FORCED CHILD MARRIAGES—AND THE CASE OF NOURA HUSSEIN

The case of Noura Hussein has brought the controversial subject of forced and child marriages to the forefront once again on the world stage. Noura is a Sudanese youth, now nineteen, who was given away in marriage by her family when she was only 15. Shortly after the marriage took place—against the teen’s will—Noura escaped but eventually, after a three-year hiatus, was returned to the custody of her legal husband by the hand of her own father.

Once locked up again in her husband’s home, Noura continued to refuse the physical advances of her imposed spouse. In order to consummate the marriage, according to the young woman’s defense, members of the husband’s family held Noura down while he raped her. When he tried to rape her again on his own the next day, Noura stabbed him to death. Seeking help, Noura returned to her own home, but her family turned her in to the authorities.

Sudan is one of a large number of countries in the world where marital rape is not considered a crime. Nor is forced marriage by older men to girls as young as ten. As such, a Sudanese court has considered the slaying of Noura’s husband to be first degree murder and has sentenced her to death by hanging. Her defense has appealed the sentence in the midst of a massive worldwide campaign seeking clemency or a pardon for the young Sudanese woman, who is seen by women’s rights activists as a victim rather than as a victimizer. A petition circulated by the campaign, sponsored, among others, by numerous celebrities has already gathered over a million signatures.

Noura Hussein’s case is of importance far beyond her personal plight because it draws attention to an unresolved injustice that continues to plague modern society and which has formed part of a major cross-cultural and cross-religious debate for decades. The crux of the discussion involves the continued treating of women as chattel in numerous countries and cultures around the globe.

In a statement issued last month, the worldwide Justice for Noura campaign said, “Noura and indeed the women and girls of Sudan have too often been treated as chattel to be traded and given away as though they are property. Here today, united and in one voice we wish to say—enough!”

Noura Hussein, the 19-year-old sentenced to

hang for killing her imposed, rapist husband.

European Union diplomats posted in Sudan have expressed their “firm opposition” to the death penalty. In making their protest known to the Sudanese government, they cited a principle of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that “marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”

More recently, members of the European Parliament tabled a joint motion on the case. They point to the million signatures gathered on the Justice for Noura petition, and claim Sudanese authorities have sought to intimidate her attorneys, a move that “represents an attack on the fair trial process.” The draft for the EU motion on the case mentions the Human Development Index and the UN's Gender Inequality Index in both of which Sudan ranks 165^th out of 188 countries, despite a provision in the Sudanese Constitution guaranteeing that “the state shall protect women from injustice and promote gender equality.”

After an official visit to Sudan last February, Pramila Patten, the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said that while “there is a deep-seated culture of denial of sexual violence in Sudan...forced marriage, marital rape and gender-based violence are considered normal, (and) all these forms of violence are justified by citing grounds of tradition, culture and religion.” 

But although Sudanese society is a major offender when it comes to forced child marriages—with more than a third of all women there being married off before the age of 18 and seven percent of all girls being induced to marry before the age of 15—it is not, by far, the only country where this happens, nor is it even the one where the practice is most prevalent. In Bangladesh, for instance, 18 percent of all girls are bound over in marriage before the age of 15 and 52 percent are wives by the age of 18. And Brazil has a higher percentage of child brides than Sudan as well, with 11 percent of all girls being married by the time they reach 15 and 36 percent before they turn 18. In the Central African Republic, nearly a third of all girls are married off by age 15 and two-thirds by the time they reach 18. In Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Uganda and Malawi, more than 40 percent (in some cases the figure is well over 50 percent) of all girls are married before their eighteenth birthdays.

It seems shocking that while there have long been small pockets of concern for the rights of so-called child brides and despite the existence of groups that advocate change, concrete measures at government and multi-lateral levels have been conspicuous by their absence until quite recently, and even now, implementation of measures to halt this practice is advancing on a very limited basis. For example, it wasn’t until four years ago that the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution against child, early and forced marriages.

On the upside of that clearly tardy UN resolution is the fact that it recognizes the correlation between these types of marriages and the violation of the individual’s basic human rights. It states specifically that such practices “prevent individuals from living their lives free from all forms of violence” and adds that this type of marriage “has adverse consequences on the enjoyment of human rights such as the right to education (and) the right to the attainment of the highest standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health.”  The 2013 resolution called on the General Assembly to make the elimination of forced marriage part of its discussion surrounding post-2015 development goals. But the search for any real change in this sense clearly remains incipient and anemic.

The increasing inclusion of forced and, especially, child marriages within the context of debates on global development would be of noteworthy importance, given that underdevelopment and the violation of women’s basic rights tend to go hand in hand. This is true, in part, because increased development tends to bring with it higher economic and social standards resulting from better education and decreasing poverty levels. This is the point at which economic and social improvement tend to overlap and prompt cultural change.

In this sense, it should be noted that forced and child marriages are quite often the direct result of poverty, with parents frequently handing their female children over to wealthier, usually much older men in exchange for pardoned debts or other sorts of economic  compensation. Running counter to this is the dowry system in which eligible bachelors are paid dowries (compensation in property or money) by a girl’s parents in arranged marriages that are considered beneficial to both families involved, but that seldom take the girl’s own aspirations or desires into account.

