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Solidarity: Elimination and / or reduction of marriage of minors requires detailed answers to 5 questions
19 February 2018

Amman - Nisaa FM: - according to the annual reports issued by the judge's office for the last five years (2012-2016), the number of marriage contracts in which minor girls were parties was 51084, with 8,889 minor marriages in 2012, 9618 minors in 2013 and 10,834 minors in 2014 , 10,866 minors in 2015 and 10,907 minors in 2016. According to the Association of the Jordanian Women's Solidarity Association, "Solidarity", the efforts to eliminate and / or reduce the marriage of minors will not be completed in the absence of knowledge of the answers to five important questions. These answers are available to the concerned authorities but are not available for study and analysis, to reach radical and appropriate solutions that are in line with the rights of children and girls, especially their right to enjoy their childhood and their right to education, and to allow them to identify their opportunities and choices. The first of these questions concerns the grounds for granting permission to marry. With some 51,000 early marriages within five years, the reasons for the most frequent grants are key to determining the circumstances in which the court finds it compelling to grant permission to marry. It is therefore important to eliminate and / or limit the marriage of minors. Knowledge of the reasons for granting permission to marry becomes more urgent when both the fiancé and the fiancé are less than 18 years old (300-400 cases per year). The question is raised here in the absence of information on what causes the court to approve the marriage of minors. Solidarity has long called for the need not to grant permission to marry in this particular case, and that the information available does not help if we want to find out the age of the girl who is deficient when forgiving, because the interventions and target groups depend on it. 

 Taking into account the 2016 early marriage figures of 10907 cases, we cannot find the answer on the number of marriages of minors who 15 years old? Who are 16 years old? 17 years old? And any age of marriage, so that we can determine the risk factors and interventions required in the case of the largest proportion of the age of 15.

There is also no detailed information on the requests for marriage authorization denied by the Court, and the reasons for its refusal? We are not in 2018, nor do we imagine that we do not have an electronic database that collects the number of requests for permission to marry for the 15-18 age group, how many applications have been approved, rejected requests, and reasons for accepting and rejecting applications. Approval of a request to grant permission to marry is conditional on the fact that marriage is not a reason for girls to be cut off from education, but what will happen (and so on the ground) if the girl is prevented from completing her education after months of marriage if not less? What would happen to the marriage contract in this case? The most pressing question is why marriage permission is granted to minors who have been married and divorced and their parents have been granted permission to marry again. 10907 early marriages during 2016 The total number of ordinary and repeated marriages of 2016, which was settled by the Shari'a courts in the various governorates of the Kingdom, reached 81,343, with a very slight decrease of 30 marriages compared to 2015 (81,373 marriages). While the number of early marriages (less than 18 years) by 41 cases of marriage, which amounted to 10907 cases in 2016, compared with 10866 cases in 2015. According to the statistical report for the year 2016 and issued by the Department of Statistics. The Association of the Jordanian Women Solidarity Institute indicates that the rate of early marriage to total marriages has increased over the past two years, despite the awareness and guidance efforts exerted by various institutions and institutions to reduce them. 

This rate was recorded during the years 2016 and 2015, declined by 13.4%. The governorate recorded the highest number of early marriages (3318 cases) followed by Irbid (2265), Zarqa (2083), Mafraq (1318), Balqa (536), Jerash (297 cases) Karbala governorate (257 cases), Madaba governorate (231 cases), Ajloun governorate (223 cases), Aqaba governorate (177 cases) and finally Tafileh governorate (51 cases). While 10907 cases of early marriage were recorded, 334 cases of early marriage were recorded for males. Most marriages where the husband is under the age of 18, the wife is also under 18 years of age, if not all, based on. To the prevailing social culture, accepts no that the age of the wife is greater than the age of the husband (with no details on the subject in the report referred to). 

Solidarity states that those families with a minimum age of 18 years of age are fully qualified in all matters related to marriage and the band and their effects, while they do not have the capacity to exercise civil and political rights such as electing, opening bank accounts, borrowing and owning or obtaining a driver's license, registration of births, obtaining a passport, registration of companies, practicing of free professions or civil proceedings, and even more so, these families cannot rent a matrimonial home or arrange financial obligations, except with the guardian of one or both spouses. 

