The Marriage Breakers of Bangladesh Our World

Now on BBC News, it is time for Our World. Angus Crawford travels to

Bangladesh to look at the plight of young girls who are being married

off by their families. Jemi is getting married in a week.

Her parents have arranged the day, they had even picked her husband,

she is 13-year-old. -- she is a 13- year-old.

A girl once told me, why me? I am just a girl. I am being robbed of

my childhood. It is like dying a slow death every day. Ollie' has

had enough of seeing his school friends become brides, and now

fights against hard marriage. But there are hundreds of thousands of

child brides. It is the first thing in the morning and we are making a

six-hour drive out to Jemi's village. Her parents are still

determined to go ahead with the wedding in three days' time. Can

the marriage breakers of Bangladesh overcome this country's deeply held

Bangladesh, one of the most crowded countries on earth, where half the

population lives on less than $1 a day. A country where boys can fly

their kites and dream of better things, but where they Dees become

wives and mothers, while still children themselves. -- where it

girls. A place where daughters are a burden, many are not allowed to

work and cannot earn a living. A burden that can only be lifted by

marriage. This is the way it has always been down, but now one boy

is trying to change things. It is actually against the law and

Bangladesh for a dole to marry before the age of 18, but the most

recent statistic shows that one in five, 20% of girls, are forced to

go through a wedding before they are even 15. They drop out of

school, rarely get to do any paid work, and they run a much higher

risk of domestic violence. Girls suggested de deux, who was married

at 15, and like most child brides, gave up school for a life of toil.

The truth is that she had no choice. People in my country would say that

15 is too young to be married. What I also think it is too young. I

have said no. But still my parents made me get married.

But looking on and butting in when his daughter does not give the

answer that he expects, is Shajida or's father. The truth is that her

childhood ended the day that she There are child brides in every

part of Bangladesh, two-thirds of girls are married before their 18th

birthday, and poverty is at its heart. Poor daughters are twice as

likely to be married off than those from richer families. It is the new

kind of slavery. Can you imagine robbing a child of her child with?

She does not go to school, she becomes perpetually uneducated, and

also becomes a bad mother. Meet ollie', he is just 12. On the

outskirts of Dhaka, he has had enough of becoming a -- seeing his

school mates become brides. Often families in the slum tried to

hide the age of their children, so they come to this house, knock on

the door, and they had asked the father to provide the birth

Thanks to him and his friends, there are half as many child

marriages in this town as there used to be. There are no tarred

marriages any more. -- child marriages. They are asking whether

they are going to marry her daughter off before a team, if they

get a good proposal. She says no, I But the work is not easy. A woman

stops him in the street and harangues the group. If we educate

our daughters, what man will want them? Many families feel that a

goal must marry young all this can ever marrying at all. -- a girl.

Fathers have to pay to secure a marriage for their daughters, a

dowry that increases in costs as the girl gets older. Some poor

families feel they have no choice but to marry them off as young as

possible, even if they are against it -- even if it is against the law.

The older a girl is, the more difficult it is to find a husband

to accept marriage. The younger the better, because there is a longer

life of servitude, and it also means that the dole is easy to

quote unquote manipulate. -- the girl. It all revolves around money.

We are told the situation is worse in the countryside. We had just had

a phone call from a newspaper journalist who has told us that he

has found a very young girl, and he -- they are due to be made in less

than an hour's time. After a six- You are getting married next week?

Yes. Are you excited about that? Not very much. Jemi is he alone.

Her parents are out in the field. She does not know her age, but she

is in a great, so she is either 12 or 13. Her parents had told her

that she has to marry her cousin in five days' time. I asked her

whether she was looking forward to the wedding, she said, not really.

Word of our Bisset quickly spreads, and Jemi's mother returns from the

field. She says they are a poor family but had no choice but to go

So we asked them whether there is anything that could make them

change their minds. We remind them that it is against the law. When we

leave, the family is still determined that Jemi should marry

in a matter of days, at the age of This is where tired marriage can

lead. Dhaka Medical College and hospital. Girls coup Mary Young

give birth Young, their bodies are not prepared for Labour, they

suffer a serious in -- internal injuries, leaving them incontinent

for life. Funds are so tight that those who do not have operate --

those who had just had operation sleep two to a bed. It is a

humiliating and degrading condition, which turns women and girls into

social outcasts. She is 25 now, but Are you still married to your

husband? TRANSLATION: He has married again. Your husband has

abandoned you because of your condition? Yes.

