Description
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1:2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
1:3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
1:4 SCOPE OF STUDY
1:5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
1:6 LITERATURE REVIEW
1:7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1:8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
NOTE AND REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWO: CONCEPT OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN ISLAM
2.1 DEFINITION OF EARLY MARRIAGE
2:2 EARLY MARRIAGE IN PRE-MODERN TIME
2.2.1 EARLY MARRIAGE JUDAISM
2.2.2 EARLY MARRIAGE IN CHRISTIANITY
2.2.3 EARLY MARRIAGE IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA (JAHILIYAH)
2.2.4 EARLY MARRIAGE IN OTHER CIVILIZATION
2.3 EARLY MARRIAGE IN ISLAM
2.4 MEDICAL VIEW ON EARLY MARRIAGE
2.5 ISLAMIC INJUNCTIONS ON EARLY MARRIAGE
NOTE REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE: CHALLENGES OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN ISLAM
3.1 GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION OF ISLAM
3.2 THE PRACTICE OF ISLAM IN ILORIN
3.3 PRACTICE OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN ISLAM
3.4 CHALLENGES
3.5 PROSPECTIVE
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION
4.1 SUMMARY
4.2 OBSERVATION
4.3 RECOMMENDATION
4.4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE
REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
According to WHO (2019), globally 39,000 girls under the age of 18 years are married daily and 14.2 million girls annually [WHO, 2019]. More than 700 million women alive worldwide were married before age 18 [UNICEF, 2019]. The highest prevalence of girl-child or early marriage is in Africa [UNICEF, 2019]. Early marriage violates the human rights of the girl-child, increases her risk of maternal morbidity and mortality, and robs her of educational and developmental opportunities [Santhya, 2011]. There is a global consensus to end girl-child marriage and Target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations” by 2030 [UNDP, 2019]. Ending girl-child marriage has the potential to contribute to eight SDGs, including those addressing poverty (goal 1), good health and well-being (goal 3), inclusive and quality education (goal 4), gender equality (goal 5), and economic growth (goal 8) [Sustainable Development Goals, 2019].
Nigeria, with over 3.5 million under-18 girls currently married has the highest number of child brides in Africa [UNICEF, 2019] and the third highest number in the world. The rate of child marriage varies significantly by geo-political zones in Nigeria, ranging from 39.0% to 67.6% for the Northern zones compared to the much lower rates of 13.9-21.6% for the Southern zones [UNICEF, 2019]. Girl-child marriage rate in Nigeria has not improved over the years with only a 1% decline in over three decades. Whereas Nigeria passed the Child Rights Act that prohibits marriage below the age of 18 in 2003, 12 Northern states (out of 36 states) are yet to domesticate the Act. If the current pattern continues, Nigeria’s population of child bride is expected to double by 2050 [UNICEF, 2019].
Globally, child marriage is associated with inequitable gender norms, which are deeply engrained in local socio-cultural context and associated with poverty, low educational level and rural location. Surprisingly, very few peer-reviewed research has been published on child marriage in Nigeria and most are small-scale studies lacking rigorous analysis of the determinants. In particular, very few studies on girl-child marriage have examined the role of ethnicity – a representation of local practices/values and a sociological marker of cultural diversities [National Population Commission Nigeria, 2019].
Ethnicity is particularly important in the context of Nigeria – a nation with 374 identifiable ethnic groups with substantial variation in ethnic cultural beliefs and practices. Nigeria’s ethnic groups include the three major ones – Hausa (30%) concentrated in the North, Yoruba (15.5%) in the South-West, Igbo (15.2%) in the South-East, and several ethnic minority groups – Fulani (6%), Tiv (2.4%), Kanuri/Beriberi (2.4%) in the North, and Ibibio (1.8%), Ijaw (1.8%) in the South-South, and many others accounting for 24.7% [Central Intelligent Agency, 2010]. In Nigeria, ethnicity has remained a major underlying factor associated with many health-related and social behaviours, including risky sexual behaviour, poor contraceptive uptake or discontinuation of use, poor maternal healthcare utilization, female genital mutilation, intimate partner’s violence and so many others [Adedini SA, 2015]. Despite being an important sociological marker of cultural diversities, the role of ethnicity on child marriage has not been sufficiently ascertained in empirical studies in Nigeria. Interplaying with religious beliefs, the multi-ethnic setting of the country serves as a predisposition for varied marital ideologies that tend to portend health risk for a girl-child.