 

Couples can not apply for public office or work in the private sector in a legal manner. Solidarity affirms that although the number of these families is relatively small, they are on the ground and are increasing annually. Parents' intervention in most aspects of family life is an additional and main reason for early divorce and often before entry. The entity of the family leads them to collapse.

 

55 girls of every 1,000 girls aged 15-18 are married annually. The number of female Jordanians aged between 15 and 18 years according to the general population and housing census in 2015 was about 196136, while the number of Jordanian males of the same age group is 209,163 males. In 2016, the Shari'a courts registered about 10907 marriages of females of the same age group and marriage status of males. Solidarity points out that an analysis of these figures leads to the conclusion that out of every 1000 Jordanian girls aged between 15 and 18 years old, there are 55 girls who are married, compared to 1.5 out of every 1,000 in the same age group. The proportion of Jordanian females aged 15-18 years who were married 5.5%, while the proportion of Jordanian minors of the same age group 0.0015%. The phenomenon of early marriage is one of the most important reasons why young girls are denied access to their rights, endanger their lives, deprive them of education and exercise their rights as children and result in the sexual activity of young women during a period in which they do not know much about their bodies and sexual and reproductive health. 

 

About 10,000 minors are at risk of being denied education annually

The results of an analytical paper issued by the Department of Statistics during 2017 on the "Marital Status in Jordan" show that there is a strong relationship between early marriage and dropout, while the permission to marry for under 18 states that marriage should not be a reason for the wife to withdraw from education. Early marriage adversely affects the education of girls at different levels up to university and higher education. Their early marriage effectively cuts them off from education, deprives them of their basic rights and directly affects their ability to acquire jobs and jobs that contribute to the development of society in a comprehensive and sustainable manner and weaken their economic, political and social capacities.

 

33% of Jordanian women married at the age of 17 years or less.

 The figures of the analytical paper based on the general census of population and housing in Jordan for the year 2015 indicate that 32.9% of the Jordanian illiterates and 5.5% of the Jordanian illiterates married at the age of 17 years or less, and 25.7% of the Jordanian women (read and write), 35.8 30.7% of Jordanians with a preparatory certificate, and 31.4% of Jordanian women with primary education, all married at the age of 17 years or less. When it comes to higher education for girls who married at 17 years or less, are the numbers low. 

The results showed that only 11.1% of Jordanian women with high school diploma married at the age of 17 years and less, 1.6% of Jordanian women with an average diploma, 1.2% Jordanian women with a bachelor's degree, 1.3% of Jordanian women with an average diploma, 1.2% of Jordanians with a master's degree, and finally 2.1% of Jordanians with a doctorate degree.

Early marriage increases the proportion of widows among married women.

An analytical paper on the "Marital Status in Jordan" issued by the Department of Statistics indicated that there are significant differences between the proportion of widows among females who married at the age of 17 years and less, and their proportion with the rest of the women who had previously been married. The proportion of widows among married women at the age of 17 years and less are 14.5%, compared with the rest of the women who have been married, where the proportion of widows among them are 8.7%. The difference in the percentage of widows among those who married early marriage and other women who have been married is broken. The difference reached 5.8%. This difference is due to the age difference between the minor wife and her husband, which may reach up to dozens of years.

 

Widows of Jordanian women make up 90% of all male and female widows

Solidarity shows that cultural practices and customs in many countries place widows in confrontation with their societies in exclusion, marginalization and ostracism. Their loss to their husbands is tantamount to announcing the beginning of this confrontation, which deprives them of most of their gains, which are linked to their social status in their husbands' centers. And in other cases are forced to marry their husband's relatives. Their children suffer from health and educational difficulties and are forced into circumstances, in order to support their families to work or to force their children to work and their children for early marriage, Sieh and cruel treatment for them and their children. As for the number of widows from Jordanians, the results of the General Population and Housing Census showed that there are 14,474 widows / widows, of whom 14,484 are males and 128590 females. Women make up 89.8% of the total number of widows. Solidarity stresses the urgent need to care for this group of women, who are forced to enter a dark tunnel. The international community, governments and civil society organizations do not pay sufficient attention to them. They do not monitor their numbers and their physical and psychological needs, nor document the violations they are subjected to. Raise awareness of their problems and find suitable solutions, and not be economically viable or provide jobs for them. It does not change the stereotypical and negative image of society towards them, nor does it make them accessible to education, health care and social security opportunities.