Almost 95% of the time, the husbands or leave the girls. She

has lost everything. She has to have some space in her parents hire.

We have some examples that even in that their parents home, nobody

wants to keep her because of the smell. They ask her to stay in the

kettles. -- with the cattle. Recondition can be cured with

surgery. -- the condition. Today, she will go through the operation.

Figures suggest more than one million girls suffer the effects of

fistula. As we are about to leave the staff asked us to talk to a 12-

year-old girl who has already had a child. What happened to your baby?

TRANSLATION: It died in my stomach. A fat to cut it out. -- and they

had to. Do you have health problems now?

Translation I am very ill with this illness. It is a very hateful

illness. I cannot stand the smell In this slum, a man weaves the

intricate threads of a wedding veil, a symbolic length of cloth that

transforms the wearer into a woman. Despite such damaging health

effects there are other reasons why families continue to marry off

their girls so young. One is so called Eve-teasing. Teenage girls

have to run at a daily gauntlet of threats and abuse. This girl has to

be escorted to school. The solution for some families is to find a

husband for protection. This group of girls told us how bad it could

So, you girls, regularly walking in the streets, have always say they

may throw acid in your faces? -- In Bangladesh, many girls are

married to protect family honour and family finances. As we are

filming we come across this wedding. The bride is in her 20s. She is

wailing and crying and has to be pushed into the car. Even for a

grown woman, her marriage they may be more of an art -- may be more of

an ordeal than celebration. Can you imagine? Is a woman was behaving

that way, can you imagine a child? They will be thinking, what is

going to happen tonight? It is the beginning of my life as an adults.

I don't know if I am a child or an adults. I don't know the physical

changes in me. Here is a stranger, a man who is supposed to be my

Guardian. But I know that I will not be guarded. I will become a

slave for ever. Child marriage has been illegal here since 1929. The

law was reinforced in 1984. But it is widely ignored, even by those

whose job it is to uphold it. This man is a registrar, a local

officials paid to record all weddings. He and a colleague showed

us records. And then an extraordinary admission. What is

TRANSLATION: We can't register marriages under 18. When the goal

is under 18 we have to wait until they get us another birth

certificate that says she is 18. Then we register it. We do not

report these to the police because we might get into trouble.

those who have to deal with the devastating impact of child

marriage it is simply unacceptable. In rural areas, the poor,

illiterate fathers, it's they don't want to listen to the law. Just

social tattoos and customs. They want to get rid of their little

girls. They don't know what may be the impact of the marriage of these

small girl. Today, and meeting has been called in the slum to explain

the work of his group and the reasons why child marriage is so

harmful. It may not look like much but these are all mothers from the

area who have been brought here. The group is telling them about the

dangers of child marriage. Ali and his friends can make all the

difference. At the end of the meeting the women are asked to take

an oath, to raise their hands if they promise not to marry off their

It's but there is more to him than his campaign. He is a pretty normal

12-year-old, handy with a cricket bat, popular, and determined to do

well in school, especially in English. I am so happy because

Remember Jenny? The 30-year-old due to get married at the end of the

week? -- 13. This man is a campaigner who tries to stop child

marriages, sometimes breaking them up on the day of the wedding. He

has been to Jenny's school and has proved she is 13. This form proves

that the journey is only 13. Yes. The family cannot lie to us about

her age. Armed with that we return it to Jenny's village full. There

is a government official who says he will prosecute the family.

TRANSLATION: You should get your daughter marry when you are 18. I

didn't know this. Her uncle is angry. He wants to know who will

pay her dowry. The NGOs said they will take them to court if they

marry her off. The family said, we will not get her married. I am not

sure they mean it. Jenny was in school when all of this was going

on. The family claim they can no longer afford the fees, one of the

reasons to marry her off. We went to talk to the teacher. The

Bangladeshi government has tried to use schools to stop child marriages,

in some cases giving scholarships to girls. Today, a breakthrough.

The head teacher agrees to waive the school fees if Jenny remains

unmarried. In front of the village the family make an announcement.

The wedding is off. It has been a difficult day for Jenny's mother.

So there will be no wedding veil for Jenny just yet. She did get

back to her school books instead. What are you thinking now? -- she

can get back. It's TRANSLATION: This is very good. I used sad that

you will not be married on Friday? A cross Bangladesh, hundreds of