Gender Links in one of its pillar on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and Early Child Marriages, has documented life stories of girls whom were forced to marry in their early age because of the so called en-rooted traditional culture predominantly practiced in Manica Province.
Data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicate that the country is in 10th place among the countries most affected by the phenomenon, worldwide. According to the 2011 Demographic and Health Survey, at least 48 percent of girls aged 20-24 years old married before age 18, while 14 percent of them married before they turned 15. Early child marriages, mostly motivated by sociology-cultural and economic factors, are a major violation of human rights and result in gender-based violence, reproductive health problems and loss of opportunities, lack of empowerment of female children and women. The girls’ parents or close relatives formalized the marriages that resulted in early pregnancies as an immediate consequence.
The video brings us some life stories about the reality or experiences lived in the districts of Sussundenga, Chimoio and Vanduzi, in the Province of Manica, in Mozambique.
– CUBATIRA OR MABATIRO – which means – RESERVE – in local language, which is a customary practice that is observed in the community which consists in the reservation of a very young girl or even an unborn baby girl for marriage.
Below is a summary of one case study of one of the abused girls by this harmful cultural practice:
Inês Lucas is 16 years old, lives in the community of Mariondo, Matsinho in Vanduzi, Manica Province. The girl interrupted school in 2015, when she was at grade two and she says that she has been reserved, since 2016, for a man who she does not know his age. The future husband paid 110 meticais and a capulana. Inês only knows that her future husband is an artisan, who is dedicated to the production and sale of mats. Ines is one of three Granddaughters who live with her grandmother since she was a child. a negotiation between the two grandmothers was enough to make the reservation…Watch the video here
For donations, support Mariondo community please contact Gender Links Mozambique on dirlusophone@genderlinks.org.za Tel/Fax +258 21 404923 Mobile: +258 827150223
