Financial motives drive 40% of child marriages: Lebanon faces 'serious' crisis threatening Lebanese youth

Report by Yara Dargham, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Are they truly prepared to embrace motherhood at this moment? 

As minors, young girls deserve the opportunity to focus on their education, self-discovery, and the richness of life's experiences. 

This reality is akin to poetry, yet tragically absent from the lives of some young girls in Lebanon.

A study conducted on 1300 Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian individuals showed that the percentage of those who are married with their parent's consent and are under the age of 18 reached 20 percent of those surveyed, while 86 percent of them are girls.

If we look at who forces their children into marriage more, Syrians top the list at 45 percent, followed by Lebanon at 36 percent, and 20 percent from Palestinian nationality. 

The noteworthy aspect of these statistics is that in 40 percent of cases, the primary reason for these marriages is financial. 

This means that some parents view marrying off their children as a way to alleviate the financial strain of raising them, shifting the responsibility to the spouse without fully grasping the potential adverse effects on the children's psychological and physical well-being.

A look at the percentages of child marriage in various Lebanese governorates indicated that it reached 31 percent in Baalbek-Hermel, 29 percent in the Bekaa, 27 percent in Akkar, 25 percent in North Lebanon, 23 percent in Nabatieh, 17 percent in the South, 15 percent in Mount Lebanon, and 10 percent in Beirut. 

Since some of these statistics are alarming, it is now crucial to implement a law that safeguards these children from having their lives negatively impacted.

Since 2017, and in conjunction with the "Not Before 18" campaign, a draft law was presented to the parliament to set the marriage age above 18 and criminalize child marriage, but this law is still being discussed by various comittees.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Committee approved this law in 2023, and MP George Okais pledged to expedite its course.

In summary, getting married at a young age robs children of their childhood and shatters their dreams, and this harmful practice needs to be stopped immediately to prevent further damage in the future.