Say no to early, forced marriages

 Dear readers,

It is another great Sunday, the beginning of yet another week and we warmly welcome you to this edition of Every Woman.

In this week’s edition you will be amazed by the bravery of our cover girl on page 7 and 8, who one day set out on a journey, not knowing where she would end up, as she escaped an arranged early marriage when she was only 15.

It still makes me wonder what the elders who send children off to early marriages think though, given all the challenges that come with marriage which clearly need someone who is mature enough to handle them.

What does it help to leave your child in someone’s care for the rest of her life-potentially an abusive marriage too, just so you can get one or two more cows or a few more Kwachas in your bank account?

Because of the selfishness of such parents, we have so many victims of early marriages in our societies, who do not have half the courage that this young woman had to leave such marriages.

And these marriages, all they do is to keep them mired in a life of dependence which also leaves them prone to gender-based violence and in turn putting them at risk of contracting HIV.

The battle to ending child marriages is far from being won in Malawi where almost half of the girls marry before reaching 18.

And there is a lot that needs to be done to end this vice so that girls are empowered and become independent just like our cover girl who is now a teacher and earning her own salary.

I feel the girls themselves need to understand the importance of education and the implications of early marriages to be able to resist them. However, in a culture where we are taught to respect our elders, I also understand how hard it might be, to go against what the so called elders command.

But I suppose empowering them from a tender age would help them to stand up for themselves as they grow up and even to stand up to such elders who put them up for such ills.

With that said, in this issue we seem to have focused on women leadership, though not by design.

You will read on page 3 and 6 about women who led in the pre-colonial times and those who took up leadership during the storm induced crises that hit especially the Southern Region earlier this year.

As women, we need to remember that our roles do not always have to end at being complementary to the men’s roles, but that we too can lead as the men complement our leadership.

If a young girl is empowered to lead, you can guarantee that she will always want to lead for the rest of her life, which is good, because then she’ll be able to represent and fight for the interests of others in her league. Read about this on page 6, and more about the efforts to retrieve the lost voices of women whose names have made the history of the country in one way or another in page 3.

Additionally, there is more to learn from in this edition. From life hacks on Mother Malawi Secrets to fashion inspirations by local model and stylist Blessings Joana Banda on page 4 and even recipes on page 5 as you think of what you can prepare on a Sunday like this.

And as usual, there is also alot to learn from our columnists, Inkosi Chimalizeni and Edith Gondwe on page 5 and 8 respectively.

Read on, and I hope by the time you put the copy down you’ll be inspired to take on leadership in your respective corners.

Do give us feedback and tips on what more we can cover in our subsequent editions.

Enjoy!