Empowering Maasai Girls for a Brighter Future

The legality of marriage is based on love and a free consent between two adults. This is not the case in the Maasai culture where children are forced into marriage without their consent. A Maasai girl is considered suitable for marriage from the age of 12 when her breasts begin to develop. The society dictates on who should marry her and she cannot go against her parents choice for fear of a curse. She is forced to abide with this custom through circumcision which places her in a limbo between girlhood and wifehood; it forces her to accept her husband even if he is 80 years old.  A poor family can also engage their girl to her future husband shortly after her birth in exchange for livestock so that by the time she grows up, the family will be deep in debt and have no alternative but to force her into marriage. There is also a culture of engaging a girl even before she is born. When a moran – a male adult, sees a young pregnant woman he likes, he can put a ring around her wrist. By this sign he indicates that he wants to marry the baby in later life, assuming that the baby is a girl.  If the child born is not a girl then the man has to wait for another girl or marry another from the same community.

This form of sexual violence is against the best interest of a girl child as it interferes with her freedom, autonomy and future aspirations. Moreover, some arrangements involve the giving of a girl child to a much older male, thereby exposing her to physical violence, sexual abuse, slavery and exploitation in terms of labor. Being married to sexually inactive old men denies the girls their sexual rights, something which may promote suffering or promiscuity. Impregnating a child who is not yet fully developed often result in malnutrition and lesser life expectancy for her as well as for her child, a common phenomena in Maasailand.