Underage marriage common

Opinion: August 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Gulnur Ragifgizi

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Two years ago, Azerbaijan’s parliament promised to produce tougher laws to prevent underage marriage, but it took a police raid to stop a man in his 30s from marrying a 13-year-old.

The officers swooped in on a beauty salon in the city of Ganja where the marriage was due to take place last month.

The 13-year-old child bride said she was aware that women cannot legally marry until they are 17, but believed the man, 20 years her senior, was too good a catch to let escape.

“My fiance is a serious guy. They say he’s a businessman,” she said. “My mother saw photographs of his house — it’s large and beautiful.”

The girl would have liked to continue her education and eventually study music in college, but she thought marriage sounded like a good idea from the way her mother described it.

She blames “jealous” relatives for tipping off the police.

“My fiance’s parents initially wanted to marry him to my cousin. But seeing me, he changed his mind and proposed,” she said.

Ilgar Balakishiyev, deputy police chief in Ganja, suspects that money, not love, was at the root of the thwarted marriage.

Medical examination

“They wanted to arrange the marriage quickly, within the space of a week and with very few people present,” he said. “The fact that prior to the wedding, the girl underwent a medical examination and got a certificate confirming she was a virgin supports our suspicions. From many years of experience, I can say these examinations are done so as to sell the girl off at a higher price.”

The girl’s mother denied she was, in effect, selling her daughter.

“I’m a mother and I love my daughter. How could I sell her?” she asked. “It was just that a good fiance appeared, and I wanted my daughter to be happy. I’ve got health problems so I wanted to build a good life for my daughter as soon as possible. ... I myself married when I was 13.”

Hadi Rajabli, a member of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party who chairs the parliamentary committee for social policy, said she began advocating for tougher regulations barring underage marriages two years ago. But she says a busy legislative docket has prevented lawmakers from taking up the issue.

Women’s rights activists in Azerbaijan say the need for stronger legislation is urgent as girls are increasingly being married off below the minimum age — 18 for men and 17 for women.

When a minor enters into an illegal marriage, only the Muslim wedding rite is performed. Without a marriage certificate from the state, wives — especially, but not only, minors — miss out on the protections afforded by a legal marriage. Gulnur Ragifgizi is a reporter in Azerbaijan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.