Police are investigating a case of child marriage after a 13-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly forced to wed a 40-year-old man by her own mother in the village of Rangareddy, India. The young girl returned to school following the wedding in May and broke down in front of a teacher.
Upon speaking with the distressed child, the teacher discovered that the girl’s mother had allegedly coerced her into marrying the middle-aged man. The teacher promptly took the child to the police and lodged a complaint. In a statement given to the police, the schoolgirl revealed that her father had passed away a few years prior, and her mother, who was the primary earner, asked their landlord to find a suitable match for her.
The landlord introduced a 40-year-old man to the girl, and the wedding took place in front of several witnesses despite the young girl’s objections. Nandigama police have registered the case under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, although the man has not yet been apprehended.
This comes on the heels of another disturbing incident last month when a 45 year old man married a six year old girl in Afghanistan. The man, already married to two other women, purchased the young girl from her family.
The wedding ceremony took place in the Marjah district. Both the child’s father and the groom were subsequently detained but not formally charged.
The Taliban has instructed the groom to wait until the child reaches nine before he can take her home.
Child marriage continues to plague Afghanistan, frequently driven by poverty, forcing families to sell their daughters into wedlock as a survival strategy.
A local campaigner called Mahbob told The Afghan Times: “There are many families in our village who have given away their daughters for money. No one helps them. People are desperate.”
This trading of girls for marriage, termed walwar, sees them exchanged for money depending on factors such as looks, wellbeing, and schooling.
Yet financial desperation isn’t the only driver; some girls are bartered to resolve blood vendettas between foes.
Amiri, 50 from Uruzgan, revealed how she wed her 14 year old daughter to a 27 year old man for 300,000 Afghanis. She said: “I knew she was too young, but we had nothing at home. I used the money to feed the rest of my family.”
A UN report last year showed that such persecution has triggered a 25% surge in child and forced marriages.
The International Criminal Court has condemned the treatment of Afghan women as a crime against humanity, issuing arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials.