By Rural Women Peace Link
Jun 13 2013 (IPS)

Some girls among the Pokot community in western Kenya are bravely defying what is considered cultural and traditional by refusing to be circumcised. More and more mothers, fathers and the women whose job is to do the cutting are beginning to support these girls’ right to bodily integrity.

Girls Take Charge in the Fight to End Female Genital Mutilation

A member of the Mundari tribe stands amongst cattle in Terekeka, South Sudan. Many South Sudanese communities see child marriage as an important way for families to access wealth via the traditional practice of transferring cattle, money, and other gifts through the payment of dowries. Credit: Jared Ferrie/IPS

By Agnes Odhiambo
NAIROBI , Jun 13 2013 (IPS)

Akech B. loved to study and dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when she was 14, her uncle who was raising her forced her to leave school to marry a man Akech described as old and gray-haired. The man paid 75 cows as dowry for Akech. He was already married to another woman with whom he had several children. 

She tried to resist the marriage, still hoping to pursue her dream of nursing. But her uncle told her:  “Girls are born so that people can eat. All I want is to get my dowry.” Her male cousins beat her severely and forced her to go with them to the man’s house.

But Akech fled and hid with a friend. Her uncle found her and took her to prison, where he told officials she had run away from her husband and needed to be taught a lesson. They imprisoned her for a night. When her cousins came for her they beat her so badly that she could hardly walk. Then they took her back to her husband. After that, Akech felt that she had no choice but to stay.

I heard stories like Akech’s over and over again from women and girls whom I interviewed between March and October 2012 in South Sudan, where child marriage is a problem of epidemic proportions.

Almost half of all girls between 15 and 19 in South Sudan are married, according to a government study. Some are as young as 12 when they are married. Girls who try to resist forced marriages may suffer brutal consequences at the hands of their families.

In cases documented by Human Rights Watch, girls were cruelly beaten, verbally abused, and threatened with curses, or taken to the police to coerce them into marriage. In some cases, they were held captive and even murdered by their families.

Many South Sudanese communities see child marriage as being in the best interests of girls and their families. It is seen as an important way for families to access wealth via the traditional practice of transferring cattle, money, and other gifts through the payment of dowries. It is also viewed as a way to protect girls from pre-marital sex and unwanted pregnancy. For some girls, marriage may also be the only way to escape poverty or violence in the home.

But the reality is far from this. Girls who marry young are removed from school, denying them the education needed to provide for themselves and their families.

Reproductive health studies show that young women face greater risks in pregnancy and child birth than older women, including life-threatening obstructed labour due to their smaller pelvises and immature bodies — problems exacerbated by South Sudan’s limited prenatal and postnatal healthcare services.

Child marriage also creates an environment that increases married girls’ vulnerability to physical, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse. This is because early marriage limits their knowledge and skills, resources, social support networks, and autonomy, leaving girls with little power in relation to their husband or his family.

There is increasing acknowledgement of child marriage as a serious human rights problem in South Sudan. The government has taken some steps to tackle child marriage by enacting national laws that have important protections for girls and women on marriage.

There are also efforts to improve girls’ access to education such as through an alternative education system that allows pregnant girls and mothers and individuals who have not had access to formal education, or who have dropped out, to continue school.

However, these measures are insufficient, and are often stymied by a range of problems and limitations. There are gaps and conflicts in the laws designed to protect women and girls from child and forced marriage.

Poor understanding of the provisions of these laws, which is exacerbated by lack of adequate training, poor coordination amongst government ministries responsible for protecting children from abuse, and lack of a clear delegation of responsibilities to specific authorities, perpetuates child marriages and violence against girls who resist them. It also undermines accountability.

There are a number of small ongoing initiatives implemented or funded by local and international organisations, donors, and the government that address aspects of child marriage. However, these efforts are sporadic, uncoordinated, and limited in scope.

As a result of these failures and inadequacies, many women and girls continue to struggle with the often devastating and long-lasting consequences of child marriage.

As South Sudan marks the Day of the African Child on Jun. 16 with the rest of the continent, it should take immediate and long-term steps to protect girls from this harmful practice and ensure the fulfillment of their human rights.

Only a comprehensive approach, which should be set out in a national action plan, will help ensure meaningful progress by the government, its agencies, and development partners in ending child marriage. Such an approach should include legal reforms and programmatic initiatives that address the causes and consequences of child marriage, as well as protection for girls and women who seek redress through the justice system.

It is important for South Sudan to take these measures because child marriage constrains the social, educational, health, security, and economic progress of women and girls, their families, and their communities. Failure to combat child marriage is likely to have serious implications for the future development of South Sudan.

