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Impact of Change in Law on Child Marriage in Egypt a Study in Two Egyptian Governorates Nesreen M

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Impact of Change in Law on Child Marriage in Egypt a Study in Two Egyptian Governorates Nesreen M Nesreen M. Kamal Elden, et al Impact Of Change In Law On Child Marriage In Egypt 25 Impact of Change in Law on Child Marriage in Egypt A Study in Two Egyptian Governorates Nesreen M. Kamal Elden*, Hanan Mosleh* *Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Abstract Background Child marriage is recognized as a human right violation. Egyptian law sets age at first marriage to be 18 years for both sexes. Objectives To investigate the effect of the law of age at marriage on the marital behavior of adolescents and to explore the awareness, attitudes and perceptions of the local community and religious key informants towards the law. Methods This descriptive study employed both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Marriage records were reviewed, 260 attendants of two primary healthcare facilities were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire investigating socio-demographics, knowledge and perceptions about the law. Focus group discussions were conducted with 42 religious key informants to explore their opinion about the law. Results 75.8% of participants noticed cases of child marriage in their communities. Nearly 93% said they heard about the law and 78.5 % know that it is at 18 years, 4.2% perceive the law as inappropriate/at all to the local community and 5% were not sure. Marriage ratify contracts that show sudden rise after 2008 and progressive increase until 2012. Most religious key informants view the law as appropriate from health perspectives but not from the religious perspective. Conclusion Child marriages are still practiced in Egypt. Ratify contracts represent a back door allowing registration of these informal marriages when the girl reaches 18 years. An integrated approach is needed to combat child marriage including enforcement of the law, ensure law’s content is understood, train religious stakeholders and treat the radical reasons including poverty religious misconceptions. Keywords: Child marriage, early marriage, law of age at marriage Introduction Marriage is one of the important social conditions amounts to a violation of the systems that affect the structure of right to marry or not (2). According to population through the timing of human rights and under international marriage and its effect on birth rates and law, early marriage is recognized as a the health of mothers and children (1). human right violation (3). The decision of The right to marry is a basic human when to marry has important right. It is legally defined, in Egypt, by a consequences for women. While series of conditions, namely the marriage is considered a choice, laws requirement of the spouses consent for regarding marriage in Egypt, control the marriage to be valid; the existence of when people marry and number of a minimum required age for marriage; partners. Age of marriage laws were and the obligation to officially register designed to prevent early marriage, the marriage. The absence of these because of concerns about health and The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine Vol. 33 No. 4 October 2015 Nesreen M. Kamal Elden, et al Impact Of Change In Law On Child Marriage In Egypt 26 social problems associated with Methodology (4) childbearing at young ages .Early -Study design marriage is often associated with lower This is a cross-sectional descriptive socio-economic status, schooling and study that was applied by both (5)] female labor force participation . quantitative and qualitative techniques. Egypt harbors the largest number of - Study setting and study period female early marriage in the Arab region The field study was implemented during (6) . In 2008, Egypt child protection laws the time period from April 2014 to May raised the legal age of marriage for girls 2014. The study was conducted in two to 18 to be equal to that of boys. purposefully selected Egyptian However, legal loopholes render it governorates; Menoufia governorate unenforceable. Law gaps leave (Lower Egypt) and Souhag governorate opportunities that can allow for early (Upper Egypt). The National Population (7) marriage to occur . If legal marriage is Council (NPC) branch offices, in both a formality or if marriage laws are governorates, offer to collaborate during routinely ignored, then changes in data collection. Then the district of marriage law will not have much impact “Shebeen El-Quom” (Menoufia (5) . governorate) and the district of Akhmeem (Souhag governorate) were Rationale randomly selected. Given the intended policy goals of the Study settings included law number 106 year 2008 (law of age at 1. The NPC branch offices in marriage), there is a rising empirical Menoufia and in Souhag question: what is the impact of this law 2. The Shebeen District’s on the age of first marriage and on the healthcare center in Menoufia awareness and attitudes of the and Akhmeem’s healthcare community towards child marriage center in Souhag Sampling The Aim of the Study A convenient sample of all adults aged ≥ To preserve the health of mothers and 18 years old attending the primary the coming generation, in Egypt, through healthcare facility in Shebeen District’s ensuring proper timing of marriage. healthcare center in Menoufia, during ten working days, (n=130) were included in the study. An equal sample of adults Objectives aged ≥ 18 years old attending 1. To examine the impact of the Akhmeem’s healthcare center in Souhag change in marriage laws on age (n=130) were included, as well. A total at first marriage in two selected of 260 adults aged ≥ 18 years old in both Egyptian governorates. selected governorates; were interviewed. 