PrintOn Thursday, Feb. 12, PBS NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa, BC ’84, and star Sunita Rathore joined the Columbia community to view the documentary Child Brides: Stolen Lives. Produced by PBS, the film showcases a study of Northern India, Niger, and Guatemala—three countries where girls are forced into marriage, in some cases as early as three or four years old.
The primary location of the film is Rajasthan, a state in Northern India, where child marriage is rampant. In this patriarchal society, 70 percent of women are forced to marry before the age of 18. Child marriage is illegal in India, but this only causes weddings to be held in the middle of the night in more subdued ceremonies. Meanwhile, it is estimated that around two thirds of child brides are beaten by their in-laws and 90 percent are illiterate.
Maria Hinojosa, a Barnard alum, narrates the film. She became involved with the issue after conversing with one of her former professors. Seeking mentorship to help realize the goal of abolishing the practice of child brides, Hinojosa became involved in the Veerni Project, which houses child-bride refugees in Rajasthan. The center was founded by Jacquelyn De Chollet after she had traveled to Africa and India, and aims to save child brides by providing young girls with education and safe housing.
Sunita Rathore, an activist and mentor at the Veerni Project, is the central focus in the film. Rathore’s mother dropped out of school as an adolescent to start a family, and her father is illiterate. Upon meeting her, Hinojosa knew that she had found a “feminist sister.” “For women,” she says, “it is important to realize that we have our feminist sisters and brothers around the world.”
Although the project has close ties to India, Niger is highlighted as a particularly tragic example in the film. A nation with the world’s highest fertility rate (eight children per woman on average), three-quarters of the country’s women are married before the age of 18. “If unchecked, its population will double in the coming 20 years,” the documentary warns. In a nation of 14 million people, only 20 obstetricians are available for the entire country. This paucity, juxtaposed with the reality of child pregnancy, explains why obstetric fistula (a dangerous tearing between the rectum or bladder and vagina due to poor conditions during childbirth) is plague-like in its frequency. Nigerian children sing songs in protest in the film, with lyrics like “To marry a nine-year-old girl is a disgrace, wait until she is 18.”
Rathore aspires to become prime minister of India one day. She spoke of her work on the Veerni Project to an audience that included Mayor Bloomberg last week. She is scheduled to speak at a U.S, congressional session and at the United Nations before returning to India. “She will be Prime Minister,” Hinojosa posits without reservation. “Just wait and see in 10 years.”
Hinojosa, meanwhile, is researching another project. It aims to document child marriage occurring in the United States, and break the silence surrounding the “honor killings” of wives by Muslim extremists which have recently occurred in America. Commenting on marriage within the United States, she says, “We like to believe that the decision to marry in this country is based on emotions, but issues such as class influence marriage here as well. We have to be prepared to open the dialogue, because [these issues] could be a lot closer than you think.”
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Child Brides: Statistics and U.S. Law
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which began in 2008, will include a report by the secretary general on the forced marriage of child brides.
Nearly half of the 331 million girls in developing countries are expected to marry by their 20th birthday.
One in seven of these girls marries before the age of 15.
If the current trend continues, it is estimated that 100 million more girls—25,000 every day—will become child brides within the next decade.
Pregnancy related deaths are the leading cause of mortality among girls aged 15 to 19 years old world-wide.
In an Egyptian survey in 2007, one-third of child brides said that they were beaten regularly by their husbands.
In July, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), member of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, introduced the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act.
McColum’s bill would give $100 million to the effort over four years.
Currently, 45 legislators are supporting child marriage bills.
In the House, McCollum’s bill has to wait for two more co-sponsors to sign on in order for the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs to consider taking up the legislation.
By providing more educational opportunities, India has been able to cut child marriage rates by up to two thirds.
Statistically, children who are able to complete primary school marry later and have fewer children than those who don’t.
—compiled by Carla Vass