Impact of Change in Law on Child Marriage in Egypt A Study in Two Egyptian Governorates

Background Child marriage is recognized as a human right violation. Egyptian law sets age at first marriage to be 18 years for both sexes. Objectives To investigate the effect of the law of age at marriage on the marital behavior of adolescents and to explore the awareness, attitudes and perceptions of the local community and religious key informants towards the law. Methods This descriptive study employed both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Marriage records were reviewed, 260 attendants of two primary healthcare facilities were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire investigating socio-demographics, knowledge and perceptions about the law. Focus group discussions were conducted with 42 religious key informants to explore their opinion about the law. Results 75.8% of participants noticed cases of child marriage in their communities. Nearly 93% said they heard about the law and 78.5 % know that it is at 18 years, 4.2% perceive the law as inappropriate/at all to the local community and 5% were not sure. Marriage ratify contracts that show sudden rise after 2008 and progressive increase until 2012. Most religious key informants view the law as appropriate from health perspectives but not from the religious perspective. Conclusion Child marriages are still practiced in Egypt. Ratify contracts represent a back door allowing registration of these informal marriages when the girl reaches 18 years. An integrated approach is needed to combat child marriage including enforcement of the law, ensure law’s content is understood, train religious stakeholders and treat the radical reasons including poverty religious misconceptions.