Child marriage

1. This issue bothers me a lot because I am a scholar myself. I know boys who have been sexually abused. But more than anything else, it is their silence that bothers me the most. By remaining silent, they allow this evil to flourish and find new victims. 2. You only have to look at the links on my website to know how widespread and widespread sexual abuse of boys in the madrasa system is. According to the Foundation for Humanity, [1] 25 madrasa boys were raped by their teachers, principals or other madrasa people in 2020. In 2019, between January and October 2019, 19 madrasa boys…

1. Almost every day in Bangladesh, a girl is raped by her madrasa teacher. You only have to read the headlines to know how freely our madrasa teachers are raping and even killing young women. According to the Dhaka Tribune in February 2024, five madrasa teachers raped a minor girl.[1] Madrasa teacher raped a 12-year-old girl.[2] Maulvi arrested for raping a 10-year-old girl.[3] Madrasa teacher arrested for raping a student in Kurigram.[4] Bangladeshis speak out against ‘rampant’ rape in Islamic schools.[5] 2. I could list headlines one after another, and I invite you to read the links on my website…

Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their well-being. Girls who marry before the age of 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and are less likely to stay in school. Their economic and health outcomes are worse than their unmarried peers, which is ultimately passed on to their own children, putting a strain on a country’s ability to provide quality health and education services. This important visit by the Global Program Steering Committee provides a renewed commitment to addressing the systemic drivers of child marriage, empowering adolescent girls, and strengthening social protection and child protection systems. A priority of the National Plan to End Child Marriage (NAPECM), it is to ensure adequate funding and strong…

According to UNICEF, about 38 million women and girls are married before the age of 18, of which 15.5%, or 13 million, are married before the age of 15. Out of this number, an astonishing 24% girls give birth. This alarming statistic has finally brought Bangladesh to the 8th position in the world in terms of the prevalence of child marriage, which according to UNICEF estimates, is the highest in Asia. Nowadays, child marriage is considered a shameful social dilemma. There are many factors that contribute to the spread of this problem, and most of these factors can be eliminated through widespread publicity, public awareness and social welfare initiatives…

Child marriage, especially the marriage of teenage girls or older men to teenage girls, has long been a cause of socio-economic crisis in Bangladesh, with the highest rate in Asia and the fourth highest globally. 1. About 59% women aged 20-24 in the country were married before the age of 18. 1. The current number of child brides is 38 million, of which about 13 million were forced into marriage before the age of 15. 2. In the pre-COVID-19 era, Bangladesh made extraordinary efforts to prevent child marriage. Subsequently, in the 2007-2017 decade, child marriage nationally declined from 66% to 59%, while marriage before the age of 16 declined from 46% to 32%. 2. Despite temporary progress, in the country,…

“I was about 10 years old then,” recalls Amena Akhter, now 23, a resident of the remote Char area of Majher Alga Char in Kurigram. Amena told the Dhaka Tribune that although she did not understand the true meaning of marriage, she did know one thing: she would no longer go to school. But I never realized that this one event would completely change the course of my life.” Majher Alga Char, where Amena lives, is part of Shahabiaralga Union, one of the most neglected areas of Kurigram, which borders India to the east. In 2013, when Amena was just 10 years old, her family married her off to a middle-aged man from Anandabazar in Kurigram. The marriage…

The survey for this report was conducted across 11 districts. While presenting the results of the report, Mohammad Adnan Rahman, Portfolio Manager at Inspire Advisory and Consulting, noted that compared to 2022, the prevalence of child marriage increased in 2023, with preliminary data indicating that it is on an upward trend. The researchers did not include data from 2024 in their analysis as the study was conducted between September 15 and December 15. “In 2022, 40.9% women aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18. In 2023, this number increased to 41.6%, where 8.2% were married before the age of 15,” Adnan said. Responding to a question, he explained…

Rukhsar Begum* is a 21-year-old woman from Roumari, Kurigram district, in northern Bangladesh. She and her family were displaced from their home in 2015 when a massive flood hit a riverine island on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. She now lives in Karail, the capital, Dhaka, with her three children - two daughters aged 7 and 5, and a son aged 3. Rukhsar was once hopeful of going to school. But now she is facing a reality far removed from the classroom, as she got married at the age of 15. "I had many dreams. But since the floods, it seems like those dreams have been taken away from our home…

Despite specific laws against child marriage and many awareness campaigns and ongoing efforts to prevent this practice across the country, the harsh reality is that child marriage is a curse that still persists. In remote areas like Char, where life is particularly difficult, the situation is even more dire. A report published in this newspaper on Saturday painted a horrifying picture of hundreds of child brides in Rasulpur Char in Barisal. Poverty and insecurity are forcing parents here to marry off their minor daughters. Needless to say, poverty has always been a major factor behind child marriage, which increased manifold during the pandemic but has continued in the following years as well. According to a recent report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 18…

Since 2011, Bangladesh has seen a 16% reduction in child marriage rates, or 2.1% per year. However, these improvements have not been evenly distributed across the country. Significant reductions have been observed among the wealthier and more educated segments of society, while the prevalence of child marriage among disadvantaged, uneducated, rural girls remains alarmingly high. Persistent economic inequality, unequal access to education, especially to completing secondary education, limited empowerment of girls, established gender norms, and slow changes in social mindsets – exacerbated by major factors such as climate change and inflation – pose serious threats to this hard-earned progress. Child brides are more likely to experience violence and childbearing than adult brides, and are less likely to have educational and decision-making…