Rohingya crisis: girls as young as 12 married off for 'more food'

The UN World Food Programme rations are allocated by household and now, girls as young as 12 are being married off just to create new households with food quotas of their own

(Photo: the Indian Express)
(Photo: the Indian Express)

Young Rohingya girls, who fled Myanmar, are being forced to marry when they reach Bangladesh, just to secure more food for their families.

UN World Food Programme rations are allocated by household, families are marrying girls off as young as 12, to create new households with food quotas of their own, according to the Guardian.

Over 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar, since the military launched its first round of “clearance operations” in October last year.

About 600,000 were displaced since the second wave in August, which many countries, as well as the UN condemned to be “ethnic cleansing”.

Security forces have also been accused of mass rape and killing.

Medics in Bangladesh said that young girls have been a particular target of sexual violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

In the camps of Cox’s Bazar, these girls continue to face violence. This time, in the form of early marriage, which causes physical and psychological damage.

“I wasn’t mature when I got married,” said Anwara, who fled Rakhine after the military burned her home.

Aged 14, she was married within weeks of arriving in Bangladesh and has just had her first baby.

“I couldn’t understand what had happened, and got weak and didn’t eat anything. I didn’t tell anyone and no one knew I’d conceived. Girls don’t become smart till four or five years after they get their menstruation. That’s when we become strong and understand things in life and have a chance to grow tall and beautiful.

“I wish I could have spent some time without a husband and baby. Then life would have been beautiful.”

While early marriage is often practiced in Rohingya communities within Myanmar, the girls claimed that food rations were a major factor in the decision to wed in the camps.

The allocation of 25kg of rice, every two weeks, is based on an average size of a family of five, but many families tend to be larger.

Muhammad Hassen just arranged the marriage of his 14-year-old daughter, Arafa. “We have 10 family members in total, seven daughters, and we get 25kg of rice [every two weeks]. This is not enough for a family of 10,” he said.

“Of course if I’d stayed in Rakhine I would wait to marry my daughter. I was a farmer with three acres of land. I [would have fed her] with what I have in my house or extended family and neighbours would help. Here we can’t do that.”

Arafa had not yet met her husband – who was “very much older than me, about 20” – but she had seen him in the distance and believed he was an “honourable man”.

“I hope it will be good being a wife,” she said. “In my house I do everything for my parents and my young sisters, so it is my habit.”

Only one of the girls interviewed knew their husband before their wedding day, and all the girls who had already married said they knew nothing about sex.

“My parents gave me to my husband because they couldn’t afford to feed me. When I got married, I just thought my husband would feed me, I didn’t understand what he would do [in terms of intimate relations],” said Fatima, who was 12 when she got married.

Mohamad, a camp mazi – community leader – said parents don’t want to marry off their daughters, but “they need to eat”.

WFP said for the latest round of food distribution it had increased its rations for families of more than eight people. A spokesperson initially said the link between child marriage and rations was unlikely.

But after hearing the Guardian’s findings, the organisation said it would follow up on the concerns with other UN agencies involved in child protection.

Habibur Rahman, programme head at Bangladesh charity Brac, who works with refugee families, said girls being married off for food was “a deep concern”.

“A household with more than eight members gets two ration cards but the household with seven members is getting one card. As a result, there is a risk of child marriage as a girl child can be married off and that would mean more food per ration,” he said.

Lakshmi Sundaram, executive director of Girls Not Brides, said child marriage had “devastating” consequences including early pregnancy, physical and sexual violence, and an increased likelihood of poverty.

“We cannot ignore child marriage in crisis settings. Governments and NGOs need to pay special attention to the risk of child marriage when they are planning their responses to humanitarian emergencies. That means putting a special focus on safety and access to quality education for girls. It also means working with girls and women from the early stages of a crisis, so they can explain their situations first-hand,” she said.