Nigeria is also a multi-religious society with three major divisions – Islam (53.5%), Christianity (45.9%), adherents of Nigeria’s indigenous religions and others (6.0%) [Adedini SA, 2015]. Religious beliefs have a significant role in shaping gender-related behaviours and practices. Nigeria’s geo-political zones, interestingly, are characterised by an interplay of religion and cultural values; religion may be associated with the sociocultural framing of gender norms and girl-child marriage practices. Though not limited to one religious group, available evidence reveals that child marriage is more prevalent in Muslim communities [Sisters in Islam, 2018]. This is associated with the belief among the conservative Muslims that Quran allows girl’s marriage at any age, and Prophet Muhammad’s wife was nine years at marriage. In Nigeria, the Northern States refusing domestication of Nigeria’s Child Right Act are Muslim dominated and are reacting to protect their ethno-religious standpoint on child marriage. There are however a contrary perspective by other Muslims who argue that a girl-child should attain puberty and emotional maturity before marriage [Sisters in Islam, 2018].
Though higher level of education, socioeconomic status, and urban residence are precursors for reducing child marriage practice [Ayiga N, 2013], variations subsist due to ethnic and religious differences. For example, in Malaysia, despite the country’s economic progress and high educational level, child marriage practice remains high and is underpinned in religious and traditional beliefs [Ayiga N, 2013]. In Nigeria, educated Hausa/Fulani girls may not have the same risk of child marriage as educated Yoruba or Igbo counterparts. However, there is need for empirical evidence indicating whether educated adolescents or those who share some other specific socioeconomic characteristics have the same risk of child marriage across ethnic and religious affiliations in Nigeria.
To date, the available peer-reviewed publications have hardly rigorously examined and explained, either singly or jointly, the influence of ethnic and religious beliefs on girl-child marriage (also known as early marriage) in Nigeria. This study aims to address the issue of early marriage among the muslims in Ilorin metropolis.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Birth,marriage anddeatharethe standardtrioof key events inmostpeople’s lives.But only one – marriage – is a matter ofchoice. The righttoexercisethatchoicewas recognized as a principle of law evenin Romantimes andhas long been establishedininternationalhumanrightsinstruments. Yetmanygirls,andasmallernumberofboys,entermarriagewithoutanychanceofexercisingtheirrighttochoose.Some are forced into marriage at a veryearlyage.Othersaresimplytooyoungtomakeaninformeddecisionabouttheirmarriage partner or about the implicationsof marriage itself.Theymayhavegiven whatpassesfor‘consent’intheeyesofcustomorthelaw,butinreality,consenttotheirbindingunionhasbeenmadebyothersontheirbehalf.
The assumption is that once a girl ismarried, she has become a woman – evenif she is only 12. Equally, where a boy ismade to marry, he is now a man and mustput away childish things. While the age ofmarriage is generally on the rise, earlymarriage – marriage of children and adolescentsbelowtheageof18–isstillwidelypractised.
Whileearlymarriagetakesmanydifferentformsandhasvariouscauses,oneissueisparamount.Whetherithappenstoagirlor a boy, early marriage is a violation ofhumanrights.Therighttofreeandfullconsent to a marriage is recognized in the1948UniversalDeclarationofHumanRights(UDHR)andinmanysubsequenthumanrights instruments –consentthatcannotbe‘freeandfull’whenatleastonepartnerisveryimmature. Forbothgirlsandboys,earlymarriagehasprofoundphysical,intellectual,psychologicalandemotionalimpacts,cuttingoff educationalopportunityandchancesofpersonalgrowth.Forgirls,inaddition,itwillalmostcertainly meanpremature pregnancyandchildbearing,andislikelytoleadtoalife-timeofdomesticandsexualsubservienceoverwhichtheyhavenocontrol.Yetmanysocieties,primarilyinAfrica(Nigeria) precisely in ilorin metropolis, continue to support theidea that girls should marry at or soon afterpuberty.Theirspousesarelikelytobeafew yearsolderthantheyare,butmaybemorethan twice their age. Parents and heads offamilies make marital choices for daughtersand sons with little regard for the personalimplications. Rather, they look upon marriage as a family-building strategy, an economic arrangement or a way to protect girlsfromunwelcomesexualadvances. This study was carried out to address the issue of early marriage in ilorin metropolis.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this study investigates the prevalence and the influence of religious affiliation on the early marriage among female adolescents in Ilorin metropolis Nigeria.
