UNFPA SWOP report: Mueller urges parents to ensure daughters stay longer in schools

Fri, Jul 17, 2020
By publisher
4 MIN READ

Education

UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged parents to ensure that their daughters stay longer in schools to avert child marriage.

The Country Representative of the fund, Ms Ulla Mueller, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.

The interview was a follow up to the June 30 launch of the 2020 State of the World Population (SWOP) Report titled “Against my will: Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality.”

SWOP Report is a global document produced annually by UNFPA. Each edition covers and analyses developments and trends in world population and demographics.

This year’s report focuses on three most prevalent Harmful Traditional Practices (HTP), namely Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage and extreme bias against daughters in favour of sons otherwise called Son Preference.

The UNFPA country representative, who condemned child marriage, described it as transactional, with girls married off to a spouse to offload a burden or secure the promise of her care.

She said that “child marriage is a very harmful practice commonly imposed on girls by family members, community members or society at large, regardless of whether the victim provides, or is able to provide, full, free and informed consent.

“When a girl is married off, her schooling usually ends, childbearing begins, opportunities evaporate, while doors to her future are shut.

“Child marriages are almost universally banned, yet they happen 33,000 times a day, every day, all around the world, cutting across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities.

“In Nigeria, one in five females married today is underage; 19 per cent of women aged 15-19 have begun childbearing; 14 per cent have given birth, and four per cent are pregnant with their first child.”

She added that Gender Based Violence (GBV), rape and Harmful Traditional Practices (HTP) rob women and girls of their full potential.

Mueller emphasised the focus of the 2020 SWOP report as imperative, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes UNFPA’s transformative goal of Zero GBV and HTPs.

She also condemned series of harmful practices against women and girls which caused profound and lasting trauma, and robbing many of their right to reach their potential in life.

The country representative explained that the COVID-19 pandemic had increased the cases of GBV and HTPs, noting that “the UNFPA flagship publication also addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic can exacerbate such practices and thwart progress toward ending the plight.

“Every day, hundreds of thousands of girls around the world are subjected to practices that harm them physically or psychologically, or both, with the full knowledge and consent of their families, friends and communities.

“The practices reduce and limit their capacity to participate fully in society and to reach their full potential.”

Mueller regretted that the impact rippled throughout society and reinforced the very gender stereotypes and inequalities that gave rise to the harm in the first place.

She listed such rights violations to include breast ironing, virginity testing, as well as other harmful practices against the female gender.

Mueller, who said that Female Genital Mutilation was also prevalent in Nigeria, added that “the procedure is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15, and 200 million women and girls alive today are affected.

“Also, 4.1 million girls and women are at risk of FGM this year as more and more women, girls, men and boys learn about FGM and its harm, opposition to the practice is growing.”

The UNFPA country representative explained that in the last two decades, the proportion of girls and women in high-prevalence countries calling for an end to the practice to stop had doubled.

The population fund official, who canvassed for global support to end FGM and other harmful practices, said it could kill with other effects including recurring nightmares, low self-esteem, infection, obstetric fistula, and heightened risk of HIV.

“Other effects are newborn mortality, trauma, depression, complications during childbirth, phobias, painful intercourse, loss of appetite, panic attacks and infertility.”

She described as misguided the belief that it improved fertility, or enhanced sexual pleasure for men or suppressed female sexuality.

– Jul. 17, 2020 @ 18:42 GMT

 

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