:00:02. > :00:05.Now on BBC News, it is time for Our World. Angus Crawford travels to
:00:05. > :00:13.Bangladesh to look at the plight of young girls who are being married
:00:13. > :00:18.off by their families. Jemi is getting married in a week.
:00:18. > :00:26.Her parents have arranged the day, they had even picked her husband,
:00:26. > :00:33.she is 13-year-old. -- she is a 13- year-old.
:00:33. > :00:38.A girl once told me, why me? I am just a girl. I am being robbed of
:00:38. > :00:43.my childhood. It is like dying a slow death every day. Ollie' has
:00:43. > :00:51.had enough of seeing his school friends become brides, and now
:00:51. > :00:58.fights against hard marriage. But there are hundreds of thousands of
:00:58. > :01:02.child brides. It is the first thing in the morning and we are making a
:01:02. > :01:06.six-hour drive out to Jemi's village. Her parents are still
:01:06. > :01:10.determined to go ahead with the wedding in three days' time. Can
:01:10. > :01:20.the marriage breakers of Bangladesh overcome this country's deeply held
:01:20. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :01:50.Bangladesh, one of the most crowded countries on earth, where half the
:01:50. > :01:54.population lives on less than $1 a day. A country where boys can fly
:01:54. > :02:00.their kites and dream of better things, but where they Dees become
:02:00. > :02:06.wives and mothers, while still children themselves. -- where it
:02:06. > :02:12.girls. A place where daughters are a burden, many are not allowed to
:02:12. > :02:17.work and cannot earn a living. A burden that can only be lifted by
:02:17. > :02:27.marriage. This is the way it has always been down, but now one boy
:02:27. > :02:28.
:02:28. > :02:32.is trying to change things. It is actually against the law and
:02:32. > :02:37.Bangladesh for a dole to marry before the age of 18, but the most
:02:37. > :02:42.recent statistic shows that one in five, 20% of girls, are forced to
:02:42. > :02:45.go through a wedding before they are even 15. They drop out of
:02:46. > :02:52.school, rarely get to do any paid work, and they run a much higher
:02:52. > :02:57.risk of domestic violence. Girls suggested de deux, who was married
:02:57. > :03:02.at 15, and like most child brides, gave up school for a life of toil.
:03:02. > :03:12.The truth is that she had no choice. People in my country would say that
:03:12. > :03:23.
:03:23. > :03:31.15 is too young to be married. What I also think it is too young. I
:03:31. > :03:35.have said no. But still my parents made me get married.
:03:35. > :03:40.But looking on and butting in when his daughter does not give the
:03:40. > :03:50.answer that he expects, is Shajida or's father. The truth is that her
:03:50. > :03:55.
:03:55. > :04:00.childhood ended the day that she There are child brides in every
:04:00. > :04:04.part of Bangladesh, two-thirds of girls are married before their 18th
:04:04. > :04:11.birthday, and poverty is at its heart. Poor daughters are twice as
:04:11. > :04:16.likely to be married off than those from richer families. It is the new
:04:16. > :04:21.kind of slavery. Can you imagine robbing a child of her child with?
:04:21. > :04:29.She does not go to school, she becomes perpetually uneducated, and
:04:30. > :04:37.also becomes a bad mother. Meet ollie', he is just 12. On the
:04:38. > :04:47.outskirts of Dhaka, he has had enough of becoming a -- seeing his
:04:48. > :04:48.
:04:48. > :04:52.school mates become brides. Often families in the slum tried to
:04:52. > :04:56.hide the age of their children, so they come to this house, knock on
:04:56. > :05:06.the door, and they had asked the father to provide the birth
:05:06. > :05:33.
:05:33. > :05:43.Thanks to him and his friends, there are half as many child
:05:43. > :05:46.
:05:46. > :05:56.marriages in this town as there used to be. There are no tarred
:05:56. > :05:56.
:05:56. > :06:00.marriages any more. -- child marriages. They are asking whether
:06:00. > :06:10.they are going to marry her daughter off before a team, if they
:06:10. > :06:36.
:06:36. > :06:40.get a good proposal. She says no, I But the work is not easy. A woman
:06:41. > :06:46.stops him in the street and harangues the group. If we educate
:06:46. > :06:52.our daughters, what man will want them? Many families feel that a
:06:52. > :06:56.goal must marry young all this can ever marrying at all. -- a girl.
:06:56. > :07:01.Fathers have to pay to secure a marriage for their daughters, a
:07:01. > :07:05.dowry that increases in costs as the girl gets older. Some poor
:07:05. > :07:11.families feel they have no choice but to marry them off as young as
:07:11. > :07:15.possible, even if they are against it -- even if it is against the law.
