Bangladesh will end child marriage long before 2040 commitment: Dipu Moni

Bangladesh will eliminate child marriage well before 2040, the deadline it has set to end the menace, former foreign minister Dipu Moni has said.

“We have to end child marriage,” she said, speaking before the wives of naval officers of the littoral countries along the Indian Ocean, who are participating at a symposium in Dhaka.

Naval chiefs of 32 countries, senior naval representatives, and heads of many international maritime organisations joined the three-day biennial symposium inaugurated on Monday by President Md Abdul Hamid at a Dhaka hotel.

Their wives attended the workshop on women’s empowerment at the naval headquarters in Dhaka.

Member of Parliament Dipu Moni, who was the first female foreign minister of Bangladesh, highlighted the Bangladesh government’s effort to empower women.

She said women were doing better than before in education, health, jobs and politics due to the political commitment of the current government.

But she lamented that child marriage is still prevalent.  This robs many young girls of their future.

The number of child marriages is dropping, she said, as “tougher laws have been introduced”.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has pledged to eliminate child marriage by 2040. “I think it’ll be eliminated well before that,” she said.

Responding to questions of the participants, Moni said “misinterpretation of religious texts” and “traditional thinking” were some of the challenges faced by women’s progress.

The Bangladesh Navy Family Welfare Association organised the workshop with its President Hafiza Habib in the chair.