Child bride figures in Jordan still ‘very high’ — SIGI president

AMMAN — Yemeni activist Nada Ahdal was only 10 years old when her family told her that she would be “tying the knot” with a man over twice her age.

“I would have rather died than get married at the age of 10 to a man who was 26 years old… my only solution was to escape, and I did,” Ahdal said.

The young activist, who formed the Nada Foundation for protecting children from child marriages in 2018, was speaking at Solidarity Is Global Institute (SIGI) during a Wednesday event titled "Marrying Children from a Human Rights Perspective".

Ahdal told the gathering that the person she was to marry was supposed to marry her sister, but that her sister "burnt herself in protest of the marriage”, so her family decided that “I would be his bride”.

“My family tried to convince me to get married by telling me only the positive things and not the negative factors, including the fact that I am a child who is not ready to get married,” Ahdal added.

The young woman, who is now 16, said that she escaped to one of her uncles' house, seeking his help. "He did help me, otherwise I would have been forced to get married and probably would have ended up killing myself," she said.

Ahdal said she decided to film a short video about her ordeal and publish it on YouTube.

“The video garnered eight million viewers in no time and was translated into dozens of languages, which helped raise awareness about the dangers of early marriages,” she added.

However, Ahdal's struggles were not over. She was imprisoned twice in 2013 after publishing the video, and was later abducted by Al Qaeda terror group in 2015 for 14 days while attempting to leave Yemen to continue her education and activism work.

“I do not encourage any girl to escape from her home and I wish instead that the families would protect their children rather than push them to get married at a young age,” Ahdal added.

According to the Girls not Brides website, one in five girls in the world are said to be married before 18, while 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 every year and over 650 million women alive today were married as children.

“I will fight early marriage until the last day of my life… since I got the chance to live, I want to give this chance other girls who might be subjected to forced marriage, and raise awareness among families regarding this dangerous and unjust practice,” Ahdal said.

The legal age for marriage in Jordan is 18 for both men and women, but the law allows for several exceptions for girls aged 15 and above if a judge deems it is in their best interests.

According to the Chief Islamic Justice Department’s official statistics, there were 77,700 marriage contracts issued in 2017, of which 10,434 (an average of around 30 per day) involved marriages in which the wife was under the age of 18.

SIGI Executive President Asma Khader also spoke during the event, saying that, due to the efforts of the women’s movement and changes in some of Jordan's laws, 8,000 girls under 18 were wed in Jordan last year, a decrease from previous years.

“We still consider these figures to be very high, and we have to keep calling for the proper use of restrictions, since early marriage is very dangerous to girls' health and will surely result in them halting their education, among other forms of violence that they could endure,” Khader told the gathering.

President of the Amman branch of the Jordanian Women’s Federation Kaltham Mreish echoed Khader’s concerns, saying that Jordanian law considers any individual under 18 a child.

“Under-18 individuals cannot obtain a licence or open a bank account among other things, but then there are laws that allow them to get married and start a family. This is contradictory and in violation of several international conventions,” Mreish said.

The president added that girls who get married under 18 “will surely drop out of school”, and “the restrictions of the law here do not protect her”.

“I have been in contact with several school officials and they informed me that no school will accept a married child because she might give different ideas to other young girls,” Mresih explained.

Mreish called for addressing and tackling the issues that encourage the practice of child marriage, such as poverty and lack of awareness about the dangers of such marriages.

“The government should also enforce restrictions that prevent early marriage in Jordan, and at the same time provide health services for girls who are put in this situation and raise awareness among the families about the negative ramifications of such unions,” Khader added.