'Historic' fatwa against early marriage

Summit also seeks ways to protect a predicted 50 million girls at risk of genital mutilation

Jaha Dukureh is the founder of Safe Hands For Girls. The Gambian is fighting to ban female genital mutilation. (Photo by JONATHAN LEIBSON/AFP)

Senegal's Atlantic coast capital, Dakar, this week hosted the first African summit on female genital mutilation and early marriage.

At the end of the conference, Al-Azhar University, which is based in Cairo, Egypt, delivered an historic fatwa, a non-binding Islamic pronouncement, setting a minimum marrying age for both girls and boys of 18.

More than 500 members of NGOs, victims' associations, international institutions and government officials from 25 mostly African countries attended the June 16-18 summit.

All responded to the invitation of the Senegalese and Gambian governments and the NGO Safe Hands For Girls, which was founded six years ago by a young Gambian woman name Jaha Dukureh.

Religious leaders at the forefront of the struggle

"We believe it is possible to eradicate female genital mutilation and child marriage by 2030," she says.

"This will be possible if we manage to raise awareness enough without leaving anyone out.

"It is very important that this campaign be led by young people and that religious leaders play a central role in their elimination."

Gambia banned female genital mutilation and child marriage in 2015.

The Dakar summit emphasized the importance of inviting religious and traditional leaders to become more involved in combating "preconceived ideas" within communities used to justify these practices.

A message that seems to have been heard

At the end of the summit, a representative of Al-Azhar University delivered the fatwa against early marriage.

An historical fact: most countries, including Senegal, have so far set the minimum age of marriage for girls at 16 years.

In 2006, Al-Azhar University issued a fatwa against female genital mutilation, stating that this custom had no religious basis and that it was "a crime against the human species."

A radical change is needed

More than 200 million girls and women worldwide, especially in Africa, continue to suffer the effects of such mutilation, consisting of the partial or total removal of women's external sexual organs.

By 2030, according to a 2016 report of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 50 million more girls will be at risk of being mutilated in this way.

This practice causes pain as well as health and psychological problems, threatening the lives of women and girls and contributes to trapping them in a cycle of poverty.

Some 39 percent of African girls are married before their 18th birthday and 13 percent before their 15th year, the UNICEF report states.

The Dakar summit called on participating States to "strengthen the equality and empowerment of girls."