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Peasant women of Qaliubiya demanding life, equality and stop early marriage

The Land Center held a session on 12/25/2010 with the participation of 30 peasant and rural girls in Banha Qaliubiya meeting discussed the problems of women and girls in a decent life and to develop solutions to those problems and professor Mervat Hussein, a researcher at the Land Center noted in the first meeting that "Early marriage for girls" is a form of violence against women, where the little girl bear responsibility for many activities and has to establish a marital relationship for which she is not qualified mentally or physically to bear the consequences of this relationship. It is noted that it is difficult to obtain reliable statistics regarding marriage quite early as most marriages are not recorded and informal, causing a small amount of information about marriages under 14 years old. Early marriage is a feature of rural communities, since 36% of the total number of wives in rural households were married at the age of less than 16 years, while the proportion of females who are married under the legal age in urban areas 1.9%. She also pointed to the increasing percentage of early marriages - especially in the countryside due to a number of reasons, including:
• The desire of the rural in a lot of boys and girls to get rid of the burden.
• Economic reasons: poverty remains one of the most important factors behind early marriages, where parents get the money or property as a price for the bride.
• Religious factors are the most important factors in the prevalence of early marriage in Muslim societies as a result of the spread of the concepts of tribal society.
• Customs and traditions: and fear for the honor and early marriage became common because it represents some of the concepts such as virginity and purity and control of the sex instinct in women, and therefore the principle of early marriage is the best way to prevent any scandals before marriage and the preservation of virginity, which is The basic of the concept of religious marriage.
• Maintenance of family ties and the desire of parents to marry off their children early to prove masculinity and assert control.
• Some families have their daughters married young women below the legal age of pairs of wealthy Egyptians or Arabs have an ability to meet the conditions set by the girl's family to the husband
The early marriage's harms:
• The high incidence of divorce due to marital incompatibility.
• Depriving girls of their rights to choose their husbands.
• Put the girl in the position of social responsibility before they reach maturity.
• Health problems for the mother as a result of repeated pregnancy and childbirth.
• Increase a woman's reproductive age, which cause an increase in the number of times of reproduction and leads to the deterioration of their health and the health of their children.
• Negative effects on sexual health.
• Negative effects on reproductive health, where birth weight is linked to the extent of maturity of the mother and her experience.
• Genital mutilation.
• The maternal mortality.
• The infant mortality.
• Deterioration of the mental health of women.
• The increasing dropout rates of girls' education, where he graduated early from education to marry.
• Increase the proportion of young widows.
• Ill-treatment and humiliation of women and girls and their situation deteriorating humanitarian.
After the discussions, which confirmed the attendance is necessary to find practical solutions to resolve the problem presented Mr. Mahmoud Hendi, a mechanisms lawyer of the Egyptian law to address the problem and he referred to:
Under Article 227 G shall be punished by imprisonment term not exceeding two years or a fine of not more than three hundred pounds each made before the competent authority in order to demonstrate achievement of a couple's age specified by law to set the words Marriage know it's not true ..... And is punishable by imprisonment or a fine of not more than 500 pounds each person authorized him to adjust the law to the marriage contract and he knows that a terminal has not attained the age specified in the law.
Where the marriage contract is a formal document editing regard to Officer is authorized and legitimate this paper bestowed by law to formalize that whereby you are married between the contractors, we find that the legislator cited constraints to compel individuals to respect the age of marriage. However, the law moves in the direction and the state actually walking in the present trend, there are marriages of many is where the age of the wife less than 16 years due to the manipulation of either certificates administrative or certificate of teething from the Office of Health, where the percentage of 18.2% of married women in Egypt, married for the first time less than 16 years and the phenomenon spread in the countryside and popular places and it happens usually to get rid of the girl which is seen as a burden on her family as a burden, either economically or socially.
And recently issued the People's Children's Act No. 126 of 2008, which addressed a number of important issues including the criminalization of documenting the marriage contract is not reached gender eighteen full calendar years and require documentation to be a medical examination for those wishing to marry to verify themselves free of diseases that affect the lives or the health of each At the closing session participants emphasized the importance of the existence of the law to protect female children also show the importance of follow-up implementation of the present law in a real and realistic so that we can avoid the gap between law and practice supported by the patriarchal society that viewed women look low, and considers her as an object which has no rights, property of a man acting as she is ordered and must bear and she has no right to object or complain.
The participants demanded the Centre and civil society institutions and various governmental institutions to improve economic conditions and social and cultural rights of families in the countryside to stop the abuse of women and early marriage and stiffen penalties for those involved in such crimes in order for the lives and health of half of the present and all the future.

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