No studies have yet been conducted on the number of child
marriages in Zimbabwe, but the UN estimates that 31 percent of the country's
girls tie the knot at an early age.
"Most girls who are being married early are doing so
because their parents are poor and are looking for money," Dapson Muza,
66, told the Anadolu Agency.
Tandiwe Kaseke, a 49-year-old widow from Chamboko village in
Seke, agreed. "In my village, a 14-year-old girl was forced into marriage
by her parents due to poverty," she told AA. "Now she is in hospital
due to pregnancy complications," Kaseke lamented.
The Customary Marriages Act, however, does not set a minimum
marriage age for girls. Girls under 16 can marry with the consent of their
parents or guardians, while boys cannot marry before reaching 18. The customary
law allows polygamy. Tradition allows Zimbabwean men to enter into polygamous
marriages – sometimes with women as young as 15 years old.
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