First lady in campaign against child marriage: "Legal rape"
Sierra Leone's first lady Fatima Maada Bio has for years run a personal campaign for the total ban on child marriage that was voted through by a united parliament on Friday. In a speech in the House, she thanked everyone who helped, including Opposition Leader Abdul Kargbo.
- He urged his colleagues to embrace the bill wholeheartedly and work tirelessly to anchor it in society, she said in the speech according to a post on her X account.
Her campaign "Off with the paws from our girls" was launched in 2018, and a year later her husband, the president, declared rape a national emergency and began the reform work that has resulted, among other things, in today's ban.
- As I see it, early marriages are a form of legal rape, because they often take place without the girls' consent, but unfortunately with the parents', says Fatima Maada Bio to the development site Devex.
Sierra Leone's first lady Fatima Maada Bio has for years run a personal campaign for the total ban on child marriage that was voted through by a united parliament on Friday. In a speech in the House, she thanked everyone who helped, including Opposition Leader Abdul Kargbo.
- He urged his colleagues to embrace the bill wholeheartedly and work tirelessly to anchor it in society, she said in the speech according to a post on her X account.
Her campaign "Off with the paws from our girls" was launched in 2018, and a year later her husband, the president, declared rape a national emergency and began the reform work that has resulted, among other things, in today's ban.
- As I see it, early marriages are a form of legal rape, because they often take place without the girls' consent, but unfortunately with the parents', says Fatima Maada Bio to the development site Devex.
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Historic ban on child marriage in Sierra Leone
A unanimous parliament has voted through a ban on child marriage in Sierra Leone, reports AFP. Anyone who marries someone under the age of 18 can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Save the Children calls the law "historic".
At a school for children who escaped forced marriage in Kono, AP meets Naomi. She was given away in exchange for a 50-kilogram sack of rice as a 15-year-old. The family was in need and saw no alternative, and wants her to return to her husband.
- There is nothing that can make me go back and continue to suffer, says Naomi.
One in three girls in Sierra Leone are married off before their 18th birthday. The proportion steadily decreased until the pandemic, when it began to increase again.
A unanimous parliament has voted through a ban on child marriage in Sierra Leone, reports AFP. Anyone who marries someone under the age of 18 can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Save the Children calls the law "historic".
At a school for children who escaped forced marriage in Kono, AP meets Naomi. She was given away in exchange for a 50-kilogram sack of rice as a 15-year-old. The family was in need and saw no alternative, and wants her to return to her husband.
- There is nothing that can make me go back and continue to suffer, says Naomi.
One in three girls in Sierra Leone are married off before their 18th birthday. The proportion steadily decreased until the pandemic, when it began to increase again.
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