Another Ethiopian bride, Nibret, is 11, but she is just as traumatized by her wedding to a boy she has never met. And well she may be, since too-early pregnancy could easily cripple or kill her. That's the reality behind the right of women and girls to choice and reproductive health. The scene is northern Ethiopia. In the poor villages there, forced marriage of children is common, although the legal age for marriage is 15.
Marriage helps cement ties between families and establish land rights.
Parents of girls fear that if they leave it too long their daughters will not find a groom. The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association is campaigning for better observance of the legal marriage age. Even priests will bless child marriages, though the Coptic Church claims to uphold the law. The girls become incontinent and can no longer have sex, so their husbands abandon them. Sewarag was in hospital for a year and nobody visited her.