Practices on the ground deny female students married to continue education in their schools

Article 6 of the Private Schools Instructions No. 1 of 1980 states: "A married student shall be allowed to study in private schools under the official certificates attested by her." This is the case in public schools. The principle is that a girl should attend school until she finishes her secondary education, regardless of her social status, which is supposed to be single, but she may be married or divorced. Although the instructions are clear and explicit that no married student is not allowed to complete her education, practice on the ground indicates otherwise, especially since such practices are committed by female classmates, teachers, school administrators and school administrators, which makes the presence of a married student on the school a fantasy . Solidarity adds that the early marriage of girls effectively makes them undesirable girls on the school floor. The situation becomes even worse in the case of pregnancy and the complications and health problems resulting from pregnancy, and their consequences, such as constant absence, withdrawing from education are all factors they are especially hard when they are pregnant. 

The marriage of underage girls puts them at greater risk of maternal mortality than older women

According to the World Health Organization, 830 women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth, although maternal mortality has fallen to 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, with maternal mortality falling from 532,000 in 1990 to 303,000 in 2015. Early marriage puts under-age girls at risk of complications from pregnancy and death because the World Health Organization (WHO) affirms that older women face more risks than maternal mortality. Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or delivery or within 6 weeks of birth.

Instructions to grant marriage permission to a person who completed the fifteenth year of the solar age and did not complete the 18th number (1) for the year 2017

Issued on 16/7/2017 new instructions for the marriage of minors and minors and published in the Official Gazette No. 5472 under the title "Instructions to grant marriage permission to a person who completed the fifteenth year of the solar age and did not complete the 18th number (1) of 2017 issued under paragraph (b) Of Article (10) of the Personal Status Law No. (36) for the year 2010 ", and shall apply these instructions as of 1/8/2017, and the instructions to grant permission to marry under the age of 18 for the year 2011 shall be canceled. While Solidarity affirms in principle its position against the marriage of minors and minors and its continuing demand to amend the personal status law and limit the cases of marriage authorization to those who are over the age of 16 years of age, it hopes that, Cases of marriage of children (early marriage), which are more detailed than the previous instructions despite the existence of a number of observations that we will provide later.

 

Giving the judge powers to authorize the marriage of minors without the need of the approval of the Chief Justice

Article (3) of the regulations stipulates that "the judge may authorize the marriage of a person who has completed the age of 15 years and has not completed eighteen years if his marriage is a necessity required by the interest in accordance with the provisions of these instructions." While the previous instructions and in its first article states that: "The judge may, with the approval of the judge of the judges, authorize the marriage of the fullest fifteen ...".

Solidarity believes that the granting of greater powers to the judge without requiring the approval of the Chief Justice, although because of the determination of the conditions that the judge must observe in the subsequent articles of these instructions, has abolished the issue of supervision of the decisions to grant permission to marry to ensure that the judge has Conditions. Although the instructions provided that a file should be opened in court for each case containing evidence and reinforcements (article 11 of the instructions), the verification of the authorization of marriage would only be made in the event of a complaint or in case of periodic inspection of the work of the courts. Raising concerns that there may be cases were marriage permission may be granted which does not meet the full requirements of the instructions.

 

Conditions for granting permission to marry

Article (4) of the regulations stipulates the conditions for granting permission to marry, stating: "The court shall observe the following for the purposes of granting permission to marry: 1 - that the suitor is competent for the accused in accordance with the provisions of Article (21) of the law. 3. The court shall verify the necessity required by the interest and the benefits it entails to achieve benefit or prevent corrupt and appropriate means of verification 4. The age difference shall not exceed the age of fifteen years 5. Not be the suitor 6. Marriage shall not be a reason for dropping out of school education 7. Proof of the ability of the fiancé to spend and pay the dowry And the establishment of the marital home.