:07:15. > :07:20.The older a girl is, the more difficult it is to find a husband
:07:20. > :07:25.to accept marriage. The younger the better, because there is a longer
:07:25. > :07:35.life of servitude, and it also means that the dole is easy to
:07:35. > :07:35.
:07:35. > :07:40.quote unquote manipulate. -- the girl. It all revolves around money.
:07:40. > :07:44.We are told the situation is worse in the countryside. We had just had
:07:44. > :07:50.a phone call from a newspaper journalist who has told us that he
:07:50. > :08:00.has found a very young girl, and he -- they are due to be made in less
:08:00. > :08:12.
:08:12. > :08:22.than an hour's time. After a six- You are getting married next week?
:08:22. > :08:26.
:08:26. > :08:31.Yes. Are you excited about that? Not very much. Jemi is he alone.
:08:31. > :08:36.Her parents are out in the field. She does not know her age, but she
:08:36. > :08:40.is in a great, so she is either 12 or 13. Her parents had told her
:08:40. > :08:45.that she has to marry her cousin in five days' time. I asked her
:08:45. > :08:50.whether she was looking forward to the wedding, she said, not really.
:08:50. > :08:55.Word of our Bisset quickly spreads, and Jemi's mother returns from the
:08:55. > :09:05.field. She says they are a poor family but had no choice but to go
:09:05. > :09:22.
:09:22. > :09:27.So we asked them whether there is anything that could make them
:09:27. > :09:30.change their minds. We remind them that it is against the law. When we
:09:30. > :09:40.leave, the family is still determined that Jemi should marry
:09:40. > :10:04.
:10:04. > :10:11.in a matter of days, at the age of This is where tired marriage can
:10:11. > :10:14.lead. Dhaka Medical College and hospital. Girls coup Mary Young
:10:14. > :10:19.give birth Young, their bodies are not prepared for Labour, they
:10:19. > :10:26.suffer a serious in -- internal injuries, leaving them incontinent
:10:26. > :10:31.for life. Funds are so tight that those who do not have operate --
:10:31. > :10:36.those who had just had operation sleep two to a bed. It is a
:10:36. > :10:46.humiliating and degrading condition, which turns women and girls into
:10:46. > :10:47.
:10:47. > :10:54.social outcasts. She is 25 now, but Are you still married to your
:10:54. > :11:03.husband? TRANSLATION: He has married again. Your husband has
:11:03. > :11:08.abandoned you because of your condition? Yes.
:11:08. > :11:17.Almost 95% of the time, the husbands or leave the girls. She
:11:17. > :11:22.has lost everything. She has to have some space in her parents hire.
:11:22. > :11:32.We have some examples that even in that their parents home, nobody
:11:32. > :11:32.
:11:32. > :11:38.wants to keep her because of the smell. They ask her to stay in the
:11:38. > :11:44.kettles. -- with the cattle. Recondition can be cured with
:11:44. > :11:49.surgery. -- the condition. Today, she will go through the operation.
:11:49. > :11:57.Figures suggest more than one million girls suffer the effects of
:11:57. > :12:06.fistula. As we are about to leave the staff asked us to talk to a 12-
:12:06. > :12:15.year-old girl who has already had a child. What happened to your baby?
:12:15. > :12:25.TRANSLATION: It died in my stomach. A fat to cut it out. -- and they
:12:25. > :12:27.
:12:27. > :12:37.had to. Do you have health problems now?
:12:37. > :12:41.
:12:41. > :12:51.Translation I am very ill with this illness. It is a very hateful
:12:51. > :13:02.
:13:02. > :13:08.illness. I cannot stand the smell In this slum, a man weaves the
:13:08. > :13:14.intricate threads of a wedding veil, a symbolic length of cloth that
:13:14. > :13:18.transforms the wearer into a woman. Despite such damaging health
:13:18. > :13:24.effects there are other reasons why families continue to marry off
:13:24. > :13:29.their girls so young. One is so called Eve-teasing. Teenage girls
:13:29. > :13:34.have to run at a daily gauntlet of threats and abuse. This girl has to
:13:34. > :13:38.be escorted to school. The solution for some families is to find a
:13:38. > :13:48.husband for protection. This group of girls told us how bad it could
:13:48. > :14:14.
:14:14. > :14:24.So, you girls, regularly walking in the streets, have always say they
:14:24. > :14:41.
