‘Early marriages still common in Jordan’

AMMAN — The practice of early marriage shows no sign of abating in Jordan, according to a study issued by UNICEF on Wednesday  

The “Study on Early Marriage in Jordan” said there has been no significant decline in the rates of child marriages registered in the Kingdom’s Sharia courts from 2005 to 2013.

The rate ranged from 14.3 per cent in 2005 to a slightly reduced 13.2 per cent in 2013 (with an apparently anomalous drop to 8.5 per cent recorded in 2009). 

The 2013 rate showed an increase after staying stable at 12.6 per cent in 2011 and 2012, the report said.

The definition of 18 as the legal age for marriage in Jordan is undermined by an acceptance that special permission — dependent on the discretion of individual judges — may be given for children as young as 15 to marry, UNICEF said.

The vast majority of girls who married below the age of 18 in 2011-2012 were Jordanian, constituting 94 per cent of all registered child marriages in 2011 and 2012 and 87.4 per cent in 2013.

Palestinian girls accounted for 3.6 per cent (2012) and 4 per cent (2013) of registered child marriages, while Syrian girls accounted for 0.5 per cent (2011), 1.7 per cent (2012) and an exponential 7.6 per cent (2013), the study said.

In 2013 and the first  quarter of 2014, the prevalence of early marriage  among Syrian girls showed a sharp rise, indicating a  growth trend with the prevalence of early marriage among all registered nuptials for Syrians, increasing from 25 per cent in 2013 to 31.7 per cent in the first  quarter of 2014. 

The total number of registered marriages between Jordanians and Syrians also doubled from 2011 to 2012, UNICEF said. 

Statistics for 2012 on the ages of girls involved in child marriages showed that the highest proportion of under-18 brides (be they Jordanian, Syrian or Palestinian) were 17 at the time  they married, while the smallest proportion for each  group was aged 15. 

For all nationalities, the average  age of early marriage was 16 years and three months.

The report is based on research and analysis conducted by AYA Consultancy for Development, using data shared by the Chief Islamic Justice Department and the Department of Statistics.