You are told by us about Nigeria’s kid brides in bondage

You are told by us about Nigeria’s kid brides in bondage

Ibrahim Kanuma winces for his teenage daughter’s hand in marriage as he recalls the moment a 63-year-old man asked him. The proposition had not been uncommon in northwestern Nigeria’s remote, dust-blown state of Zamfara, but he considered the suitor too old for their only child, Zainab (13).

“No matter if he had been aged up to 50 – OK. But that old, he will quickly perish and keep her lonely, ” states the civil servant in his workplace in Gusau, their state money.

To safeguard their school-aged son or daughter through the crushing stigma of widowhood, Kanuma rather offered their blessing to a union having a “reasonably aged” colleague – in their 40s – and even though this kind of betrothal is unlawful. Continue reading “You are told by us about Nigeria’s kid brides in bondage”