ISLAMABAD – A Balochistan based human rights activist Rehmatullah Baloch while criticising the tribal tradition, said that orthodox usage of early age marriages at the age of 7 to 8 years set in the province is against the fundamental human rights.
Talking to APP on Sunday, he said that the parents usually decide the marriages of their babies before birth and get them married at an early age while they are quite young to realise what is happening. He said that as a result the under age marriage, Balochistan is on the top of high maternal mortality rate due to week health and performing tough chores.
He said, “If they bear infant they don’t have enough nourishment to recover health properly alongwith heavy trauma and depression waiting for the minor brides.”
Rehmatullah Baloch said that young girls under the age of 15 have greater chances of developing complications which could lead to death. He urged the provincial authorities to make a proper mechanism to stop early age marriages and take strict action against them.
He demanded the government and international organisations to work together to overcome the menace of child marriages.
A sociologist, Abdul Qadoss Kakar said that in tribal societies, child marriages are common where girls get married off at a very young age with neither their parents nor in-laws knowing the physical and psychological impacts of the marriage.
He said that unfortunately, the families here prefer mothers to give birth to maximum kids and mostly the young under age women have to bear the brunt which ultimately puts their life into perils. He said, “There are very few mothers and children who survive from pregnancy to delivery due to early marriages in the province.” He said that lack of awareness is the main issue of the early age marriages.
Awareness campaigns should be organised to notify the difficulties and hardships bore by juveniles as a young wife and mother, he added.
“Both girls and boys need 20 to 25 years to be ready for marriages because marriage at a very young age is psychologically and physically deadly for young couples and their future children,” she maintained.
The life of both mother and child are at greater risk, adding, that a large number of underage girls die due to high blood pressure while giving birth to a child, she added. Religious scholar, Moulana Baz Gull said that in Islam when a male or female reaches at the stage of puberty mostly at 13 or 15 years of age, they are asked to decide either they are willing to marry or not. “If they are mature and want to marry then that is their right and if they are forced to marry someone is a sin,” he added.
He said that our religion advises to marry children reaching puberty as soon as possible whereas it is virtuous to marry the girl to her age fellow.