:14:41. > :14:47.may throw acid in your faces? -- In Bangladesh, many girls are
:14:48. > :14:53.married to protect family honour and family finances. As we are
:14:53. > :14:57.filming we come across this wedding. The bride is in her 20s. She is
:14:57. > :15:04.wailing and crying and has to be pushed into the car. Even for a
:15:04. > :15:10.grown woman, her marriage they may be more of an art -- may be more of
:15:11. > :15:17.an ordeal than celebration. Can you imagine? Is a woman was behaving
:15:17. > :15:22.that way, can you imagine a child? They will be thinking, what is
:15:22. > :15:28.going to happen tonight? It is the beginning of my life as an adults.
:15:28. > :15:32.I don't know if I am a child or an adults. I don't know the physical
:15:32. > :15:37.changes in me. Here is a stranger, a man who is supposed to be my
:15:37. > :15:45.Guardian. But I know that I will not be guarded. I will become a
:15:45. > :15:49.slave for ever. Child marriage has been illegal here since 1929. The
:15:49. > :15:55.law was reinforced in 1984. But it is widely ignored, even by those
:15:55. > :16:01.whose job it is to uphold it. This man is a registrar, a local
:16:01. > :16:08.officials paid to record all weddings. He and a colleague showed
:16:08. > :16:18.us records. And then an extraordinary admission. What is
:16:18. > :16:20.
:16:20. > :16:26.TRANSLATION: We can't register marriages under 18. When the goal
:16:26. > :16:30.is under 18 we have to wait until they get us another birth
:16:30. > :16:35.certificate that says she is 18. Then we register it. We do not
:16:35. > :16:39.report these to the police because we might get into trouble.
:16:39. > :16:45.those who have to deal with the devastating impact of child
:16:45. > :16:51.marriage it is simply unacceptable. In rural areas, the poor,
:16:51. > :16:55.illiterate fathers, it's they don't want to listen to the law. Just
:16:55. > :17:02.social tattoos and customs. They want to get rid of their little
:17:02. > :17:11.girls. They don't know what may be the impact of the marriage of these
:17:11. > :17:17.small girl. Today, and meeting has been called in the slum to explain
:17:17. > :17:21.the work of his group and the reasons why child marriage is so
:17:21. > :17:25.harmful. It may not look like much but these are all mothers from the
:17:25. > :17:31.area who have been brought here. The group is telling them about the
:17:31. > :17:36.dangers of child marriage. Ali and his friends can make all the
:17:36. > :17:40.difference. At the end of the meeting the women are asked to take
:17:40. > :17:50.an oath, to raise their hands if they promise not to marry off their
:17:50. > :18:02.
:18:03. > :18:07.It's but there is more to him than his campaign. He is a pretty normal
:18:07. > :18:15.12-year-old, handy with a cricket bat, popular, and determined to do
:18:15. > :18:25.well in school, especially in English. I am so happy because
:18:25. > :18:31.
:18:31. > :18:41.Remember Jenny? The 30-year-old due to get married at the end of the
:18:41. > :18:42.
:18:42. > :18:46.week? -- 13. This man is a campaigner who tries to stop child
:18:46. > :18:53.marriages, sometimes breaking them up on the day of the wedding. He
:18:53. > :19:00.has been to Jenny's school and has proved she is 13. This form proves
:19:00. > :19:06.that the journey is only 13. Yes. The family cannot lie to us about
:19:06. > :19:11.her age. Armed with that we return it to Jenny's village full. There
:19:11. > :19:17.is a government official who says he will prosecute the family.
:19:17. > :19:23.TRANSLATION: You should get your daughter marry when you are 18. I
:19:23. > :19:29.didn't know this. Her uncle is angry. He wants to know who will
:19:29. > :19:34.pay her dowry. The NGOs said they will take them to court if they
:19:34. > :19:40.marry her off. The family said, we will not get her married. I am not
:19:40. > :19:45.sure they mean it. Jenny was in school when all of this was going
:19:45. > :19:50.on. The family claim they can no longer afford the fees, one of the
:19:50. > :19:54.reasons to marry her off. We went to talk to the teacher. The
:19:54. > :20:01.Bangladeshi government has tried to use schools to stop child marriages,
:20:01. > :20:06.in some cases giving scholarships to girls. Today, a breakthrough.
:20:06. > :20:15.The head teacher agrees to waive the school fees if Jenny remains
:20:15. > :20:22.unmarried. In front of the village the family make an announcement.
:20:22. > :20:26.The wedding is off. It has been a difficult day for Jenny's mother.
:20:27. > :20:31.So there will be no wedding veil for Jenny just yet. She did get
:20:31. > :20:41.back to her school books instead. What are you thinking now? -- she
:20:41. > :20:41.
:20:41. > :20:51.can get back. It's TRANSLATION: This is very good. I used sad that
:20:51. > :21:08.
:21:08. > :21:12.you will not be married on Friday? A cross Bangladesh, hundreds of