A 26-year-old man have been arrested by Police in Zimbabwe after a child bride dies giving birth at church shrine

Anna Machaya, 15, is reported to have died and been buried last month at a church shrine in the eastern region of Marange.

Police have also arrested her parents.

The case has exposed the exploitation of minors, as she was reportedly forced to abandon school to get married.

Anna's parents are accused of lying about her age and also pledging their nine-year-old daughter to the same man, Hatirarami Momberume.

He faces charges of child rape.

The three accused have not yet commented.

Anna's death on 15 July, days after her birthday, has put the spotlight on the practice of child marriage within Zimbabwe's popular Apostolic Church, which often rejects medicine and hospital treatment.

The circumstances that led to Anna's death and subsequent burial are under investigation by the police and the country's state gender commission.

An online petition calling for "justice for Memory Machaya", as she had been mistakenly identified, has so far received more than 92,000 signatures.

Zimbabwean feminist activist Everjoice Win said it was time for people to pressure those "with the power to uphold the law, or make new laws".

Women and girls were "not seen as fully human, with individual rights... to control our own bodies" she wrote on Twitter.

In a landmark judgement in 2016, Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court banned marriage for both boys and girls under the age of 18. The age of sexual consent is 16.

But some families believe child marriage can provide financial benefits.

Many child brides hope marriage will provide the opportunity to go to school. However, young girls typically end up falling pregnant soon after, or being kept at home to carry out household chores.

Arrests and prosecutions of offenders are rare and authorities including politicians have often been accused of turning a blind eye to paedophilia among religious sects which have a lot of political influence.

The United Nations has urged the Zimbabwean government to recognise child marriage as a crime and bring an end to the practice.

Comments

Kenyan senator campaigns against stigma around menstruation

The sight of a red bloodstain on Kenyan Senator Gloria Orwoba's white pantsuit was so startling that a female security guard rushed over to hide it. It was an accident, Orwoba said. Just before walking into parliament, she looked down to discover that she had been caught unprepared by her monthly period. For a moment, she considered retreat. But then she thought about how the stigma around menstruation affects Kenyan women and girls and strode into the building. To those who noticed the stain, she explained she was making a statement. It didn’t last long. Within minutes, colleagues in the senate became so uncomfortable that another female lawmaker petitioned the speaker to ask Orwoba to leave and change her clothes. Male colleagues agreed, calling the issue “taboo and private,” and Orwoba walked out. A male colleague accused her of faking her accident in parliament, to which she replied in a local media interview that “everyone would rather think it's a prank, because if i...

Zimbabwe’s size of tobacco crop increased despite increased fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine.

Image credit: apnews.com The size of the tobacco crop increased despite increased fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine. Zimbabwe expects to harvest 230 million kilograms (254,000 tons) of the golden leaf this season, up from 212 million kilograms (234,000 tons) last year, officials said at the official opening. The southern African country now wants to make its tobacco industry more lucrative by manufacturing more cigarettes at home and limiting foreign funding of farmers. Currently, China funds the bulk of production and buys the lion’s share of Zimbabwe’s tobacco. The war in Ukraine affected Zimbabwe’s tobacco farmers “quite badly because it happened at the time when we were planting our crop, so we did pay more for fertilizer than we should have,” said Patrick Devenish, chairman of the regulatory body, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board. He attributed the spike in production to more growers taking up the crop, from about 123,000 farmers last season to about 150,000 this ...

How To Get Into The Video Gaming Industry

Job Opportunities in the Video Gaming Industry In today's digital and technological world, video gaming is a booming industry that offers a vast array of job titles and career paths. With the growing popularity of gaming comes a plethora of career opportunities within the industry. Some job titles include animators, game designers, sound engineers, test developers, marketers and sales representatives, writers and technical support professionals. Animators are responsible for creating character movement in game animation while game designers develop the look and feel of the game by creating levels and design elements that drive player engagement. Animators also collaborate closely with artists to create dynamic gaming environments while sound engineers are responsible for creating music and audio effects that make games more exciting to play. Test developers work on testing the game's systems ensuring there are no bugs or glitches that can hinder game...

Onuroic

Search This Blog