Mali: Child marriage a neglected problem

Two years ago, in the western Malian village of Korera-Kore, a 13-year-old girl was forced into marriage during her school summer holiday. She died after complications during sex on her wedding night. This young Malian, whose case was documented by a local organization called the Coordination of Women's Associations and Non-governmental organizations (CAFO), is one of more than 60 million females globally who were married or in union before the age of 18, according to estimates by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Campaigners say forced early marriage, or child marriage, is a problem that has been largely untouched by the international community. In Mali it is considered by the research organization Population Council as "one of the most severe crises of child marriage in the world today"; the few workers in this field say progress is too slow. "It's been a neglected issue," said Naana Otoo-Oyortey, a founding member of the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls, a network of mostly UK-based organizations who campaign against early marriage and violence against women. Otoo-Oyortey said unlike female genital mutilation/cutting, which is prohibited in many international conventions, child marriage receives little visibility and little funding from donors for programs to reduce the practice, despite its link to increased rates of maternal mortality, fistula and HIV/AIDS. In Mali, a girl is legally allowed to wed at the age of 15 with the consent of her parents. In some cases, girls younger than 15 can wed with the authorization of a judge. A government bill that would, among other things, raise the legal age of marriage to 18 has been on the books for five years, but has yet to be passed. In Mali, according to the latest statistics from the 2001 Demographic and Health Survey, 65 percent of women aged 20-24 were married by the age of 18, one of the highest rates in the world. Nationwide, 25 percent of girls were married by the age of 15, and one in 10 married girls aged 15-19 gave birth before age 15. While this marks a decrease since 1987, when 79 percent of Malian women married as children, advocates say the numbers are not dropping fast enough, largely because not enough people are working on the subject. According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth as women aged 20-24. Among girls aged 10-14, the risk is five times greater. Early onset of sexual activity has also been linked to increased risk of HIV/AIDS because child brides are less likely to be educated and more likely to have unprotected sex with older men who have had more sexual partners. Although the Malian government does consider child marriage a form of violence against women, "it's a question of priorities," and right now "female genital cutting is at the top," said Kanté Dandara Touré, national director for the promotion of women at the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and Family, noting that more than 90 percent of Malian women are circumcised.