 

The consent of the guardian and the dowry

Article 5 of the Regulations states: "The court shall verify the consent of the legal guardian to grant permission and contract." Article (6) stipulates that: "The dowry of the fiancé shall not be less than the dowry of the proverb, and it shall be specified in the permission argument." Solidarity added that the previous instructions provided for the consent of the guardian, subject to the provisions of articles 17-18-20 of the Personal Status Law, which gives the judge the right to grant permission to marry in case of guardian. Solidarity welcomes this amendment as it was in response to what it had been demanding for some time. Article 18 of the Personal Status Law No. 36 of 2010 states: "Subject to Article 10 of this Law - this provision contradicts Article 10 (a) of the law to be respected -, the judge authorized upon request to marry the virgin, who completed the fifteenth year of the solar age. The permission of the judge to marry the virgin is efficient in the case of the guardian. The guardian must be bound by the age of 18 years and not 15 years, especially if the reason for the father's or father's abstention from marrying the virgin is still deficient and considering this a legitimate reason for refusing her marriage.

 

Explain the right of the fiancée to stipulate any condition in the contract of marriage

Article (7) of the regulations stipulates that: "The court shall give the offender the right to require any condition for which he has an interest in accordance with the provisions of the law and to include any conditions that he wishes in the case of authorization when issued." Solidarity notes that many women and girls do not know that they have the right to require marriage, and that adding this provision would protect minors who may not fully identify what the conditions and effects are if they are fixed in the contract. The Personal Status Act authorized the wife to require a marriage contract if the husband failed to meet the conditions or any of them to terminate the contract at the request of the wife and claim her full marital rights. Article 37, paragraph (a) stipulates that: "If a contract is required when a contract is beneficial to one of the spouses, it is not contrary to the purposes of marriage, and it does not comply with what is prohibited by law. It is recorded in the contract document and must be observed according to the following: The husband's wife is a condition in which she has an interest that is not prohibited by law and does not affect the rights of others, such as stipulating that he should not take her out of her country or not marry her or live in a certain country or that she should not prevent her from working outside the home, Divorce was in her hands, the condition was true, if the husband did not fulfill the contract to cancel the wife's request and her claim to other marital rights.

 

The presence of the next course of marriage

 In addition, Solidarity commends the condition stipulated in Article 8 of the regulations that require the fiancé and fiancé to join the next couple of marriages arranged by the magistrate's court. Article 8 states: For the next couple of marriages arranged by the Department or anybody approved by the Chief Justice for this purpose. “The requirement to join the next cycle of marriage will raise the awareness of underage girls specifically about marriage and the family, especially in light of the rise in divorces, especially early divorce.

Permission to refer the application for marriage permission to the Office of Family Rehabilitation, Mediation and Conciliation

Article 9, paragraph (a), of the Regulations states: "The Court may refer any application for marriage to persons under the age of 18 years to the Office of Reform, Mediation and Family Conciliation established within its jurisdiction." Paragraph (b) provides that: "The Office of Family Mediation, Reconciliation and Reconciliation shall examine the case referred to it and provide the Court with its opinion." Tadamon believes that the text should have included the court's obligation to refer the marriage application to the Office of Reform, Mediation and Family Reconciliation for its study, especially as these offices include specialists in various fields, including the legal, social and family. The Office's opinion must also be binding on the Court Permission is granted.

 

The Minors' Department must approve the marriage of the male suitor

Article (10) of the instructions stipulates that: a male offender who has not attained the age of eighteen years shall be required to give the court the approval of the Department of Minors' Affairs in the Department, in addition to meeting the requirements mentioned in the previous articles. To authorize marriage which does not apply to the grounds set out in these instructions to the Department of Legacy and Minors' Affairs in the Chamber to express its opinion, including requests for permission to marry the male interlocutor who has not yet completed 18 years of age. 

