‘Alone and fearful’: A Bangladesh schoolgirl discovers all female classmates were married off in pandemic

Nargis Nahar and eight other girls enrolled in class VIII of Sardob High School in Kurigram’s Sadar Upazila in 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Months later, the school was closed with all other institutions in Bangladesh after the country had detected its first COVID-19 cases.

Nargis returned to in-person schooling after one and a half years of the nationwide shutdown and discovered to her surprise that all her female classmates have been married off.

“Now I am the only girl left in the class. I can’t share anything with anyone,” said a distraught Nargis, after attending the class with the boys on Thursday.  

The pandemic affected the finances of many families in Bangladesh, where some consider girls as a burden even in normal times, leading to a spike in child marriages.   

Nargis also fears about her future. “I don’t know what’s waiting for me in the end. I’ve requested my parents not to marry me off suddenly. I will marry when I am in a position to do so after finishing my study and taking a job. No before that. I don’t want to be a burden to someone.”

Up to 80 percent of the girls and 70 percent of the boys have not returned to classes at Sardob High School after the reopening. The school enlisted 225 students from class VI to X, with 63 of them girls.

At least 18 of the girls have been married off during the pandemic, according to Fazle Rahman, headmaster of the school. Out of the four girls of class X, three have become victims of child marriage. The families secretly married off a student of class VI, two of class VII, and four of class VII.   

The institution formed a committee to find out the reasons behind the absence of students, the headmaster said.  

Abdul Majid Chowdhury, an assistant teacher, said they came to know about the “unfortunate” marriages of Nargis’ classmates after the reopening. 

“After all of these, we are trying to make the girls focus on their study.”