Pregnant Girls Have Rights Too.

At 17 years of age,  the government had declared she had passed the legal age of consent, considered a mature teenager, but not yet an Sharon Moyo (not her real name)  was impregnated and the school rule  is a clear expulsion.

The story  is however not the same for her form 4 boyfriend of  the same age, who lives to enjoy and continue his education, unabated or humiliated as the girl  child, life goes on for the boy.

In  most cases,  these boys will deny any form of responsibilities and in your early2000 years of education, once a girl goes pregnant , its game over for her as she is ejected from the boarding school, dumped into her fuming family  and regarded as a cancer that needs to be nipped in the bud, and never must she mix and mingle anymore with other “innocent” scholar.

Schooling in Zimbabwe has never been fair in the early years for a girl child, she had   to carry someone’s  baby , who is already in  denial and facing parents who are  also  not ready  to receive  such a humiliation from school.

The verdict  was and   till now  is  usually  forced  marriage, once  a  girl gets  pregnant,  the  Zimbabwean  culture  dictates  that she is ready for  marriage hence  must be “helped” to  commit to her new husband.

Whether  the  supposed  husband  is as well  ready and  committed  is a story  for a different day,   a “social  crime” has  been  committed and  these are the known and  “acceptable” repercussions  in our communities.

A  young  couple of convenience is usually birthed and  50%  of Zimbabwe’s marriages  have  been birthed  using this methodologies, where teenage  and premarital pregnancy  has  induced  forced  marriages,  but for the girl child .

The  marriages  however  tend  to  be a little hell on earth  in their  first year, both  parties are psychologically  unprepared and not ready to commit, and  even  if they would  love  to do so, they  do not have the means to  do so.

I most  cases a girl  child is  often  abused  under such a relationship to force  her back to her family and  at times  she  blamed  for bringing  uninvited  pregnancy into the boy’s family.

The stress and  trauma of the moment is so huge  that many  girls in these  circumstances even  suffer abortion, and  for those  who manage to pull through, they live their first  5  years  as single  mothers, making  their lives worse than  before, as some contemplate  illicit ways to sustain.

70% of female prostitutes in  most urban  cities in Zimbabwe  are bitter girls and woman who  have been dumped by boyfriends or fathers of their children, leaving them in a harsh economic environments, before they contemplate selling sex.

Despite a constitutional Court landmark judgement on January 20, 2016 that ruled that any marriage before the age of 18 is illegal, the high prevalence rate of child marriages in the country remains worrisome.

The constitutional amendment struck down section 22(1) of the Marriage Act, which for years had allowed children under the age of 18 years to marry.

Zimbabwe has legal provisions that help curb child marriages. “We have Lama ( Legal Age of Majority Act), the Zimbabwe constitution (section 81), the 2016 Constitutional Court ruling, the Domestic Violence Act, Children’s Act and the Amended and Criminal Law ( codification and reform) Act

The proposal of the Marriage Bill in 2017 to replace the Customary Marriages Act and the Marriage Act was also viewed as progressive in championing women’s rights as some of its clauses are meant to embargo child marriages.

Speaking recently at  VMCZ  organized  webinar and  partnered with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Virginia Muwanigwa,  the  Zimbabwe Gender Commission chief executive officer said.

“While we wait for Parliament to expedite finalization of the Marriage Bill to be put into law, there is a lot that can be done by all stakeholders, including the civic society, private and public sectors, the church and the communities at large. There is need for a whole of government holistic approach to ensure that there is an end to child marriages. “

Muwanigwa said the Zimbabwe Gender Commission has over the years utilized its mandate as provided for in the constitution and the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Act [Chapter 10:31] in calling for legal reform as a way of realizing gender equality.