Child brides take Zimbabwe government to court over marriage laws
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) Two former child brides have cheap Canada Goose taken Zimbabwe government to court in a ground breaking bid to get child marriages declared illegal and unconstitutional.
Loveness Mudzuru canada goose uk shop and canada goose online shop Ruvimbo Tsopodzi say child marriage, which is rife in Zimbabwe, is a form of child abuse canada goose coats which traps girls in canada goose uk black friday lives of poverty and suffering.
faced so many challenges. My husband beat me. I wanted to stay in school but he refused. It buy canada goose jacket cheap was Canada Goose Online very, very terrible, said Tsopodzi, a mother of one, Canada Goose Coats On Sale who was married at 15.
want to take this action to make a difference, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Harare on Tuesday. are a Canada Goose Outlet lot of children getting married.
Data published last year indicates one third uk canada goose outlet of girls in Zimbabwe cheap canada goose uk marry before their 18th birthday and 5 percent before they turn 15.
Child marriage deprives girls of education and opportunities, jeopardises their health and increases the risks of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and death or serious injury in childbirth.
In their https://www.canadagooseoutleta.com statements to the Constitutional Court, Tsopodzi and Mudzuru, now 19 and 20, say Zimbabwe Marriage Act is discriminatory because it sets the minimum age at 16 for girls and 18 for boys. The Customary Marriage Act Canada Goose Jackets sets no minimum age.
They say the law should be brought into line with Zimbabwe 2013 constitution as well as regional and international treaties banning child marriage.
The 2013 constitution canada goose clearance sale says every child under 18 has the right to parental care, education and protection from and sexual exploitation
It does not set a canada goose coats on sale minimum marriage age, but states that no one should be forced to marry against their will and indicates canada goose that 18 is the minimum age for starting a family.
VICIOUS CIRCLE Poverty is the driving force canadian goose jacket behind child canada goose clearance marriage in Zimbabwe. Parents often marry girls off so they have canada goose black friday sale one less mouth to feed. Dowry payments may be a further incentive.
Some communities also see child marriage as a way of protecting girls from having premarital sex.
In her affidavit, Mudzuru described how child marriage and poverty create a vicious circle.
girls who marry early and often in poor families are then forced to produce Canada Goose sale young children in a sea of poverty and the cycle begins again, she stated.
Mudzuru, who was married at 16 and canada goose store had two canada goose factory sale children before she was 18, said her life was and she spent her days trapped in drudgery.
life is really tough. Raising a child when you are a child yourself is hard, she Canada Goose Parka said by phone from her Canada Goose online home in Harare. should be going canada goose uk outlet to school.
The girls lawyer, former finance minister Tendai Biti, presented uk canada goose the legal challenge in January.
Beatrice Savadye, who heads rights group ROOTS which is buy canada goose jacket backing the ground breaking case, said it had generated a lot of interest both inside Zimbabwe and in other countries in the region.