Photo Journalist Captures the Marriage of a 15YO and His14YO #childbride in Gaza.

He got a phone call from a friend asking if he wanted to photograph a wedding in Gaza. He told him he wasn’t interested but when he heard that the groom was 15 years old and the bride was one year younger than him, the photographer rushed to the location immediately.

After arriving he saw people celebrating in the street not far from the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip. Among them was a young Palestinian boy being carried on the shoulders of relatives and friends. He couldn’t believe that the boy was the groom until he asked him and he replied with a smile, “yes I am”.

#Nigeria: Butcher, 27, Jailed for 4 Years for Raping Minor

An Upper Area Court in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, three days ago, sentenced a 27-year-old butcher, Mu’azu Lawali, to four years imprisonment for raping a minor.

The presiding officer, Vincent Gwehemba, did not give the convict an option of fine.

The convict, who lives in Angwan Ganda Masaka, was arraigned for having unlawful carnal knowledge of an 11-year-old girl.

The prosecutor, Inspector Joseph Ahua, told the court that the matter was reported by the victim’s parents at Masaka Police Station on October 4.

Ahua said the convict confessed to committing the offence, which contravened Section 283 of the Penal Code.

“Whoever has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 years and shall also be liable to fine,” the Penal Code reads.

The accused, however, pleaded guilty to the charge.

Culled from: News24 Nigeria

#Endchildmarriage –– The Story of a Child Bride in #Chad

My name is Geneviève Vroumdam, I am 12 years old. Three years ago, I was forced into an early marriage.

My older sister was married to a friend of our father’s, an old man who neared his 70th birthday. She was only 15. One day, she just took off. She could no longer take this loveless marriage. She ran far away from us, from our village, and married a young man of her own choosing.

When a bride leaves, however, it is tradition for the family to return her dowry. And what a large dowry it was! My dad owed them seven cows. Of course, he could not afford such a sum, at least not right away.

The World We Want: End Child Marriage

Every year, approximately 14 million girls are married before they turn 18, robbed of their rights to education, health and a life free of violence. Child marriage undermines our efforts to build a healthier, safer, just and more prosperous world for all. Child marriage isn't just a problem for girls, it's a problem to the world.

We can #Endchildmarriage but we need your support! Change will happen if we demand governments to declare the minimum age for marriage. Join the movement to #Endchildmarriage. Please visit our blog http://ayodejiosowobi.blogspot.com to see more of our work.

Fathers Are the Key to Ending Child Marriage –– Do You Agree?

A few weeks ago a man in Kenya posted a lengthy commentary in Facebook giving careful and graphic directions on how men could make sure their "child brides" did not die as the result of intercourse.* In a world in which child marriage is traditional, he was arguing that his advice was humane. He posted his ideas in response to a beyond disturbing story circulating in the news about an eight-year-old Yemeni girl who died from internal wounds after a wedding night with a man five times her age. Yesterday, Yemeni officials The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Abuse Against Women (CEDAW), and the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), early marriage is a violation of human rights. Early marriage has no regard for the notion of consent. According to the International Center for Research on Women, fully one-third of girls in the world are married before the age of 18, with little or no say in the decision leading to the marriage. That's more than 14 million every month, 39,000 a day, or one girl every two seconds. That's six girls in the time it took me to write this sentence. One in nine is married before the age of 15. These girls, who endure years of sexual abuse and often lifetimes of anxiety, depression and trauma, are 5 times more likely to die in childbirth.