Hiba Taha Usmani

Aimen Zafar
What is Early Marriage
The marriage between two individuals in which one or both is a child.
According to UN convention of human rights, A child means every
human being below the age of eighteen years.
Early Marriage in Pakistan
According to the Child Restraint Act of 1929, the minimum age of
marriage in Pakistan is 18 for boys and 16 for girls.
Despite this law, 37% of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of
16.
This study proposes to survey the personal
effects of early marriage on females in Pakistan
to determine whether the effect is positive or
negative in years 2009 to 2014.
Primary Research Question:
Does early marriage leave a negative or a positive
impact on the bride?
Secondary Research Questions:
What defines young age?
Should girls be allowed to get married at young age?
Is it the girls choice to get married?
Why did they get married early?
Do they work after marriage?
Does early marriage cause a hindrance in education?
How are their social life affected due to early
marriage?

Questionnaires
11 questions were created
Distributed to 15 people
14 people belonged to the age category 18-24 while 1 belonged
to the age category 25-45
There were 9 females and 6 males
Interview
One interview was carried out of a female student who got
married at a young age
Provided valuable information on the positive aspects of early
marriage

It was observed that when girls got married
early, they did not face as many problems
in adjusting into a new environment and a
new family as compared to women who got
married in their mid 20s
Young girls did not get a proper taste of independence, while
girls in their mid 20s did
Loss of independence can make the woman irritable and
unhappy in the marriage
It was observed that the reason behind
most of these marriages were parents,
rather than the youngsters themselves
In order to protect the children from
committing immoral acts that went against
the society and their religion, they found it
convenient to marry them at an early age
Research proved that early marriage also
made the youngsters more responsible
towards life as they learned to consider life
from a different perspective after their
marriage
Became more responsible towards their studies
Worked harder to improve and maintain family relations
Altogether, they became more responsible towards their family
and other relationships

When the couple plans for a child, they had
an advantage of not being very old for their
children
The generation gap between the parents and children will
reduce
Parents were more capable of understanding their children's
problems and able to relate to them better
The married couple gains moral and
emotional support from one another
Nowadays, it is very common for young people to face emotional
problems that they are not willing to tell their parents about
They will be more comfortable telling them to someone who is
closer than them in age


Early marriages in the rural areas of
Pakistan are a result of brutal practices
such as swara and watta satta
Swara is a custom in which a female relative is given as
compensation for a crime committed by her male relative
Watta Satta is the exchange of one bride for another

After marriage, the two individuals are
treated as adults and expected to perform
responsibilities of an adult
The girl who was supposed to be spending her time playing dolls
is now expected to perform the chores of the house
She would be deprived of the right to enjoy her childhood
She would have lost out on the personal growth and
development she would have gained had she just been allowed
to live like a child
One of the major things a child loses out
due to marriage is education
A girl who is expected to handle an entire household does not
have the time, nor does the family she married into have the
money, to provide her with an education
In a society where the men are expected to work and the women
are expected to do household chores, there is little reason for
girls to pursue education
A girl whos body is just developing is not
capable of handling the physical stress of
marriage
She is expected to engage in physical activities with her
husband and is not allowed to ask for contraceptives
Becoming pregnant during the ages of 15-19 makes one twice
more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women in
their twenties
Unprotected sexual activities can also cause sexually
transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDs, which teenagers
are more susceptible to
The girl is also in danger of domestic
violence
In cases where the marriage is a result of swara, the husband
and his relatives may choose to punish the girl further for the
sins of her male relative
She does not have the proper experience of running a
household nor does she have proper knowledge about what it is
to be a wife
Her husband, who is usually older, may respond with physical
abuse for disobeying him
If the husband and his family consider the dowry unsuitable,
they will abuse the girl in response
This study successfully proves that early
marriage has a negative effect on women
Their mental and physical health takes a
heavy toll; marriage requires them to take
up adult responsibilities that their young
minds are not capable of handling
Their young minds and developing bodies
are incapable of handling the burden of
household chores and their husbands
physical requirements
Birth registration must be made mandatory
and done immediately after the child is
born.
The legal age for marriage should be the
same for both girls and boys - 18 years.
Harsher punishments for any adult(s)
involved in the arrangement and
solemnization of child marriage.
There needs to be more media coverage on
the problem.