Forced Marriage

On 24th June, the director of Salmmah Women’s Resource Center, Ms. Fahima Hashim was presented with a decree from the Sudanese Ministry of Justice, ordering the cancellation of her NGO. A five-person committee came in to oversee the Company’s dissolution process. No reason was given for this decision, and the dissolution committee kept their identity undisclosed and prevented any visitors from staying in the premises.

In Afghanistan, Foundation of Solidarity for Justice Organisation (FSJO) is striving to ensure every child gets to have a childhood.

Here, girls are married off as young as six; forty-six percent are wedded before the age of eighteen. According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, between sixty to eighty percent of all marriages in Afghanistan are forced, and one in four Afghani women aged twenty to twenty-four have had their first child before eighteen.

To tackle this issue, the FSJO launched workshops in the provinces of Kabul and Parwan between August and December 2013. They aimed to raise a keen awareness on the epidemic, and to breed a social attitude of active discouragement against the practice.

Oral Statement delivered on behalf of Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre by Lakshmi Sundaram, Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage:

Ending child, early and forced marriage is a long-term undertaking that will require comprehensive and coordinated action across Ministries and in partnership with civil society and other relevant stakeholders. We call on governments to recognise the critical role played by civil society organisations, particularly community-level groups and religious and community leaders, and to work closely with them in developing and implementing solutions.