Marriage
Women may legally marry at age 18 and men at age 21. The marriage code allows girls under age 15 to marry with parental consent or special permission from a judge. Women's rights organizations have opposed this provision as contradicting international conventions that protect children through the age of 18. Underage marriage is a problem throughout the country with parents in some cases arranging marriages for girls as young as nine. A Malian NGO reported that at least 10 girls-—some below the age of 13—-lost their lives between 2005 and May 2007 because of medical complications resulting from early marriage. Medical specialists have noted that child brides were often the victims of Female genital mutilation, which exacerbates the possibility of complications from infection and childbirth.
Read more about this topic: Women In Mali
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believes in its inconceivable purity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)