Activists welcome ban on child marriages in Sierra Leone and call for action against FGM

Sierra Leone this week passed a groundbreaking law banning child marriage – a move welcomed by human rights groups and foreign partners but prompted some activists to call for more action to end widespread female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country.

In this West African country, hundreds of thousands of girls are married before their 18th birthday. In a society that is entirely patriarchal, women are exposed to numerous forms of gender-based violence.

Sierra Leone has some of the highest rates of child marriage, teen pregnancy and maternal mortality in the world.

A major step forward is the law banning child marriage: marrying girls under the age of 18 is now a criminal offense. Marriage is punishable by at least 15 years in prison or a fine of over $2,000.

It also prohibits men from cohabiting with underage girls and provides a compensation package for women who marry or become pregnant before the age of 18.

But the law – championed by Sierra Leone’s First Lady Fatima Maada Bio – is silent on the harmful practice of FGM, which many see as closely linked to the marriage of young girls.

“We say (the law) is a good job, but … we cannot close our eyes to the fact that there is a practice that still perpetuates child marriage,” says Josephine Kamara, 31, advocacy director at the women’s and girls’ rights organization Purposeful.

“If you refuse to solve the problem and remain silent about it, then any measures to end child marriage may be just lip service,” she said in a telephone interview with AFP.

FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genitalia and can lead to serious health problems such as infections, bleeding, infertility and complications during childbirth.

In Sierra Leone, according to a 2019 demographic health survey, 83 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone this procedure.

“Clitoral cutting symbolizes that the girls have now undergone a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood,” Kamara said.

“This rite of passage says that even if you are seven years old, you are now considered a woman once you have gone through this process.”

– ‘Marketplace for Marriage’ –

While activists largely praised the ban on child marriage, the lack of momentum to end FGM left some concerned that the government could be sending contradictory messages.

“It’s very confusing,” said Alimatu Dimonekene, 54, an FGM survivor and activist, explaining that the two practices often go hand in hand.

“The reason girls are circumcised so early in Sierra Leone is because (the families) want them to get married,” she told AFP.

“Sometimes the families say, ‘Oh, we found a suitor for her or the suitor is paying us for the FGM.’

“Usually… the child is married to someone the next day because they are the same traditional leaders.”

Kamara also expressed concern about the implementation of the ban on child marriage, particularly in rural areas where communities there may continue to practice FGM.

“We are sending really conflicting information,” she said.

“We say no more marriages, but then we leave the institution, which is a marketplace for marriages.”

Prohibitions on both female genital mutilation and child marriage were already enshrined in a comprehensive children’s rights law, but the legislative initiative is blocked in parliament.

Activists AFP spoke to said they felt lawmakers had cherry-picked the issue of child marriage from the bill to avoid addressing FGM.

“We know why they refuse to talk about it. FGM shapes the culture: ‘This is our culture, this is our practice,'” Kamara said.

“But clitoral circumcision has nothing to do with culture, it is a violation of human rights,” she added.

Fear of criticizing such a widespread practice silences many lawmakers, says Rugiatu Turay, 50, founder of the anti-FGM organization Amazonian Initiative Movement.

Turay herself underwent FGM at the age of eleven, suffered severe bleeding and lost a cousin as a result of the practice.

“Ending child marriage alone will not stop or reduce the practice of FGM,” she said.

“(Legislators) must take a holistic approach to ending children’s suffering and not separate one issue from another.”

ACC/GIV