Solidarity had demanded that the instructions include the refusal to grant permission to marry if the fiancé and underage were under 18, so that there would be no "minor" families lacking the capacity to exercise civil rights. Solidarity believes that early marriage of girls with negative consequences for education and health, waste of their potentials, abilities and opportunities, and limiting their freedom to determine choices that affect their lives in general is very bad, but it is even worse when early marriage For both spouses, and demands that the permission to marry should not be granted if both abductors are under the age of 18, and also calls for the application of the provisions of the law when it is violated, especially in cases of customary marriage and marriage outside the official (unregistered marriages) The engagement age is also for each of the To address the fiancée and the explicit provision in the personal status of Muslims and the laws of Christian denominations law. "Solidarity" states that those families with a minimum age of 18 years of age are fully qualified in all matters related to marriage and the band and their effects, while they do not have the capacity to exercise civil and political rights such as electing, opening bank accounts, borrowing and owning or obtaining a driver's license, Registration of births, obtaining a passport, registration of companies, practicing of free professions or civil proceedings, and even more so, these families cannot rent a matrimonial home or arrange financial obligations, except with the guardian of one or both spouses. Couples can not apply for public office or work in the private sector in a legal manner. Solidarity affirms that, although the number of these families is relatively small, they are present on the ground at this rate annually. Parent’s intervention in the different aspects of the family life is an additional and main reason for early divorce. 

The instructions did not state in case of violation of the consequences of this!

It is noted that the new instructions did not explicitly state in the event of a violation of the conditions of the judge or the court, with special implications for the marriage contract. If the minor marriage contract is approved without the consent of the guardian or if the age difference between them is more than 15 years, or for any other reason that is contrary to the provisions of the instructions, what is the effect on those who grant permission to marry? What will be the fate of the marriage contract? Solidarity finds that there is a lack of instructions in this area, even if it refers to the texts in the Personal Status Law.

Will the rate of early marriage in Jordan decline in the presence of these new instructions?

In the light of these new instructions, which require time and effort to verify the availability of their conditions, will solidarity in Jordan, which ranged from 12-14% in the past years, decrease in spite of the increase in community awareness about the negative effects of early marriage in various aspects, And calls for a review of the files relating to these cases to indicate whether they were all made under these instructions.

Request to amend Article (3) of the instructions to grant permission to marry minors for violating the legal text issued pursuant thereto

In accordance with the principle of the incorporation of legal rules or so-called legislative pyramid, the instructions issued by the executive authority may not cancel or disable the text in the law issued in implementation thereof, nor may the work of this text be exempted or exempt from it. The instructions are legally inferior to the laws. "Solidarity" indicates that the provisions of Article 3 of the Instructions for granting permission to marry to a person who has completed the fifteenth year of the Sunnah and has not completed the 18th year (1) of 2017 and issued under Article 10 (b) of the Personal Status Law No. 36) of 2010, violates the principle of legal hierarchy and contradicts the legal provision under which these instructions were issued. The second paragraph of Article 10 of the Personal Status Law provides that: "Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this article, the judge may, with the consent of the judge of the judge, authorize in cases of marriage of the fullest fifteen years of age according to instructions issued by him For this purpose, if in his marriage is a necessity required by the interest and acquired from the marriage in accordance with that full eligibility in everything related to marriage and the band and their effects. However, the new instructions issued under this article have been violated. Article 3 of the regulations states: "The judge may authorize the marriage of a person who has completed 15 years of age and has not completed 18 years. Solidarity adds that all 13 articles of the article did not indicate in any way that the granting of permission to marry by a judge is conditional upon the approval of the judge, contrary to the provisions of the Personal Status Law. This legal offense may challenge the validity of the judge's decision to grant permission to marry or not, and that under-age girls in particular will be the victims of this offense and its consequences.

 

Any injured person may file a lawsuit before the administrative courts to cancel the text of Article (3) of the instructions, and it falls within the jurisdiction of the Administrative Court to consider such cases. Article 6 and Article 5 of the Administrative Judiciary Law No. (27) of 2014 provides that the Administrative Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all appeals concerning final administrative decisions, including: "appeals by any injured party to request the cancellation of any system or instructions Or a decision based on a violation of the law of the law issued pursuant thereto or violation of the instructions of the law or order issued pursuant thereto or violation of the decision of the law or order or instructions issued on the basis of it.

 

In order to implement the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article (2) of the article, "Solidarity" shall amend the text of Article (3) of the Instructions before its effective date of 1/8/2017, remove the legal violation contained therein and add the words " (10) of the Personal Status Law. Solidarity also calls for the adoption of its observations in a previous statement in the course of the amendment, which would reduce cases of marriage of children and the strictness of granting permission to marry.