ICYMI:Zimbabwe Bans Child Marriage, Meet The Girls Who Made It Happen

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the greatest news to come out of Zimbabwe this week is the ban on child marriage. This means no one in Zimbabwe may enter into any marriage, including customary law unions, before the age of 18.

The court also struck down a section of the Marriage Act which allows girls to marry at 16 but boys at 18. This is great news considering a third of Zimbabwean girls marry before they are 18 and 4 percent before they turn 15 which deprives them of education and expose them to all kinds of abuse.

Former victims of child marriage Ruvimbo Tsopodzi now 20 and Loveness Mudzuru are our heroes of the year! They called for the law to be brought into line with Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution as well as regional and international treaties banning child marriage.

Ruvimbo was 15 when she had to get married, now a mother she is back at her parents home because of continuous abuse. Loveness said young girls who marry early and often in poor families are then forced to produce young children in a sea of poverty and the cycle begins again.

“Raising a child when you are a child yourself is hard,” she said from Harare. “I should be going to school”, she said.

“Parliament should now legislate for tougher jail sentences”, said Tendai Biti who represented Ruvimbo and Loveness. “It is a great day for women and the girl child.”