problackgirl:

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Pledge for Parity’ carries a message for all. Women and men are invited to take a firm step to speed up gender equality, and I want to use this day to encourage the governments across the developing world to do what they can to protect a vital and precious group in every society, adolescent girls. In Nigeria, 19% of children are married by the time they reach age 15 years, and 39% by the time they turn 18, while Niger Republic holds the highest figures on the continent, at 39% and 75% respectively.

Last week (March 2), a Nigerian teenager, was reunited with her parents after being abducted, or missing from her parent’s care and custody, for seven months. According to reports, she was snatched from a state in southern Nigeria, while helping her mother who is a street vendor, and was then taken to northern Nigeria, reportedly converted to Islam, and married to her abductor, who was apparently a customer of her mother’s. It’s now reported that she is pregnant, and at only 14 years old, this will affect her health, education, and her emotional and mental development.

Alongside this, there are two other similar cases which have come to the attention of the media. One girl is still separated form her parents. These cases represent a number of Nigerian young girls who find themselves in this unfortunate and desperate predicaments, when in fact, they should be at school, furthering that most significant empowerment factor, their right to education and a brighter future.

Education can protect girls from becoming child brides. A girl who is in school is more likely to be equipped with the knowledge and self-esteem to make choices about who she wants to marry. Parents who remove their children from school do not always sense this importance or do so for economic reasons. More must be done to ensure adolescent girls claim this right to education.