Young Girls Inspired To Fight Forced Marriage

As part of its Because I am a Girl campaign to highlight the plight of girls growing

up in poor undeveloped countries, the childrens charity, Plan International, is lobbying hard to tackle forced marriage which is one of the most formidable barriers to female education and a normal career path. Of course, it is one thing getting the United Nations and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, on side but it is quite another getting visible action in the countries where it matters.

Therefore, it is important for Western politicians to see at first-hand what the problems are and what organisations like Plan can do to improve things on the ground. The charitys Campaigns Officer, Naomi Williams, recently accompanied four UK Members of Parliament who are part of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Debt, Aid and Trade on a visit to Bangladesh which is typical of the countries where forced marriage is restricting the opportunities for girls and condemning too many to a life of menial subservience.

The party was shown an example of how Plan is succeeding in empowering children to help themselves fight the scourge of coerced marriages. 14 year old Fatima proudly introduced the VIPs to her hand-written poster Child Marriage Free which adorned a school wall in the small village of Laxmipur, just outside Bangladeshs sprawling capital of Dhaka. The determined youngster explained how she worked hard towards achieving this powerful declaration.

She has campaigned using community theatre, petitions and public meetings, all with the aim of ensuring girls and boys can be walking to school and not up the aisle. She has herself managed to avoid child marriage and is continuing to enjoy her schooling. My favourite subject is English and I want to be a teacher when I grow up, she says. Fatima then proceeded to introduce the Westerners to the simple mud houses in which she and her community live.

Mingming Remata Evora, Plan Bangladeshs Country Director, informed the visitors that a shocking two thirds of girls in Bangladesh are married before the legal age of 18. Plan has found that girls like Fatima can be powerful advocates for ending early and forced marriage. Laxmiper is one of five villages in Gazipur that Plan, in cooperation with the local community and government, has supported to become Child Marriage Free', affecting around 30,000 girls.

The last word was left to the children who bravely insisted that We are children but we will develop our village. We will overcome all the problems and we will build our future.

by: Brendan Wilde

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