The basic controversy regarding forced and child marriages is over the clash between “religious and social traditions” and the rights—both human and civil—of the individual. Even more importantly, forming part of the main lines of debate in this controversy is whether religion and tradition can preclude and supersede the morally obligatory and internationally recognized duty of society to protect children’s rights. That said, advanced nations like the US and Canada have often seemed reluctant to intervene in the “religious and social traditions” of some of their immigrant communities for fear of appearing discriminatory or racist. Realistically, however, by the standards of modern civilized Western society, the procedures that go into the making of a forced marriage include criminally prosecutable offenses including kidnapping, assault, battery, and reiterated rape, as well as pedophilia and the sexual abuse minors.

Furthermore, one might consider any wedding of a minor to a person of legal age to be a “forced marriage”, since children under the age of legal competence are not legally responsible and so, even if they “agree” to such a marital contract, society should protect them from themselves by challenging the legality of such a union. Be that as it may, many states in the US, for example, don’t stipulate any specific legal age for marriage whatsoever, as long as parental and/or judicial consent is given for the wedding to take place. And of those which do stipulate a limit, it is often shockingly low.

In general, in the fifty states—with the exception of Mississippi where the age of marital consent is 21—people can marry legally at 18. However, with parental and/or judicial consent, and under specific circumstances, the marriage of children—usually girls—is possible in some states as early as 14 years of age, and in the majority of states, teens can marry, with parental and/or judicial consent, between the ages of 15 and 17.

Recent studies allege that hundreds of Pakistani girls living in New York City are victims of forced marriage. In these cases, the victims have most often been flown out of New York to Pakistan to undergo the marriages there. Those who resist are frequently threatened and coerced. There are advocacy groups, however, that are seeking to stop this practice and that are directing girls in this situation to social institutions and law enforcement to help them escape this fate.

Members of the homegrown US Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints have also been suspected of trafficking underage women across state lines, as well as across the US–Canada and US–Mexico borders, for the purpose of involuntary polygamous marriages and sexual abuse. Canadian police make it clear that, despite the religious overtones, this in essence constitutes “human trafficking in connection with illicit sexual activity.” But while the activities of these fundamentalist Mormons have sparked changes in laws in both the US and Canada, surprisingly few cases have resulted in firm charges against the perpetrators.

Canada, meanwhile, has been a leading advocate and supporter for efforts to address child marriage internationally. Nevertheless, anti-child marriage activists explain that marriage laws vary among Canadian provinces and territories. While the legal age of marriage is generally 18, in many provinces, a person with consent from both parents can be married at age 16 or 17. In an interview with Canadian Television (CTV), activist Saadya Hamdani, explained that such exceptions (like those cited in the US as well) can lead to forced marriage because the bride’s consent is not explicitly sought. Rather, it is her parents who have to give their consent and within the veil of secrecy surrounding these types of cultural and religious traditions, such exceptions may lead to parents forcing their daughters into matrimony.

“The cultural value that is attached to marriage is a very big problem,” Hamdani told CTV.

According to a South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario report published in September of 2013, there were 219 confirmed or suspected cases of forced marriage in Ontario and Quebec from 2010 to 2012. In 57 percent of those cases, the minors involved were also taken out of the country to get married and were then often brought back in by their imposed spouses.

That said, Canada has played a vital role in drawing attention to the problem and was highly active in seeking passage of the UN resolution mentioned earlier. It wasn’t until 2015, however, that Canada enshrined its anti-forced marriage stance in law, typifying two new criminal offences. As a result, forcing a person to marry against her will is now a felony in Canada, as is aiding and abetting child marriage. The legislation also describes as a legal offense the “solemnizing” of forced unions once they have taken place.  

This last is noteworthy, since despite the fact that many countries have laws setting legal age limits for marriage, a recent study from the Pew research center shows that these laws are often ignored and that not enough is done to rigorously enforce them, especially after the fact.

The activist group known as Girls Not Brides has brought together the collective expertise of more than 150 member organizations, partners and other experts to develop a Theory of Change aimed at mapping out the critical strategies to end child marriage and to provide effective support to married girls. The group posits that in order to halt the multiple abuses encompassed in forced child marriage, accountability is key. Every segment of the international and local communities, the group indicates, has a role to play in ending forced and child marriages.

Girls Not Brides adds that ending child marriage and supporting married girls will require serious and intensive work in four major areas: empowering girls and women, mobilizing families and entire communities, providing necessary and effective services, and establishing and enforcing laws and policies to bring an end to the practice.

No matter what the final outcome of the trial of Noura Hussein for the slaying of her imposed spouse and erstwhile rapist might be, the nightmare that she is going through right now is the direct result of the abhorrent and immoral practice of forced child marriage, and her tragic case has brought this topic to world attention. There are no grounds of tradition or religion that can possibly supersede the sanctity of basic human rights, or that can justify the kidnapping, enslavement and sexual abuse of women, as defined in universal treaties and global law.

Forced marriage, and particularly the forced marriage of minors is not a tradition or a religious rite. It is a criminal act and should be treated at such around the world. It is time to stop ignoring and overlooking it and for international and local organizations and agencies to start taking full responsibility for the protection and sheltering of girls and young women. More importantly, it is time for them to quit giving mere lip service to women’s rights and to gender equality and to effectively start doing something about them.