Ethiopia has a population of 74 million, 85 % of which resides in the rural areas.
The practice of early marriage (before age 18) is prevalent, especially in the Amhara region of Northern Ethiopia where parents’ consent to their daughters’ consummated marriages.
The betrothal occurs earlier when they are still as young as 10 or 12 and 50 % of girls are married by the age of 15. In Amhara, the
maid trade is a common practice which affects over a three-quarter of girls in the region and see about 1,500 leave the country daily for greener pastures.
Once a girl menstruates, someone marries her off because it is a “sin” to remain unmarried. In these communities, a girl of fourt
een years is overdue for marriage.
Some of these girls spending as “much” as three months in the marriage before getting a divorce. This ticket enables her travel to oil-rich countries as an illegal immigrant to become a domestic worker. While there, she remains obligated to send money to her parents. There is no fear of her getting raped because she has been “deflowered in a dignified way.”
Marriages are often arranged, with men marrying in their late teens or early twenties and the girls were married as young as 14. After a church wedding, divorce is frowned upon. Each family hosts a separate wedding feast after the wedding. Upon childbirth, a priest will visit the family to bless the infant.
The mother and child remain in the house for 40 days after birth for physical and emotional strength. The infant will be taken to the church for baptism at 40 days (for boys) or 80 days (for girls).
PRB published an article about Wobete Falaga, who is from a village in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. She was only 13 when she became pregn
ant. Married at 11, just before her first menstrual period, her small underdeveloped body was not ready for the stress of childbirth.
After five days of gruelling labour at home, her child was finally born, but it was dead. As a result of the long, strenuous labour, Wobete suffered crippling injuries. There was a hole, or fistula, between her bladder and vagina and another between her vagina and rectum.
The damage left her body unable to control its normal excretory functions, and urine and faeces were constantly dripping down he
r legs. Her husband quickly rejected her, sending her home to her family.
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