2. To explore the awareness, In addition, a total of 42 religeous key attitudes and perceptions of the informants (Mazoons) were approached local community and mazoons by the employees of the NPC branch towards the law governing the offices in Menoufia and Souhag: 27 age of marriage and its from Menoufia and 15 from Souhag. implementation Data collection The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine Vol. 33 No. 4 October 2015 Nesreen M. Kamal Elden, et al Impact Of Change In Law On Child Marriage In Egypt 27 Data were collected from the following Data Management and statistical sources: analysis 1- Review of the marriage statistics, In quantitative analysis; data were records and documents available at entered on Excel 2010 and analyzed the Central Agency of Public using SPSS version 17. Categorical Mobilization and Statistics variables were displayed as frequencies (CAPMAS) and accessed through and percentages and numerical variables the information center of the were displayed as measure of central National Population Council (NPC). tendency (mean) and measure of 2- Review of the official records of dispersion (standard deviation) marriages in Menoufia governorate FGDs were conducted in Arabic that were accessed through the NPC language. The note-taking was in Arabic branch in this governorate. There also. All the discussions were tape- were difficulties to access the official recorded with the permission of the records of marriages in Souhag participants. Arabic transcripts were then governorate translated into English and then back 3- Participants attending the healthcare translated for accuracy and quality of centers in 2 selected districts translation by one of the researchers. All ;Shebeen and Akhmeem were the transcribed discussions were entered interviewed using a semi-structured into Microsoft Excel. A coding system questionnaire that included questions was organized and themes were about the socio-demographic manually interpreted. Transcripts were characteristics of the participants and then analyzed and categorized. their awareness about existence of Ethical Considerations the law of age at marriage and An approval was obtained from the attitudes towards appropriateness of ethical committee of the department of the law to the community needs and public health and community medicine, their perceptions about commitment Cairo University, prior to conducting the of the local community to the law study. An informed consent was and its implementation obtained from the respondents while 4- Two focus group discussions (FGDs) approaching them to participate in the were conducted with key informants study. Privacy and confidentiality was (mazoons) in both governorates. maintained according to the revised They were asked about their declaration of Helsinkin on biomedical perceptions concerning the law and research ethics (8). its implementation from their professional point of view and the Results different ways adopted by the community to “go around” the law Socio-demographic characteristics of the and thus still be able to marry off study participants child girls. Themes for the discussion As regards participants interviewed at were developed using published the health facilities; nearly three quarter scientific literature. Then, the FGD of them were females (75.4%), those guide was developed, drafted and aged less than 20 years represent 2.3% field tested on three participants of the group, the age groups (20 -29), (30 – 39), and above 40 years represent The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine Vol. 33 No. 4 October 2015 Nesreen M. Kamal Elden, et al Impact Of Change In Law On Child Marriage In Egypt 28 35%, 41.9% and 18.5% respectively. appropriate/appropriate. 59.1% of the Married participants represent 78.5% of participants said that the law is routinely the group, higher in Menoufia (92.3%) implemented, higher in Menoufia than in Souhag (64.6%) versus a lower (71.4%) than in Souhag (47.2%), percentage of single participants in P=0.001. while 9.1% think that the law Menoufia (4.6%) compared to Souhag is never implemented, higher in Souhag (23.1%). More than half (54.2%) of the (14.6%) than in Menoufia (3.4%), female participants are housewives, P=0.001. 3.8% of male participants are unemployed, higher in Souhag than in Table 2 presents the views of both sexes Menoufia (5.4% versus 2.3%) and the regarding child marriage.
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