CAIRO - The hens and ducks cluck and quack as she feeds them. She spends her life in her small room in a slum in Cairo, where she lives with her two children and her husband. "My maternal responsibilities began at a very early age. I regret this. If my parents had let me get a good education, it would have been a million times better than getting married so young," said Karima, 15. Karima hails from a poor family in Giza Governorate. Because of their poverty, they married her off to her cousin when she was only 13. "If I were a teacher or a doctor, it would be good for me and society. But what can I do now?" she asked tearfully. She said that she had learned her lesson and that she would fight to get her two children a good education, so they can find good jobs. "Education is a bridge that I want my children to cross safely," added this teenage mother of two. Karima told her story in a short film that was screened last week at an event marking the International Day of the Girl. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly established the International Day of the Girl in recognition of the importance of investing in girls and the unique challenges they face in accessing education, healthcare and economic opportunities. "Egyptian girls have the right to be educated and not to get married at an early age and not to be harassed. In a word, not to be discriminated against," said Dr Nasr el-Sayyed, the Secretary-General of the Cairo-based National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM). "This occasion is meant to be an opportunity to boost our efforts to offer girls, especially those from poor families, a better life," he told the gala. In Egypt, there are 17.8 million youngsters aged between 10-19, accounting for 22 per cent of the population, while female teenagers account for 10 per cent of the population, according to a 2009 study made by the NCCM. The study, which focused on 4,104 girls, discovered that 93 per cent of them, aged between 10 and 14, went to school, while this figure fell to 61 per cent for those aged 15 to 19. Meanwhile, the school dropout rate was seven per cent in the first group and 15 per cent in the second. The study has found that the parents are normally to blame for girls dropping out of school, while other problems include the girls' lack of interest and the school fees. "Child marriage prevents girls from enjoying their childhood," said Philippe Duamelle, the UNICEF Representative in Egypt. "We need to do all we can to help girls play a role in developing their countries," he told the same event, which was organised by UNICEF, the NCCM, the UNFPA and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Recently, a Salafist member of the Egypt's Constituent Assembly suggested that girls should be allowed to marry as soon as they reach puberty, even if they're only nine years old. But Egypt's Child Law, issued in 2008, stipulates that girls cannot marry before the age of 18. Another controversial issue is the abolition of Article 29 of the Constitution, found in the chapter entitled ‘Rights and Freedoms', that prohibits forced labour, slavery, trafficking in women and children and the sex trade. The reason for the abolition of Article 29 is that, so it has been claimed, “in Egypt there is no trafficking of women and children". "Such statements mean Egypt returning to the Dark Ages. I can't believe that we're in the 21st century and we're still discussing the right of girls to education and work. It's a shame," said glamorous actress Basma, married to an Egyptian political activist. "I am not optimistic. The future will be darker unless the media, artists and political parties stand against these 'backward' ideas," she added, angrily. One of the frequently criticised forms of human trafficking in Egypt is young girls from poor families being trafficked to the Gulf for early marriage. According to a survey on child marriage to non-Egyptians in the 6th of October City in Giza Governorate, based on a sample of 2,000 families, 82 per cent of the participants have said that the girl usually agrees to this because her family are so poor. A marriage broker plays the main role in connecting non-Egyptian suitors to the girl's family and then comes the khatba (marriage mediator). If the girl is a virgin and beautiful and if she has certain physical attributes, then the family can demand a bigger dowry. According to the survey, 75 per cent of families said this marriage to non-Egyptians is good for protecting the girl, while 51 per cent argued that girls eventually have to get married anyway. The girls most commonly marry men from Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE, then Kuwait, Jordan and Yemen. "One 18-year-old girl has been married 60 times! Each marriage lasts for a couple of days or a week at most," Azza el-Ashmawi of the NCCM told the astonished attendees. "This girl first got married when she was 14. She is now staying at the Rehabilitation Centre for Human Trafficking Victims [affiliated to the NCCM], while her parents are in prison." Karima has ended by saying that she believes that poverty is not something to be ashamed of. "What is shameful is what our parents make us do."