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
This work discuses how the centrality ofreligioninNigeriaenablesreligiousinstitutionsandleaderstoexercise considerable influence regarding the timing of marriage ofadolescent girls.
This study looks atthe reasons forthe perpetuation of early marriage, and its possible increase in populations under stress. A key factor is poverty, with the marriage ofchildren often seen as a strategy for economic survival. In addition, it is perceived as away to protect girls and to provide some stability in situations where societies are underextremepressure.
Thisstudyfocusesonmarriagesthattakeplace under the age of 18 – the upper agelimitforprotectionunderthe1989Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC). It examines early marriage from thehuman rights perspective in order to offerguidelines for much-needed analysis andaction. The CRC and the 1979 ConventionontheEliminationofallformsofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW)provide the foundation for such a perspective, which requires a holistic approach toearlymarriage.Thismeansexaminingevery implication of the practice, from itslimitationuponpersonal freedomtoitsimpactuponhealthandeducation.
There is also a deliberate attempt tofocus on unions that are recognized eitherin statutory or customary law as marriages, rather than informal or consensualunions. This study looks at the bindingness of marriage and what this means forthose who are married too young, againsttheir bestinterests, and withouttheireffectiveconsent.
While boys are affected by early marriage, this is an issue that impacts upongirlsinfarlargernumbersandwithmore intensity. Inmanysocieties, adolescencemeans an opening up of opportunity forboys, whereas for girls it often means aclosing down of opportunity and personalfreedom.The experience for boys is,therefore,lesslikelytobeasexploitativeor physically harmful as it is for girls. Asthe table on married adolescents belowshows, even in those societies where earlymarriage is common, very few boys underage 19entermarriagecomparedtogirls.This unequal division of power in marriage is likely to be exacerbated where thehusband-wife age gap is wide. This Digestfocuses mainly therefore, on the implicationsofearlymarriageforgirls.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Understanding the negative impact of early marriage will motivate one to look for solution to it, such as, Countless reports report has been received of complications and even death in pregnancy and childbirth of wives tooyoung to safely bear children. Many child wives are seen in Ilorin who should be in school or playing, working in near slave-like conditions in the homes of their in-laws. Large numbers of children,particularly girls, whodropout of school because of early marriage. Many married women of allages cannoteven read because theyhadtoleave school earlytobemarried.
The study offers positive guidelines to end the practice of early marriage. Wemust work tochangeattitudes in families andin societies atlarge, extend opportunitiesfor childhood learning and education, offer appropriate support to families and children,and seek to have all children – girls and boys – recognised as valuable members of societyratherthaneconomicburdens.Our intention is to raise awareness of the situation and, where necessary, to stimulateaction.
1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW
The term “early marriage” is used to refer to both formal marriages and informal unions in which a girl lives with a partner as if married before age of 18 (UNICEF 2005). Similarly, UNIFPA (2006) defines early marriage and child marriage, any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing.
Moreover, the survey done by UNICEF (2014) in a bid to determine the extent of earlymarriage practices had often defined early marriage as the one that refers to a unionentered by partners in which at least one of them are not 18 years old, the upper ageconfine for protection under the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (Brooks2016). It has been established that women under 18 years of age getting married is realin the societies. For instance,UNICEF (2005) in its report indicated marriages ofwomen below age 18 in many parts of the universe are actually initiated and supportedbyparents.Thisisespeciallysobecausemostofthemthinkthatbydoingso,theygetto benefit in terms of finance and social life, hence, getting relief of their family’sfinancial burden. However, this kind of marriages are total contravention of humanrights and hence, the development of the girl child is compromised giving leading theseyoung girls to conceive early in life which ultimately puts them in isolation sociallywithlittleeducationalbackgroundandhencepoorvocationaltrainingwhichisthe reasonforreinforcedgenderedstateofpovertyamongwomen.Althoughsuchmarriages get recognized in statutory or customary law, they constitute informal unionsand from a legal point of view fail to qualify as marriages. This is because minors lackthecapacitytoprovideinformedconsentandthereforecannotenterintoanycontractualrelationships.Generally,theeffects,extentandconsequencesofearlymarriage are many and varied. A research carried out by Santhya and Jejeebhoy (2015)among 655 young people in Germany and Canada on adolescents’ health and humanrights postulated that early marriages led to girls getting pregnant before maturity andthus, there was high risk of pregnancy and childbirth related complications. There wasan increased risk of deaths or very severe and long lasting problems including obstetricfistulaamong girls whoarein theirearlyandmiddle adolescentstage.
A survey done by Xu et al., (2013).reported that chances of childhood brides gettingthe required medical attention while pregnant and in child delivery is very low whencompared to those that do so in a later stage. Combining lack of motherly experienceswith physical immaturity of the girls together with poor or lack of suitable medical carewhile pregnant and during child bearing places mothers who are in their adolescencestageatahigherriskofgettingcomplicationsduringmaturationandeventuallydelivery and this includes having a prolonged or even an obstructed labor, fistula anddeathtothisextent,earlypregnancyhaspredisposedmanyyounggirlstodeath.Consequently, World Health Organization, WHO (2014) pointed out that complicationsresulting from pregnancy and childbearing among the adolescents of age 15-19 in theworld is the number two cause of deaths, where about 70,000 adolescents die everysingleyear(UNFPA2013). Thisevidenceestimatedthattheriskofdyingasaresultof pregnancy-related causes is four times higher for adolescents under 16 years of agecomparedtowomen in their earlytwenties (UNICEF 2014).
Ordinarily, extent and consequences of early marriage sometimes pose threat to lives.AccordingtoRajandBoehmer(2013)infantsborntoundereighteenmothersfaceupto 60% risk of dying in their first year of life compared to infants born to mothers agedover 19 years old. They asserted that these infants are more likely to be underweight,premature at birth and may experience serious health problems. Mortality rates amongsuch children are reportedly high – sometimes twice those of old peers (UNICEF2001).The extent of early marriage risk are far reaching, the work of Clark (2014) andUNICEF (2009) prescribed that marrying early has also been shown to precipitatechancesofbeinginfectedwithHIV/AIDSandescalationofdomesticviolenceincluding the fact that girls who marry at a tender age are at greater risk of beingbattered, abused and exploited.
In other parts of Africa like Rwanda, the studies by Basiyenge (2010) assert that earlymarriage inevitably denies school age children their right to education. Those who getmarried inevitably get excluded practically from formal education leading to dropoutfrom school. Apart from influencing school completion, early marriage also influencesthestandardofeducationofferedinschool.Ithasbeenestablishedthatinregionswhere early marriages are rampant, education providers are influenced in a negativeway to provide poor quality education. This is due to negative perception that soonfemale students were likely to marry and the education they would have receivedrenderedun-importantbeyondmarriage.Forexample,inastudy,PlanUK(2011), demonstratedthatgirlsreceivelessqualityeducationthanboys.Theyaredeniedscienceand technicalskillsbecausetheirrolewouldbehomemaking.
Moreover, some communities view education as a bad investment since the benefits ofearlymarriageareseentosurpassthoseofeducation.Thisisparticularlysoinrespectto the marriage of girls where families perceive that girls’ education only benefits herhusband’s household and not her own family. This cultural notion ends up denyingeducationtoyoungpeopleinpreferencetoearlymarriagethushamperingcompletionof education. There is evidence that early marriage leads to continuous trend of loweducationachievement.
Lewis,(2006)indicatesthatgirlswhomarrywhenyounginevitably begin child bearing not only early but also bear many children due to poorcontraception knowledge. The likely impact is that uneducated mothers are less able toaffordgoodeducationfortheirchildrenwhoriskdroppingoutofschool,marryingatan early age and beginning the circle. Therefore early marriage is a hindrance to anycommunityworking to improveher education level.
1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In thecourse of carrying this study, numerous sources were used which most of them are by visiting libraries, consulting journal and news papers and online research which Google was the major source that was used.
1.8 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Commensurate: In the right proportion, appropriate.
Contemporary: Of the time or period being referred to. Belonging to the same time.
Education: A process of training and instruction, especially of children and young people on schools, College, etc which is designed to given knowledge and develop skills.
Legitimate: That can be defended
Marriage: A formal, usually legally recognized, agreement between a man and a woman making them husband and wife, the state of being married.
Masculine: having the qualities or appearance considered to be typical of or appropriate for men.
Norms: A standard or pattern, especially of social behaviour, that is typical of a group.
Perspective: A particular attitude towards a point of view.
Populace: The general public, ordinary people
Society: A system in which people live together in organized communities. A community of people living in a particular country or region and having shared customs, laws, organization.An organization of people form for a purpose.
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