Research Proposal: Sustainable Development of Society
7 Pages2786 Words404 Views
Added on 2019-10-18
Research Proposal: Sustainable Development of Society
Added on 2019-10-18
ShareRelated Documents
Research Proposal To understand the implications on sustainable development of the society due to theunderage girls’ marriage in EgyptStudent Name: Student ID: Course Name: Course ID:Faculty Name: University Name:
Introduction In Egypt, child marriage is a widespread social phenomenon, which mainly affects girls living inpoorer rural areas, and is becoming more prevalent in urban areas, including Upper Egypt(United Nations, 2012). Seventeen percent of girls are married before their eighteenth birthday(United Nations, 2012). Wealthy men from Egypt, and the Arab region, including the Gulf,frequently travel to Egypt to purchase “temporary marriages and tourism marriages” withunderage Egyptian girls, including in some cases girls who are under the age of 14 years (TheProtection Project, 2011). These marriages are often facilitated by the girl’s parents and throughmarriage brokers, sheikhs, lawyers, community leaders and Ma’azoons (authorized marriage‘sheikhs’) who take bribes for registering marriages of underage girls (NCCM, 2012). In 2008, the Egyptian government issued a law to determine the legal age for marriage iseighteen, and to criminalize the marriage under this age. As a result, the government bansregistration of marriage between couples under this age (Nour, 2009). However, many familiesin rural areas accept unregistered marriage until the girls turns eighteen and many religiousleaders try to find leeway around the law for underage couples’ marriages. Some religiousleaders change the date of birth or use unofficial documents in the marriage certificate ( Nour,2009).Child marriage is common in poor and underprivileged areas including Assuit, Sohag, Fayoum,and areas with strong tribal systems such as New Village, and the Sinai Peninsula, wherehundreds of Bedouin tribes engage in this practice. Furthermore, child marriage can be found inbig cities such as Alexandria, Giza and including the country’s capital, Cairo. According to astudy conducted in rural communities of Egypt, 36 % of married women are married under theage of sixteen (UNICEF, 2005). In some districts such as El Hawamdia and Badrashen, around45 - 50% of young girls are forced by family members, community members, and religiousleaders to marry rich older men for money before their eighteenth birthday (NCCM, 2012).These marriages, which are close to prostitution, can last for 5 days, 2 days or even an hour(NCCM, 2012). As a result, these girls are abandoned and left either pregnant, taken by force toserve as maids in Egyptian homes and/or the Gulf in abusive settings where they aremalnourished and beaten or even sexually abused by other members of the husband’s family;abortions that may lead to death or hysterectomy; birth of children with no father and hence nonational identity nor birth certificate (United Nations, 2012). According to a study conducted by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood(NCCM) on underage girls’ marriage in Egypt, the main reasons for this phenomena can besummarized as follows: poverty, widespread ignorance and high illiteracy rates among families;lack of knowledge of dangers and negative consequences of underage marriage; and lack ofsecuring protection for victims. Extreme poverty is a result of lack of good governance, lack ofother economic opportunities and high perception of corruption, which leads parents to arrangemarriage for their daughters to relieve themselves from financial burdens. In these contexts,marriage can literally mean one fewer mouth to feed. In addition, the girl’s family receives a
‘bride price’ of money or livestock from the husband, so marriage also becomes a way ofbringing much needed resources into the familyIssues of underage girls’ marriage are not prioritized in the agenda of the agenda of the Egyptiangovernment, numerous of Non-governmental Organizations or human rights organizations,political parties, law enforcement organizations, media, and religious institutions (UnitedNations, 2012). As a result,there is lack of information regarding the gravity of such behavior,including its consequences for the girls who are involved. And since the content of other relatedmass media is monopolized by producers from the Gulf area, the media set by them plays a largepart in the negative dissemination of the phenomena of early marriages, girls working ashousemaids, and ridiculing and minimizing the extent by which these girls are subject to themost horrendous forms of violence and exploitation (United Nations, 2012).In light of the above, female victims in rural areas face many obstacles in their access to services,including health services such as proper clinical care or even hospital care when required(NCCM, 2012). Additionally, these girls often have no access to important resources, such aslegal assistance, vocational training, financial assistance (e.g. micro and small loans for self-employment, postpaid sales opportunities, working from home opportunities, etc.), otheremployment opportunities, and reading and writing and informal education outlets which mighthelp to empower them or improve their economic and social situation (NCCM, 2012).In this context, this paper will analyze the current situation of underage girl's marriage in poorand underprivileged areas of Egypt. It will highlight the root causes and effects of thisphenomenon based on a literature review and my experience as a development practitioner formore than 12 years in Egypt, eight years of which was mainly focused on fighting violenceagainst women and gender issues. The paper will criticize and tackle the absence ofgovernmental and non-governmental policies regarding underage girls’ marriage, the povertyplague, and the traditional-social and cultural norms in Egypt. In addition, it will demonstrate theconsequences of this issue and propose recommendations to reduce the underage girl’s marriagephenomenonThe marriage of underage girls in Egypt or Middle East for that matter is a widespread socialtradition, particularly in the rural areas. In Egypt, one in seven girls gets married before hereighteenth birthday. The families of such girls may have a notion that it is in the best interest oftheir daughters. But in the process, they fail to realize that they are violating their daughters’human rights. Egypt being the most populous Arab country also has the distinction of largestnumber of child brides in the region. As far as legal system of Egypt is concerned, Egyptian girlsand women are conferred with very few rights regarding marriage and, therefore, are left withlimited protection. The laws are also not enough to prohibit domestic violence or espousal abuse.The Egyptian Personal Law, which is also based on Shari’ah governs the institution of marriagein Egypt. This makes families unable to resist these laws let alone their daughters. Moreover,wealthy Saudi businessmen have made the situation worse, who regularly travel to Egypt topurchase young Egyptian brides. The more concerning aspect of the underage marriage in Egyptis that there is a direct link between child marriage and physical abuse. There are as many as 30percent of young married women who fall victim to violence by their husbands and over 40percent of them have reported being beaten up during pregnancy (Korson & Esposito, 1983).However, Egypt has also taken positive steps such as it has lodged a reservation against child
End of preview
Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.
Related Documents
The problem of underage girl's marriage in underprivileged areas of Egyptlg...
|4
|1396
|279
Underage Girls’ Marriage in Egypt: Its Implications on Sustainable Developmentlg...
|6
|2456
|131
Underage Girls’ Marriage in Egypt: Its Implications on Sustainable Developmentlg...
|4
|1060
|177