By Mahpara Zulqadar
In the dusty village of Behal, District Layyah in South Punjab, Pakistan, a 14-year-old girl named Zunaira shared her story in an interview conducted in June 2025. She dreamed of becoming a science teacher, but that dream was cut short when her family arranged for her to marry a man twice her age. Her mother wept quietly but told her gently, “We don’t have a choice.”
Zunaira’s story is far from unique; it is a recurring heartbreak. Across Pakistan, laws promise protection. In practice, however, weak enforcement, social pressure, and the lack of reliable age documentation mean these laws remain stronger on paper than in rural courtyards.
In May 2025, the Parliament of Pakistan passed the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, setting the legal marriage age at 18 for all genders. The law introduced penalties of fines and imprisonment for those who arrange or solemnize underage marriages and empowered local authorities to halt such unions before they take place.
However, the political parties’ role in this regard has remained divided. Following the Islamabad Child Marriage Restraint Law’s approval, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) celebrated the milestone. In contrast, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam–Fazl (JUI-F) vehemently opposed the law. Maulana Fazlur Rehman declared the legislation “contrary to, and trampling, the Quran and Sunnah,” announcing nationwide protest rallies to “create awareness” of what he perceived as threats to Islamic identity.
The first legal attempt to curb child marriage in the Indian subcontinent was the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, which set the minimum age at 14 for girls and 18 for boys. After independence, Pakistan retained this law with minor amendments. In 1961, the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance reinforced restrictions, but enforcement remained weak. Later, after the passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010 and subsequent devolution of powers, the provinces introduced their own laws. Sindh raised the minimum age for girls to 18 in 2013, while Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan still largely follow the minimum age for girls at 16.
UNICEF reports that 29 percent of Pakistani girls are married before the age of 18, and 4 percent before 15. Save the Children has also documented a troubling correlation with climate disasters, as Pakistan witnessed an 18 percent surge in child marriages after the devastating 2022 floods.
The toll is measured in futures lost, health shattered, and rights denied. Girls who marry before 18 are 60 percent more likely to drop out of school, says UNESCO. In many rural districts, barely 13 percent of girls remain enrolled by grade 10. Once married, the school uniform is replaced by household duties, textbooks by cooking pots, and playgrounds by the confines of a courtyard.
The risks don’t end there. World Health Organization (WHO) data shows girls under 18 are 2–5 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than women in their 20s. In South Punjab’s underserved districts, early pregnancy is among the top killers of young mothers.
Many of these girls enter marriage without even the most basic reproductive health knowledge. According to a study by Real Medicine Foundation in 2017, 79 percent of Pakistani adolescent women lack menstrual health education, leaving them vulnerable to stigma, infections, and lifelong health complications.
According to the 2024 SDG Gender Index, Pakistan ranks 137 out of 139 countries, with one of the lowest scores for gender equality. Behind closed doors, marriage at a young age often leads to violence. UNFPA mentioned that one in three child brides in South Asia faces domestic or sexual abuse. Isolated from friends, stripped of legal recourse, and dependent on their husbands’ families, these girls live in silence.
Pakistan is among the top countries most affected by climate change. Recurring floods and other disasters — both natural and man-made — are accelerating the problem of early marriage. After the severe floods of 2022, economic desperation pushed families in parts of Sindh to marry off their daughters at younger ages.
Media and NGO reports describe how child marriages, sometimes arranged in exchange for money or reduced dowries, became a survival strategy for households that had lost their homes, crops, and livelihoods. This led to a surge in unions involving girls between 14 and 17 years old.
Even when laws exist, enforcement often falters, particularly in the absence of proof of age. According to UNICEF, only 42 percent of Pakistani children under five have an official birth certificate. Without documentation, a 14-year-old can be declared “18” with a simple verbal assurance, rendering legal protections meaningless.
Even when documents exist, the tradition of conducting marriages without civil registration, often referred to as shari nikah in Pakistan, has allowed child marriages to be validated outside the state’s oversight.
Yet, amid these patterns, there are people who resist them.
In April 2025, during an interview in Bhakkar district of Punjab, Pakistan, a father named Qamar Ahmed reflected on marrying off his eldest daughter at 17:
“She wasn’t ready… She suffered. I won’t repeat it. My younger daughter will finish school. No marriage talks until she’s ready emotionally and financially.”
In May 2025, during a school visit in Layyah district, a government schoolteacher recounted how one of her brightest students suddenly stopped attending class. The girl’s family was preparing her for marriage. Instead of confrontation, the teacher visited the home, brought along a female health worker, and convinced the parents to delay the wedding until the girl finished the year. That small delay gave her a window of hope.
“Sometimes, a little time is all a girl needs to prove herself,” the teacher said.
In a Friday sermon delivered in a mosque near Layyah city, Imam Ali Noor confronted harmful traditions: “Islam doesn’t support forced or early marriage. Nikah without consent is invalid. Education is a right of every individual.”
His words resonated. Days later, a mother came to him in tears.
“I used your words to stop my in-laws from marrying my daughter too soon.”
These moments are fragile, like small lamps flickering in the wind. But they prove that change doesn’t always come through sweeping reforms; it can start in classrooms, in sermons, in kitchen conversations.
Still, for every marriage delayed, dozens go ahead in silence. The truth is, Pakistan’s laws are changing faster than its communities. Without consistent enforcement, universal birth registration, honest conversations about reproductive health, and targeted economic support for vulnerable families, the gap between policy and practice will only grow.
A critical step in preventing child marriage is the establishment of a universal, digital birth registration system. In May 2025, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) launched a digital birth and death registration system at hospitals nationwide to modernize and streamline record-keeping. A move that, if extended to marriage registration, could block underage unions.
Oversight of nikah registrars has also gained judicial backing. In 2024, the Lahore High Court ruled that “registrars who breach guidelines to curb child marriage will face legal action.” At the community level, non-profit PODA’s registrar training program urged clerics to “refuse nikah solemnization for anyone under 18 without official documents.” This is one of the important steps to curb the menace of child marriages.
Economic incentives can help keep girls in school and delay marriage. The Ehsaas Secondary Education Conditional Cash Transfer program, for instance, provides higher stipends for girls’ continued schooling, a model that could be expanded to Grade 12 to directly link financial support with education. This model offers a financial pathway to reduce dropout rates which indirectly result in child marriages.
Education also has a preventive role. Advocacy groups working on curriculum reform argue that “adolescents cannot be protected from harmful practices unless they are equipped with age-appropriate health and rights education.” Integrating reproductive health awareness in schools is increasingly seen as a long-term safeguard against child marriage.
The civil society in Pakistan has been at the forefront of campaigning to end child marriage, often filling the gaps left by weak legal enforcement.
Child marriage is not a “tradition” to be preserved, it is a systemic failure. A failure of protection, of education, and of accountability. Girls should not need to be rescued; they should grow up with the rights, the resources, and the freedom to decide their own futures. Until that day, Zunaira’s story will keep repeating itself in the villages of South Punjab, and each repetition will be a reminder that there is more work to be done.
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This article is republished from GlobalVoices under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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