Such factors increase vulnerability of young brides. They face gender
based violence in each and every day of their married life. In addition to
this, there are also imminent hazards that await them during child birth - obstetric
complications like fistula. Furthermore, such young girls are also faced by a
huge challenge of illiteracy as they get married before they even reach senior
classes of their primary school education.
Usually, the young girls do not get married out of their own free
will, they are coerced to do so. This generally deprives off an individual’s right
to almost everything.
In the northern parts of Malawi there are practices like “Chitomero” (betrothal), whereby parents
and families discuss marriage arrangements of a young girl without her consent
let alone her knowledge. In addition to this, there is “Nthena” (Bonus wife) which is practiced in the Southern Region of
Malawi, more especially in the Shire Valley whereby the most favored son-in law
is given the younger sister of wife as a reward for being a good so-in-law
without the bride’s consent.
Forced marriages are a threat to the development of young children who
later grow into adults. It is sad to note that such harmful cultural practices continue
to exist despite several efforts and interventions to abolish them. For
instance, the Malawi Constitution, Chapter 22, Sub Section (4) prohibits forced
marriages but most of these human rights violations go unreported.
The reasons why parents and relatives of young girls still hold on to
the custom of forcing young girls into marriages could be narrowed down to one
or two factors- the need for material gains and preservation of social status and what is loosely
called respect. This occurs when a girl gets pregnant outside wedlock and as
such the parents force her to marry the responsible man before the community
realizes that she got pregnant outside marriage.
