by Jana Madi | May 7, 2020 | Visualization
Going over UNICEF’s datasets, I noticed that child marriage in Lebanon is very common especially for girls and there are many factors leading to these high percentages. One of the main factors would be that different religions and sects have different minimum age requirements for marriage and the absence of laws. Religious courts regulate most cases and set the minimum age to be fifteen, however, it is worth noting that some girls are forced to get married at ages younger than that.
The below visualization shows the legal marriage age across different religions in Lebanon.
Law enforcement is a major step in decreasing child marriage. Lebanon should develop a national strategy to end child marriage
by Celine Abdallah | May 5, 2020 | Uncategorized
“Transformation is often more about unlearning than learning”. – Rohr R.
As communities still follow their traditions and norms instead of educating themselves about the harms of child marriage, it continues to pose a threat to future generations to this day. Several factors shown in the dashboard can act as indicators for us to know in which countries this issue still persists. We used tableau to analyze these indicators by country and were surprised with the extent to which this issue is still present to this day and the lack of awareness about it. From our data, we categorized the indicators that are prevalent in our Country and discussed them with Lebanese activists (Mr Joe Maalouf, journalist – Ms. Hayat Mirshad, Head of communication and campaigning at RDFL). We were then able to come up with a clear picture of how the child marriage situation is in Lebanon; and accordingly, came up with solutions to reduce it.
In order to ultimately end child marriage, awareness should be raised to change cultural beliefs and norms.
It is time to put an end to child marriage!