AN exercise to review the 1971 Marriage Act, which seems to have outlived its efficacy in this era of women empowerment, has started, government disclosed yesterday.
Deputy Minister for Health, Community
Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Hamis Kigwangalla, told
the House that the government has re-initiated a White Paper process to
gather people’s views on the changes to curb child marriages.
The exercise was started earlier but
stopped in 2014 as it collided with the process for rewriting the
country’s new constitution. Dr Kigwangalla was responding to Ms Taska
Mbogo (Special Seats-CCM) who wanted to know when exactly the government
will make another study on the 1971 Marriage Act.
The lawmaker claimed that despite being
outdated, the edict was also oppressive to women. She called for a total
overhaul of the Act to raise the minimum age of marriage to girls so as
to prevent such unnecessary oppression to girls.
The MP wanted the government to bring in
the National Assembly a bill seeking removal of clauses in the Marriage
Act of 1971 which allows girls under 18 years to get married. “We must
put on framework for removing discriminatory laws,” she said, noting
that the government should remove the clauses which allow child
marriages in the laws.
The Marriage Act of 1971 sets the minimum age at 18 for boys and 15 for girls with parental consent.
It also permits both girls and boys to marry at 14 with a court’s permission.
The deputy minister acknowledged that
there is a contradiction in laws of the land on the minimum age for
girls to marry, saying that such discriminatory laws also contributed to
child pregnancies.
He said the government would bring in a
bill for a review of the Marriage Act to remove clauses which
discriminate children. He noted that while the government was
re-initiating the white paper process, it would also come with proposals
for a review of all other laws which are oppressive to women
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