Champion Fathers Bringing Child Marriage to an End in Rural Bangladesh
During a weekly Friday prayer service in a mosque in the Kurigram district, a group of men huddled around were earnestly listening to one man. Normally conversation can veer from faith, work, daily life to sport quite easily. Yet, on this day, the topic of the conversation had seldom been approached: ending child marriage.
The man told his listening friends, family, and peers: “In Islam, we have an obligation to educate all men and women. If you allow child marriage, you are not following this obligation.”
For several years, Maulana MD. Abdur Razzak has been campaigning against child marriage in his ward, a part of a city equivalent to a municipality, in rural Bangladesh. Along with dissuading the men in his mosque to marry-off their own daughters, he has been facilitating sessions in his community and counseling people against child marriage. His community, a Newashi union in Nageshwari Upazila, Kurigram, is now child marriage free. He is a Champion Father.
“I became a Champion Father because I did not give my daughter away for marriage at 18,” he said.
The Building Better Future for Girls project also supports Champion Fathers and Mothers to increase awareness of child, early and forced marriage related risks and harms, and help identify, report, and respond to cases in their communities. They are becoming true advocates in the fight against child marriage. Through courtyard meetings, Plan International Bangladesh identifies mothers and fathers who seem able to take on the role of champions within their communities. Just like influential community member Abdur Razzak. They are trained about the causes and consequences of child marriage, as well as the importance of birth registration and keeping girls in school.
They are also given information about Bangladeshi law, government education initiatives and child marriage prevention strategies, which empowers them to intervene when a child marriage could be taking place.
This has helped Abdur Razzak advise countless parents in his community against marrying their daughters off and ensuring his ward is child marriage free. He was even able to discourage one of his relatives who had arranged the marriage of his 15-year-old daughter.
“I went and told him that the government is giving everything for free for girls’ education. You only need to send her to school. Don’t marry her off,” he said. “I stopped that marriage.”
As a result, she was able to marry when she wanted, and all the family are now living happily.
Child, early and forced marriage cannot be stopped by the tireless and admirable levels of activism by girls alone. To ensure key messages fully reach those still in support of child marriage, gender equality needs to be advocated by as many community stakeholders as possible. By campaigning to end child, early and forced marriage, Champion Fathers and Mothers play an important role in challenging harmful and discriminatory gender-based stereotypes which see women and girls as inferior and reduce them to roles as mothers and caregivers. In this way, they also support wider efforts to eradicate gender inequality.
Just as Abdur Razzak has been doing for several years.
“I feel if I continue to work in this way, one day no child marriage will exist in society.”
Building Better Futures for Girls
Working within local communities and with local government and administrative officials, the Building Better Futures for Girls project seeks to address three key issues under the broader child rights realization: the right to identity, protection, and participation, in order to prevent and reduce incidence of child marriage while also challenging harmful gender stereotypes.
The Better Futures project adopts a multi-pronged strategy, deploying several key approaches designed to be mutually reinforcing. These approaches support the same broader strategy for change, building knowledge and awareness of child, early and forced marriage, in particular among girls and boys. This is especially important because it equips young people with the knowledge and information to make informed decisions about their lives and futures.
A strong focus of this project entails working with and within communities. For example, Building Better Futures for Girls has been playing a vital role in identifying child marriage rates in Kurigram, even during lockdown. The project leaders carry out activities that challenge gender stereotypes and shift attitudes so that people, especially those with power and influence, support delaying marriage. The project is also providing education on gender
equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights to girls and boys enrolled in schools. As well as out-of-school children and young adolescents to ensure no one is left behind. This links to the establishment of Youth Forums, girl-friendly action plans in schools, and increased usage of a national hotline for reporting suspected or imminent cases of child marriage. Education and awareness-raising among parents and community leaders is also important, including the wide network of Champion Fathers and Mothers
Categories: Campaigns, Protection from violence, Sexual and reproductive health and rights
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