Emir of Kano Sanusi pushes for Ban on Child Marriage

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Tuesday declared his opposition on child marriage saying most of the women suffering from reproductive health challenges were products of such marriages.

While addressing a conference of Northern Muslims Religious Leaders Forum on Primary Health Care in Kano, Sanusi said:

“I believe the time is ripe to take a stand on this age long practice of early marriage, and coincidentally we subscribed to Malikiyya school of thought like Morocco, Malaysia and Egypt who had since pegged marriage age to 17, 19 and 18 respectively.”

The former CBN governor said time had come when the Muslim community should live by the reality of economic recession and consequences of early marriage.

The emir stated that the role of a woman as a housewife are numerous and highly demanding, as he further stressed the need to allowed our women to attained maturity status before marriage.

He said though the harsh economic realities now make it impossible for people to feed twice a day these days, “unfortunately our people do not change and somebody with virtually nothing still give birth to 20 or 30 children and this must stop”.

Sanusi called on the relevant authorities to create a law that would punish anybody that gave birth to children and allowed them to suffer. According to him, most of those neglected children not only turned victims of social vices but also engage in terrorism.

On wife battery, Sanusi called on those involved to desist from such act, saying that Islam abhors violence against women.

“I don’t expect my in-law to lay his hand on my daughter, but I have since urged her to retaliate any form of assault from her husband,” he said.

Credit: Vanguard | PREMIUM TIMES