The Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa-Djaba, has described child marriage and similar outmoded practices as a dishonour to the country.
Speaking at the commemoration event of the Campaign on accelerated reduction of maternal mortality in Africa (CARMMA), the Minister said more needs to be done in terms of sensitization in order to stop child marriage in the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ryI8eXYMyOKUZQGte4IrFtYPA1e2nWrk”]“It is not good enough for you to say it is an honour to send your child off to marry her grandfather. For a 14 year old to marry a 68 year old man is not an honour it’s a dishonour. It is Haram. And for anybody in this twenty first century -Ghana sixty years on, and with Africa at the helm of affairs – to think that it is okay to mutilate any young girl in the name of honor of culture is also an indication that we have still a lot to do in terms of sensitization” she said.
The Minster, who has been very vocal against child marriage, suggested that laws be transcribed into local dialects for easy interpretation by the locals in the country who might not know what they are entitled to.
“It is important that our people who cannot read, be given the laws in a medium that they can read [or listen to]. All the laws are in English or in French and they are written, and so if you cannot read, then you might not know that what you are doing is against the law and that it is criminal.”
“…So I want to implore all of us to find out how we can translate all the of laws into voice, into the different dialects, so that our people where the issues are occurring in the communities in the households will be able to understand that the time has come for them to change” she pleaded.
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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana