Shame of bride-snatching

30 March 2017 - 09:17 By Bongani Mthethwa
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Image: Gallo Images/iStockphoto

Zandile is a 14-year-old Grade 7 pupil from a rural village who walks long distances to and from school and to collect firewood for her unemployed parents.

One day out of the blue she is grabbed by men she has never seen before and told she is now someone's wife. She falls pregnant after her husband forces her to have sex, even though this is statutory rape because of her age.

Her mineworker husband is often away from home for many months and through his sexual encounters with other women, Zandile risks contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. She is told what to do and has no choice because she has been stripped of her rights and her dignity. Her body is no longer hers.

This shocking story was narrated by Nozuko Mtshali, a final-year law student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, at a presentation on harmful cultural and traditional practices and early marriages, at a seminar at the university's Howard College yesterday.

Although Zandile's story may be an illustration,it is a reality for hundreds of young women who are subjected to forced marriages through the traditional practice of ukuthwala [abducting young girls and forcing them into marriage].

"These girls are usually schoolchildren. Some are 14 years old. Unbeknown to the girl, men negotiate lobola with her parents and she is told 'now you are married, go to your man's home'," said Mtshali, adding that the human rights implications for this practice were that girls were stripped of their dignity.

"Your body is no longer yours. There is no consent whatsoever. In 2017 such a practice still exists and continues. Girls do not know what to do and where to go.

"At some point we need to decide which practices need to be done away with, which practices are harmful to girls," said Mtshali.

Other speakers at the seminar included advocate Omashani Naidoo of the National Prosecuting Authority, Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit, and Thora Mansfield, the director and founder of The Open Door Crisis Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Mansfield said young girls were advertised as "fresh young meat at a price" by human-trafficking syndicates who turn them into "sex machines".

"Some are forced to have sex 20 times a night. It's not only about human trafficking, but about diabolical acts of turning women into sex slaves," she said.

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