Displaying items by tag: enforcement

Rights advocates want to end Egypt’s long-tolerated child marriage tradition. Azza is in her early 20s and has given birth four times. When she was twelve her father decided it was time she got married. It mattered little to him that the groom was over twice Azza’s age and she had never met him. Azza and her sisters didn’t go to school; only their brothers were educated. In Egypt’s poor, rural communities, girls are deprived of education and become child brides at puberty, despite the legal age of marriage in Egypt being 18. But now the prosecution of an imam for marrying dozens of underage girls marks a shift in social attitudes. It also sends a message that the authorities are serious about enforcing the law. Maya Morsi of the National Council for Women (NCW) has urged parliament to raise the legal age of marriage to 21.