Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

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Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by DJKeefy »

An official CAPMAS report announced that 117,000 children under the age of 18 in Egypt are or have been married, even as Egypt has been battling child marriage.

The report, which was released on the occasion of World Child Day, announced that Egypt has 39 million children, accounting for 40 percent of the total population.

The gender breakup of Egypt’s children is 51.7 percent male and 48 percent female.

The report added that 117,000 children between 10 and 17 years are married or have been married, with Upper Egypt accounting for the highest percentage of marriages and divorces between children. On the other hand, outskirt areas such as the Red Sea, Sinai, Marsa Matrouh and Aswan recorded a lower percentage of 1.3 percent.

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Egypt has been aiming to battle child marriage for some time. In June 2018, a new draft law was proposed to criminalize child marriage, bringing with it a penalty of up to one year imprisonment for those involved, while also taking children away from parents who allow them to be married.

The bill also stipulates that the Mazoun (official who performs the marriage) must notify the General Prosecution if a child marriage was occurring, while failure to do so would be met with job suspension and one year imprisonment. The law also states that a marriage contract to a person under 18 will not be authenticated, and the contract cannot be ratified without approval from the family court.

Abla al-Hawari, a member of the constitutional and legislative affairs committee of the House of Representatives, said that she is one who adopted the bill originally submitted by the National Council for Women (NCW) to criminalize marriages of young girls, though the government wanted to expand the issue and include both genders.

The idea behind the bill was first proposed in late 2017, after President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi spoke during a ceremony marking the population census. There he suggested imposing strict penalties to limit the increasing number of female minors getting married.

Meanwhile, regarding education, the CAPMAS report found that only 28 percent of children between four and five years old go to school. Moreover, 91 percent of boys and 93 percent of girls between 6 and 11 years old go to primary school.

Secondary school students accounted for 80.6 percent for boys and 86.4 percent for girls between 12 and 14 years old.

Source: https://www.egyptindependent.com/child- ... en-capmas/


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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by Major Thom »

Do they know how old some of these children are? We found while living there a lot Di not know their true age nor when their birthdays were for certain they would say something like "I was born in September" but when it came to the year 50% were uncertain. But for children to be palmed off to virtually what you can say the highest bidder is not right. The other thing is how do these marriages when they are not allowed to be together while courting last, I could imagine 3/4 are loveless.
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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by DJKeefy »

Those who dont know when they were born normally have 1st Jan on their ID's.

Not sure how they go about the correct year though.

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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by carrie »

The father of a young man that I have known for years informed me last week that his son was now engaged. He is only 17 and will marry as soon as he finishes high school. The family have about 8 children and he is the eldest. Didn't ask how old the girl was but apparently both families are delighted with the match. God help them both. Needless to say they are related.
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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by newcastle »

It's painful to read of social conditions in Egypt.....whether it's child marriages, FGM, sexual harassment, poverty, child abuse etc etc.

The only glimmer of light is that these problems are probably less than they were 50 years ago (with the possible exception of sexual harassment which I suspect has got worse.....curiously as the country has become more overtly "religious" !)
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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by Major Thom »

I was first married at 17, but in them days divorce was easy. So my Mrs got shut of me, but ended up paying me maintenance for 12 months. Even then 17 was much too young and I realise that now there was no real love or anything. But what can you say? I am and will be forever pleased she did get shut of me!! :lol: :lol: These young people should just live together until they know if they can have a good marriage or not. Oh! silly me there is something that stands in the way of living together, but I cannot remember what!!
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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by crewmeal »

I've talked to locals many times on this subject and when I tell them that in many cases couple live together before marriage they are horrified. I then asked what happens if you don't like your bride/wife and the usual answer is God will sort it out!! I didn't persue the topic of gay marriage or partnerships for fear of God wouldn't sort that one out!!
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Re: Child marriage in Egypt reaches 117,000 children

Post by A-Four »

During my time on the WB I came across many a strange life. One I remember well, was a young girl, I suspect was around 17 years old, she married this chap around 30 years old, only because her future husbands elderly mother and father had a colour TV, and that she would certainly love watching this in the evening at her husband's mother and fathers home, while in fact her husband was already married, and lived away from his family home.

So in truth what we had here was a situation where the new wife simply became the full time carer for the husbands parents, and would remain so until they died. After this time the wife knew full well that her husband would have to keep her in home, food and clothes for the rest of her life, unless she re-married.

I knew the husband in question quite well and was able to ask detailed questions about their relationship. He informed me in truth they were quite near cousins yet his wife's family having learning disability themselves, did not realise the problems they had created. He made it clear to me that although this second wife had quite serious learning disabilities, he would honestly care for her for the rest of his life.

I am sure that many of us on here know only too well that a man will not marry a women from the East Bank, nor will Christian marry Muslim, but then hill people do not marry WB town people, but also hill village people do not trust other hill village people of different tribes. Do not think that New Gurnna has changed all that,.......it has not.

To balance this with the U.K., in the mid 1960's a quite expensive government report was produced as to why a certain small town nears Leeds had a very high percentage of young children with quite serious learning disabilities,..............the result of the findings of this report were quite simple,......late night buses to and from Leeds, especially at week-ends.
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