Yet in Pakistan, girls are denied
this basic right every day due to crippling poverty, sexual harassment,
violence or child marriage.
In fact, in Pakistan, one in four
girls is forced to marry before she reaches the age of 18, robbing girls of
their right to go to school. Once wed they are expected to work at home and
look after the family, much like Faridah (not her real name).
I met Faridah at one of Plan International’s projects in
Pakistan. Forced to drop out of school age 12, Faridah’s family convinced her
to marry an older man when she was 15. Faridah was keen to return to school,
but her husband’s answer was not what she hoped.
“My husband became angry, he beat
me, argued with me and refused to let me go. He says, ‘What’s the point in
educating girls? There’s no point because it’s the boys who get the jobs’,”
said Faridah.
Sadly, Faridah’s story is not
uncommon and it is one of the catalysts that encourage me and my colleagues at
Plan, a children’s charity, in Pakistan to campaign for an end to child
marriage.
A glimmer of hope has now turned
into a glow, as a law was recently passed by the Sindh Assembly, declaring
marriage below the age of 18 punishable by law.
In the case of underage marriage,
the parents, bride and groom can all be sentenced to three years in prison and
fined 45,000 Pakistani rupees ($456) according to the bill. The law is
applicable now only in the Sindh province for all marriages that take place in
Sindh irrespective of the girl’s origins. If the bride and groom are both
children, they are not held liable.
For Plan, this is a
groundbreaking achievement, not least because we worked closely with the local
government to ensure this bill became a reality, but because Sindh has highest
rate of child marriage in any province in Pakistan.
Now, as we await the Governor’s
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