rights. When a girl is married before she is ready, society does not change her marital status; it changes the course of her childhood. Her right to education, health, protection, participation and economic opportunity becomes harder to exercise when adulthood is imposed on her.

Education is often one of the first rights a girl is asked to give up. When a household struggles financially, families may compromise on a daughter's education before a son. A girl learns early that her dreams can be treated as an expense while her brother's future is seen as an investment. Social pressures can then push her into early marriage, cutting short her education and limiting opportunities to earn an income. Child marriage can therefore close several doors at once, making it harder for her to escape the very poverty once given as the reason for marrying her off.

However, it can expose serious health risks for adolescent mothers due to early pregnancy. UNICEF-PK data shows that 18.3% of women aged 20–24 were married before turning 18, while 3.6% were married before 15. WHO reports that girls under 16 face four times the risk of maternal death compared with women over 20. Child marriage is therefore not only a social and educational issue, but also a public health concern affecting girls and the next generation.

These consequences also connect to the wider gender gap. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2026, Pakistan ranks 143rd out of 145 economies, with 59.5% of its overall gender gap closed. While Pakistan climbed five places from 148th in 2025, it remains among the world's three lowest-ranked countries. Notably, educational parity has reached 91.7%, while economic participation remains at only 36.4%. The contrast is clear: getting girls into education is one part of closing the gender gap, ensuring that education translates into economic independence and decision-making power remains a much larger challenge.

Investing in girls' rights means ensuring access to healthcare, safeguarding their rights and giving them the opportunities to earn, participate and make their own decisions. When we invest in a girl, we are not simply preparing her for a better future, we are giving her the tools to build one on her own terms.

Ending child marriage begins with changing what we have learned to accept as normal for girls. A girl should not have to prove that her education is worth investing in, or that her dreams deserve the same space as her brother's. The goal is not simply to delay marriage, but to give every girl the time, freedom and choice to decide who she wants to become.