Lahore:
Lahore: In Pakistan, men have priority about women in almost all questions. Male guests will be seated first during a family dinner, male students will be selected for distinctions and scholarships while male candidates will be conventionally prioritized by recruiters. However, there is a question where society has ironically sanctioned women to have priority; The age at which their childhood can be sacrificed in the name of culture.
In accordance with the 2015 law on the retention of the Punjab marriage (amendment), the minimum age of marriage for boys is set at 18 years while girls could be married at the age of 16. In April 2024, the High Court of Lahore judged that the minimum age of marriage for boys and girls should be 18 years old. Following this decision, the Punjab government wrote a law on children’s marriage question, to increase the age of the consent of girls at the age of 18, however, the legislation remains to be finalized.
Nabila Shaheen, provincial coordinator of the Foundation Aurat, said that although family customs are the main reason for early marriages, they also include a religious element to some extent. “However, religious opposition should not be an obstacle in this legislation, because the minimum age of girls’ marriage has also been set at 18 years in the Sindh. Therefore, I believe that the political parties themselves are responsible for not adopting this legislation, “said Shaheen.
“Various socio-legal and religious difficulties increase the minimum age of consent for a girl from 16 to 18 years old in Punjab. Poverty and illiteracy in rural areas promote children’s marriage, as families try to reduce their financial charge by marrying their daughters. At the state level, the pressure of religious groups and certain feudal legislators may have prevented the government from solving this problem, “said Nida Usman, lawyer and founder of the law initiative.
On the other hand, Hina Pervaiz Butt, president of the Women Protection Authority Punjab, said that the Punjab government was in favor of increasing the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for girls, but the case was in dispute to the Council of Islamic Ideology. “I personally think that even 18 years old is too young to get married for a girl, but if the consensus is at this age, then it should be implemented,” said Butt who urged the Islamic Ideology Council for Islamic Ideology Understand the problems resulting from children’s marriages.
According to Pakistan of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), girls who get married early are more at risk of domestic violence and health problems, including high -risk pregnancies, fistula, sexually transmitted infections and delivery complications. According to health experts, due to early marriages, multiple complications of health occur during childbirth, because the body of the female child is underdeveloped and cannot bear the burden of childbirth. This significantly contributes to high maternal and child mortality rates.
United Nations reports say that 50% of women in Pakistan are married at the age of 19, while 13% are married at the age of 15. As a result, 9% of girls aged 15 to 19 have become mothers. Although it may seem that child weddings would be less widespread in the Sindh, where the minimum age of marriage is set at 18 for the two boys, minor girls continue to be married before their legal age.
Recently, “climatic weddings” have become an important challenge, with 45 minor girls married in a single village in Dadu during monsoon rains last year. According to data provided by the Sindh police inspector to the Sindh House service, 57 children’s wedding cases were recorded in eight Sindh districts between 2018 and 2023, with the greatest number of cases, 21, reported by Dadu.
The situation is much worse in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where, to date, no effective legislation could be designed to protect minor girls from children’s marriages. According to local reports, practice continues to seduce minor girls in the province, where a total of 153 children’s marriage cases were reported between May 2011 and December 2023 in 12 districts, while countless other people remain unknown .
L’Express PK Press Club tried to reach out to Dr Raghiba Naemimi, president of the Islamic Ideology Council, but he chose not to answer. On the other hand, Qibla Ayaz, former president of the Council, conceded that in the current context, child weddings were problematic.
“Awareness of the public must be noted on children’s weddings so that the parents themselves avoid the marriage of their daughters at a young age. Even if I consider the appropriate current age, legally, it is not correct for everyone to apply this condition. Instead of changing the law, it is necessary to take measures to contest culture, ”said Ayaz.
