Melnikas Andrea J, Ainul Sigma, Ehsan Iqbal, Haque Eashita, Amin Sajeda
Population Council, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10017 USA.
Population Council, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Confl Health. 2020 May 25;14:28. doi: 10.1186/s13031-020-00274-0. eCollection 2020.
Previous research suggests that child marriage may be accelerated during times of crisis and insecurity as resources are scarce and child marriage may be a survival strategy for girls and their families. In 2017, the Rohingya experienced a mass displacement to Bangladesh in response to escalating violence in Myanmar. This displacement has resulted in an estimated population of nearly 1 million Rohingya living in Cox's Bazar.
We conducted in-depth interviews ( = 48) and focus group discussions ( = 12) with Rohingya male and female adolescents and young adults (14-24 years), and program managers and service providers ( = 24) working in Cox's Bazar to understand their experience of living or working in the camps, preferences for timing of marriage, and marriage practices in Myanmar and in the camps. We also interviewed Bangladeshis in the host community to complement our understanding of marriage in the camps and its influence in the broader community. Our primary objective was to describe how displacement influenced marriage timing and practices.
We found that child marriage is a strong cultural phenomenon among the Rohingya, primarily rooted in socio-cultural and religious beliefs around readiness for marriage. Although child marriage was practiced by the Rohingya in Myanmar, specific state law and oppression by military forces prevented many from marrying before age 18. Now this preference is more easily practiced in the camps in Bangladesh where the displaced Rohingya experience less marriage regulation. Host community participants perceive the presence of the Rohingya as encouraging both polygamy and child marriage in their communities, leading to tension among the host community.
Our findings support evidence that conflict and displacement increase child marriage in populations already vulnerable to child marriage by exacerbating gender inequities. However, our findings also suggest group norms around religious and cultural preferences for age at marriage play a significant role in post-displacement behaviors surrounding marriage.
先前的研究表明，在危机和不安全时期，由于资源稀缺，童婚现象可能会加剧，童婚可能成为女孩及其家庭的一种生存策略。2017年，由于缅甸暴力事件不断升级，罗兴亚人大量流离失所至孟加拉国。这次流离失所导致估计有近100万罗兴亚人居住在科克斯巴扎尔。
我们对罗兴亚青少年及青年男女（14 - 24岁）以及在科克斯巴扎尔工作的项目经理和服务提供者（共24人）进行了深入访谈（48人）和焦点小组讨论（12人），以了解他们在营地生活或工作的经历、对结婚时间的偏好以及在缅甸和营地的婚姻习俗。我们还采访了收容社区中的孟加拉人，以补充我们对营地婚姻及其在更广泛社区中的影响的理解。我们的主要目标是描述流离失所如何影响结婚时间和习俗。
我们发现童婚在罗兴亚人中是一种强烈的文化现象，主要源于围绕结婚准备的社会文化和宗教信仰。虽然缅甸的罗兴亚人有童婚习俗，但具体的国家法律和军队的压迫使许多人无法在18岁之前结婚。现在，在孟加拉国的营地中，这种偏好更容易得以实践，因为流离失所的罗兴亚人受到的婚姻限制较少。收容社区的参与者认为罗兴亚人的存在助长了他们社区中的一夫多妻制和童婚现象，从而导致收容社区内部关系紧张。
我们的研究结果支持了这样的证据，即冲突和流离失所通过加剧性别不平等，增加了本就易受童婚影响人群中的童婚现象。然而，我们的研究结果还表明，围绕宗教和文化对适婚年龄偏好的群体规范在流离失所后的婚姻行为中发挥着重要作用。
