Lebanese and Syrian underage girls speak up

In its edition of today, Al Hayat daily exposed the dilemma of child marriages widely common in rural and disadvantaged areas in the various towns and cities in Lebanon. The problem, the newspaper wrote, has exacerbated with the inflow of Syrian refugees at the start of the war in the neighboring country. Al Hayat cited a survey prepared in 2014 by Saint Joseph University USJ which indicated that around 17.35% of girls have married before the age of 18. The newspaper published stories of a number of early marriage victims who spoke up about their demise. Amina, a Lebanese girl, was forced by her father to marry a well-off man when she was only 15 years to save her family from debts. Amina who had no idea about married life grieved that all the promises by her husband vanished with her marriage contract. She recounted how her husband practiced on her all forms of moral abuse and physical violence, recalling how she wanted abortion but continued to be pregnant. Today, Amina is 20, and her only goal is to protect her daughter from backward mentalities. Another victim, Sanaa, a displaced Syrian girl (14 years), described to the newspaper reporter how she returned home from school one day to find out that her father has decided to marry her to a man in his fifties because he could not take care of her anymore. On the subject, social expert Nawal Khury underlined the main cause of the lingering of similar incidents which is the absence of a declared official age for marriage in Lebanese laws. Besides, male chauvinist mentality still prevalent in many Lebanese communities considers the marriage of children as an essential part of the inherited customs and traditions. Khury recommended a solution to alleviate the phenomenon which is the adoption of a civil personal status law along with setting a clear age for marriage which is the minimum legal age of consent. (Al Hayat, August 4, 2016)