Zimbabwe’s constitutional court has outlawed child marriage after two women who married as children took the government to court. One-third of women in Zimbabwe married before the age of 18, according to a rights group.
The southern African country’s top court ruled illegal on Wednesday the country’s marriage law for allowing girls to marry at 16 but boys at 18.
Two child brides, Loveness Mudzuru and Ruvimbo Tsopodzi, challenged the law for driving girls into a life of poverty, depriving education and discriminating.
The ruling also includes not allowing marriage until 18 for “unregistered, customary or religious” unions, Judge Vernanda Ziyambi said while delivering a unanimous ruling.
Like too many young girls, Mudzuru and Tsopodzi were forced to marry before the age of 18.
Poverty, the prospect of dowry and fewer mouths to feed drives many families to force young girls to marry early. Child marriage sets women up for potential abuse and a cycle of poverty as well as death or injury during childbirth.
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