Some Dakahlia villages marry their daughters through common-law contracts, with the bridegroom signing a blank check to guarantee his marriage to his would-be bride once she reaches maturity. Human rights activists are calling for tougher punishments to confront this phenomenon.
Some Dakahlia villages marry their daughters through common-law contracts, with the bridegroom signing a blank check to guarantee his marriage to his would-be bride once she reaches maturity. Human rights activists are calling for tougher punishments to confront this phenomenon.
Underage marriage is a daily practice in some villages of Dakahlia, 80 km north of Cairo. Girls as young as 12 enter the marriage market and if the fathers or grandfathers decide, a common-law contract is concluded and a check or a bill of exchange is signed by the prospective groom. These arrangements aim to ensure that the prospective husband will marry the girl once she is old enough.
Common-law with a receipt
Amal Ahmed, 16, narrated the details of her marriage. “I got married at the age of twelve,” she said. “I quit school to marry my cousin who rejected my grandfather’s offer to marry my elder sister, who was 19, and he decided to marry me instead.”
The husband, Hasan Mukhtar, lives with Amal at the family house at Dekernes, east of Mansoura. He does not feel the age difference, and is quite happy with her, he says. “I am 25 and I proposed to Amal when I was 20,” he said. “I work as a Tuktuk driver and a mechanic at a car workshop.”
Mukhtar says that the grandfather asked him to marry one of his cousins and he chose Amal. He then signed two blank checks, along with the common-law contract. They got the papers certified by the notary public and agreed that the husband would marry again when Amal reached the legal age, and recover the trust.
A family custom
Only ten meters from Mukhtar’s house lives Samir Hassan, who also married his cousin through a common-law contract. “I married my cousin Mona, who was then 12 years old,” says Samir. “Families in our village are accustomed to these kinds of contracts, and I had to sign her father a bill of exchange. We would officially be married when she reached the legal age, and after recovering my trust.”
Samir works as a mechanic and says he earns enough to meet his family’s expenses, while his wife Mona manages the house’s daily chores.
The marriage business
Although marriage amongst minors is legally prohibited, some clerics like Sheikh Muqbil, the minors’ marriage official at Dakahlia, performs such unions. He presides over at least 15 every month from various villages in Dakahlia. Sheikh Muqbil uses the court complex in Mansoura, where he earns US $500 for his services.
“I’ll give you an official number issued by the Notary Public,” he assures callers, “so that the newborn children may be registered in the father’s name, in case of pregnancy. When you reach the legal age, you will be issued an official and attested marriage contract, in which complete details will be stated, including dowry, and that you are virgin. My fees from the official contract will be 10% of the deferred dowry amount, like the fees charged by other marriage contract officials.”
Absence of legislation
Underage marriages occurs in breach of the law of the child, which explains why these happen clandestinely, according to human rights activist Shahdan Al-Gharbawi, Director of Women and Children Legal Services Society. Ms. Shahdan adds that legal punishment for marriage of minors is not a strong enough deterrent.
She further adds that a deterring legislation must be introduced to guarantee the rights of girls under the legal age, considering that the prescribed punishment under the current law is a maximum three months imprisonment term or payment of a fine, for endangering a child’s life.
Gharbawi suggests that marriage of minors must be legally ranked on par with human trafficking, adding that “if the law prohibits financial transactions until the age of 21 years, how must the status of such marriages be treated?”
Legal marriage age reduced to nine years
Among the actions taken by the Egyptian government to combat this situation is establishing a hotline for reporting minor marriage cases through calling 16000 or 16020.
“Immediately after receiving a call, often from anonymous callers, we take prompt action,” according to hotline worker Aida Noureddin. “We try, along with social workers, to convince the callers’ parents about the serious consequences of their action upon their child and themselves, as well as the nature of perpetrated offense and the legally prescribed punishment.”
Noureddin says she and her colleagues have successfully managed to persuade families to call off the marriage when they have called before the marriage took place. But in most cases, they are too late as the information they receive is too general and missing names.
While Aida indicates a decline of hotline callers’ since the revolution, she warns that it has no correlation to the number of underage marriages. “Before the revolution, we used to receive at least five hotline calls a month in each of Delta’s provinces.” But now, she says, the total number of callers stands at zero, because of the religious trend, reflected on parents’ behavior vis-à-vis minors’ legal marriages. This has been clearly confirmed at the Constitution’s Constituent Assembly discussions, which reduced the legal marriage age to nine years.
“Underage marriage is caused by extreme poverty”
“Underage girls are sold through common-law marriage contracts to Gulf and other Arab countries’ businessmen,” says Dr. Samia al-Sa’ati, Sociology Professor at Ain Shams University and Member of the Supreme Council for Culture.
Al-Saati attributed this situation to poverty and ignorance. These factors, she believes, have caused certain social groups to sell their daughters off through common-law contracts against an agreed amount of money. She has also referred to violations that occur to girls at that age, as the young wife will be used to serve the husband, and sometimes his first wife. These girls are not aware of their obligations and legal rights, she says.
While human rights activist Shahdan Gharabawi has recommended the imposition of stricter punishments to combat this phenomenon, Al-Saati attaches great importance to fighting poverty in this regard. She believes it is imperative to eliminate extreme poverty in a face-saving manner, given that household demands in some unregulated areas are simply trying to gain their daily sustenance, which is no longer affordable.
