Search results for "early marriage"
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Early marriage and cultural constructions of adulthood in two slums in Dar es Salaam.
2018
This study examines under-18 marriage in urban Tanzania from an ethnographic perspective. Due to poverty and high unemployment, some girls aspire to early marriage. Two pathways to early marriage are identified: first, poverty and gendered economic disparities motivate girls to begin transactional sexual activity at an early age, leading parents to favour early marriage as a risk-reduction measure. Second, educational opportunities are often closed off to girls before marriage, as a result of which early marriage becomes the only culturally approved pathway that allows girls to present themselves to others as a self-sufficient agent. These pathways are reinforced by cultural and religious c…
Causes and motives of early marriage in the Gambia and Tanzania : is new legislation enough?
2017
Both The Gambia and Tanzania have high rates of under-18 marriage for girls and both also raised the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 in 2016. This ethnographic study of the urban Muslim poor in Tanzania and The Gambia explores the causes behind and meanings of early marriage in these countries and discusses the likelihood of the recent legislative changes to have effect on actual practice among the poor in the towns and cities of these countries.