Alangizi:Girls Are Seducing Men For ‘Good Living’

Zambia National Traditional Councilors Association executive director Iress Phiri says some girls in Zambia are enticing men into sex, resulting in early marriages and escalating early pregnancies.
Meanwhile, BETUZ secretary general Jeffrey Simuntala says the call by first lady Dr Christine Kaseba to criminalise early marriages should be supported because the girl child’s education is important in the development agenda of the nation.
Phiri also dismissed claims by some stakeholders suggesting that parents and guardians in Zambia were marrying off their girl children because of poverty saying girls rushing into early marriages are from both rich and poor families.
“I am concerned about what is going on in our country because people are now blaming us parents to say we are marrying off our girls because of poverty when these decisions and steps are being made by the girls themselves simply because they do not want to listen to the advice we are giving them as parents; they won’t just listen to us,” she said.
Phiri added that girls were allowing themselves to fall prey to peer pressure at a tender age and wanted to acquire things for themselves which their parents were not giving them.
She said envy to have good and fashionable clothes, shoes and other items was resulting in girls engaging in illicit activities even with older men, a situation she described as unfortunate.
“These girls, they are starting to sleep with men even older ones at tender ages. You will find that a girl who is as young as ten or 12 years already knows sex issues and it is so shocking because what is happening in our country today used to be a taboo in the past and why should people blame the parents now?” she asked. “It is not always that a parent will send their girls into early marriages because we want them to get educated so that they can become better people, well empowered to look after us and their siblings in future. But these girls are not just understanding, some of them want quick money, they have also become too playful and some of them even run away from school just to be with these men and boys. They are the ones taking themselves to these men”.
Phiri asked boys and older men to be on high alert of young girls who were tempting them into sexual intercourse and early marriages to avoid landing themselves into problems.
“I want to ask men, especially married men, not to sleep with these young girls because the girls will just bring you problems, you will find yourself in court or even prison,” she said.
“And you married men, stick to your wives because you married them out of love, so where has the love for your wives gone for you to start admiring and sleeping with girls who are young enough to be your daughters? If your wives no longer satisfy you, bring them to us for teaching and further counselling so that we mould them into women of your desire. That is why we are there – to help you deal with marital issues.”
Meanwhile, Phiri expressed disappointment at the increasing number of young unmarried women who were cohabiting with both young and married men in Zambia.
She said the vice was especially high among girls and young women in tertiary institutions of learning because they wanted to live good and competitive lives among their peers.
Last week, chiefs and traditional affairs minister Nkandu Luo revealed that about 42 per cent of marriages in Zambia were either forced or involved minors.
And Simuntala said coming up with a law that would penalise parents and guardians pushing young girls into early marriages would help promote gender quality and parity for a girl child.
“For us as a union, what should be noted very clearly is the fact that education for a girl child is important and it should not be tampered with. We would like to support the criminalising of early marriages, possibly such parents should be prosecuted accordingly,” Simuntala said.
He said such a law would aid the enforcement of provision of free and compulsory universal access to primary education for all without any discrimination including girl children’s education.
“We support the idea to have a law in place to regulate at what stage this person (girl child) should be married off. The idea of leaving it freely for parents to decide whatever they want has had an effect. Laws will protect children and that will help the education of girls and add great value for we will have a lot of educated women able to contribute to family and national welfare,” said Simuntala.
Last week during the official launch of the Regional Symposium on Ending Child Marriages at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Dr Kaseba said there was need to formulate laws that would criminalise child marriages as a way of reducing and eventually stopping the vice.
She said criminalising the act was the only sure way of fighting early marriages to ensure the protection of the girl-child as well as seeing a reduction in such practices.
According to a recent survey, Eastern Province was rated to have the highest cases of girls married off before the age of 18, statistics standing at 50 per cent, though the practice is rampant throughout the country especially in rural parts.
In Zambia, the minimum legal age for marriage is 18 years. However, parental consent is required if a girl or boy is 16 to 17 years old, and this mostly happens in rural parts of the country.
According to current laws, any girl under the age of 16 is considered to be a minor and if she is forced into marriage, the case of defilement comes in, an offence punishable by imprisonment of a minimum of 15 years.