* Agnes Odhiambo is the Africa researcher for women at Human Rights Watch

Jane Meriwas (l) addresses women from the Samburu community, in Kipsing Plains in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, about harmful cultural practices. Courtesy: Jane Meriwas

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI , Jun 11 2013 (IPS)

When she was nine years old, Jane Meriwas, a Samburu from the Kipsing Plains in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, was considered of no use by her father. After all, nine of his goats had been eaten by hyenas under her watch.

But there was a chance that she could still redeem herself by being a second, third or fourth wife to an old man and earn her father more goats than the ones the hyenas had devoured.

“I went to school by chance. Having proven to be a poor herder, my father dumped me in school to bide my time till a suitable suitor came along,” Meriwas tells IPS.

“Of course school meant sitting under a tree. This cost my father nothing; a Catholic priest took care of the expenses,” she adds.

“Among the pastoralist community, ours was an unusual family,” Meriwas says of the family she was born into. Her parents only had two children – both of them girls. “But my father never married a second wife, even when my mother died.” “The change is slow, but is happening.” -- Lolonju Lerukati

The Samburu are closely related to, but distinct from, the Maasai tribe of Kenya. While the Samburu account for only 1.6 percent of the country’s entire population of 41.6 million people, they have gained notoriety for their firm grasp on a long list of harmful cultural practices performed on girls, which include crude forms of abortion.

Lolonju Lerukati, a Samburu activist who speaks out against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in pastoralist communities, tells IPS: “The Samburu girl child has cried for help for far too long, and in keeping with this year’s theme (of the Day of the African Child, Jun. 16) to eliminate harmful cultural practices that affect children, society must heed her cry.”

Lerukati says that it is unfortunate that in this day and age, a girl born into the Samburu community has little chance, if any, of escaping FGM, an early marriage, crude forms of abortion, and multiple births before her 18th birthday, or of acquiring an education.

At the age of 12, Meriwas did not escape FGM; after all, the Samburu’s FGM practice rate is 100 percent, according to the most recent Kenya Health and Demographic Survey (KHDS). This is despite the fact that the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2010 outlaws FGM in Kenya.

But attending school saved Meriwas from an early marriage. Upon completing college, rather than seek employment, she went back to her community to create awareness against the Samburu’s harmful cultural practices, and has been speaking out against the ills meted out on girls in her community for the last 10 years.

She has a reputation as a local rights activist and has started the Samburu Women for Education and Environment Development Organisation, which pays for the education of a handful of girls rescued from early marriages and FGM.

Lerukati says that Meriwas’ strength, resilience and bravery in the face of strong resistance from the community is leading to a change of heart among some.

The rite of passage known as beading is a cultural practice performed only among the Samburu. And thanks to Meriwas’ efforts, the practice is changing.

Traditionally, a Moran or warrior buys about 10 kilos of beads, which are made into necklaces for a girl he is interested in. Upon wearing the necklaces, the girl, who is usually between nine and 15 years old, is considered “beaded” and the Moran’s girlfriend.

Meriwas speaks about the effects of beading. “Since sex between the young girl and the Moran is usually unprotected, the girl gets pregnant at some point,” she says.

But, she adds, the pregnancy will be terminated at all costs, because sex between the Moran and the girl, though permitted by culture, is considered incestuous because they are both from the same clan. So the baby is not allowed to live.

Women from the Samburu community in a meeting to address the plight of the Samburu girl child. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

There are possible dangerous outcomes when a young girl falls pregnant.

“The older women lure the girl into the forest once they suspect she is pregnant. They press her stomach until she bleeds and the foetus comes out,” says Meriwas.

If this fails, the girl, upon delivery, is forced to poison her newborn. If she refuses, then the child is to be left in the forest to be eaten by hyenas, or is given to a non–Samburu, often in the neighbouring Turkana community.

Lerukati adds: “Many deaths have resulted from this exercise. But no one in the community will speak about it.”

Due to Meriwas’ efforts, the community is opening up to the possibility of an alternative rite of passage for girls.

“Rather than have the Moran ‘beading’ the girl, women are slowly taking up the role. This means that the girl can wear her beads without being at the beck and call of a Moran,” Meriwas explains.

Lerukati adds: “The change is slow, but is happening. The practice of beading was little-known beyond the Samburu community. But Meriwas has blown the whistle at great risk to herself, and even her life.”

FGM activists such as Grace Gakii who are working in pastoralist communities say there is something to celebrate on the Day of the African Child. “There is a prominent decline of FGM among younger women aged 15 to 19 years.”

“I attribute this to a combination of factors. The push for the pastoralist girl child to attend school is definitely a contributing factor. But it is those people like Meriwas who have experienced harmful traditions who are bringing real change,” Gakii tells IPS.

According to KDHS, the overall prevalence of FGM in Kenya has gone down from 38 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in 2003, and to 27 percent in 2008, among women between the ages of 15 and 19.

“People like Meriwas understand this culture and have learnt to change it from within,” she adds.