Girls Call for End to Forced Marriages

Girls from some Apostolic sects lamented forced marriage practices within these sects, saying they needed the intervention of the laws of the country to stop sexual harassment.

One of the girls aged 12 waiting to join the family of her 69-year-old husband, who also has three wives, said she will get married just like all her four sisters who married elderly men.

"This is what the church and my parents require me to do and I have to listen," she said.

The Seke girl, who is still a child in every way and was even suckling her finger, said she only respected her husband-to-be and knew nothing about being a housewife.

"I only know they will be looking after me since my father said he does not think sending girls to school is of any help."

The girl's friend, who is aged 14, also married an elderly man from the same church.

She said she was treated like a child with her husband's two wives although the man slept with her.

"I think it is wrong because this is not the man I wanted to marry. Maybe the police can help me," she said.

When asked why she did not report the matter to the police when she was handed over to the church elder, she said she was afraid as the church elders told her that if she disputed what the holy spirit said she would die. The teenage girl said she was ordered to marry the man after a prophesy that she had been chosen by the holy spirit to be the wife of the elderly man.

She said sometimes some elders claimed they had dreams in which God instructed them to marry certain young girls. Mrs Edna Mazorodze of Chitungwiza said she fled from home to join the liberation struggle after her father, who was a member of the Johane Marange sect, had ordered her to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather.

"I was only 13 and left home a day before I was to be handed over to this man who was so old and had a chain of wives," she said. She said one of her sisters was forced to marry a member of an apostolic sect from Ruya, who had seven wives. This is an illegal practice and only the laws of this country can save more girls from such a cruel practice. The girls also risk contracting HIV and Aids," she said.

Some women who attend the Johane Masowe Chishanu Apostolic Church led by Madzibaba Godfery Nzira said women are also forced to marry men not of their own choice.

One of the women said widows are the most affected as they are ordered "to be looked after" by some married men chosen for them by the elders of the church.

"There is a slogan at the shrine in Seke that vanhu vanofanira kuchengetana (people must look after each other). One church elder can simply stand up and say this woman should be married to this man so that they take care of each other without any previous arrangement," the woman said.

Police, however, indicated that it is an offence for any person to have sexual intercourse or live as husband and wife with anyone below the age of 16.

"The offender is charged with statutory rape, that is, if a report is made," Inspector Andrew Phiri said.

He said although cases of forced marriages are rampant even outside some Apostolic sects, offenders are not arrested because the victims do not report to the police.

"There is no way we can go around investigating some Apostolic church elders before a report is made," he said.

Some women organisations yesterday deplored the practice, saying if the offences are discovered the men must be arrested even when the girl has not made a report.