Monday, August 31, 2009

Of marriage age

Today for the first time in several weeks I bought The Nation, Malawi’s main newspaper. As I was leafing through it an article about legal age for marriage in Malawi caught my eye.

The article talks about the decision of the Malawi Parliament to adjust the legal marriage age from 15 to 16. In some villages it is reported that some girls are given in marriage at the age of 14. It states that the girls of such an early age need to be given a chance to complete their education. “The girl-child just like any other child has the right to education and by allowing her to get married at 16, the commission smothered the universal right.”

I completely agree with the article. Although education is important, there are other more pressing issues the government needs to address. How can a girl of 14, 15, or 16 give birth to a healthy baby? She is almost a child herself. I feel that her chance to be a care-free teenager has been taken away from her.

The author of this article is Ananiya Alick Ponje- a second year student at Chancellor College in Malawi and was printed in The Nation on August 31, 2009.

5 comments:

  1. Can you link to the story? I've seen several links to that paper elsewhere, so I know it's possible.

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  2. I can link it but the website is not updated on regular bases. In fact the latest article from that section is from January 2008 and it is about something I do not think we are allowed to talk about in this class 

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  3. Finally the president has said that he is not going to assent the marriage age as resolved by parliament. He has assured malawians that the ammendment will be sent back to parliament..

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  4. Ananiya, that is so neat that you've commented on my site! I read your article on Monday and thought it was nicely written! How did you find me?

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  5. Well, thanks for that. Your site is linked to google and that is where I found my way to it. Continue commenting on some of these issues that are sometimes ignored by many, yet they are of national significance...

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