Harmful traditional practices are those customs that are known to have bad effects on people's health and to obstruct the goals of equality, political and social rights and the process of economic development. Health-related harmful traditional practices affecting young people in Ethiopia are female genital cutting or mutilation, abduction, early marriage and polygamy.

Female genital cutting (FGC) is cutting away part of the external genitalia of the girl and women. Female Genital Cutting is widely spread practice in Ethiopia, with more than half of girl's age 15-19 years having been circumcised.

Female genital mutilation is one of the harmful traditional practices that cause problems of adolescent reproductive health. Mutilation of women genitals causes immediate and delayed health concerns in young females. The immediate health problems of the young females include pain, bleeding, unconsciousness, septicemia, problem of urination and sometimes death. Among the issues that come late are infertility, scar, fistula, delay in labour, infant and maternal mortality and HIVI/AIDS. In addition to the violation of human rights related to females, it seriously affects the happy and peaceful marriage of such victims. Furthermore, the number of deaths of mothers and infants has increased as a result of this practice.

Early-age marriage: it is a common practice in Ethiopia. Although there are regional differences early marriage is common in many parts of Ethiopian. Early-age marriage is preferred by many families for different reasons in Ethiopia. First, families prefer to get their daughters married while alive and or before they get old. Second, the marriage is accomplished with wealthy family in order to improve the living conditions of the bride's family. Third, it is to establish better relationship and tie between two families. Fourth, to prove that the bride is virgin, a litmus test that reassures that the bride is from a decent family. Fifth, it is to ensure that the bride is married at the right and socially accepted age limit.

Health Consequences of Early-Age Marriage

  • Miss opportunity to go to school.
  • Frequent pregnancy.
  • Unsafe/illegal/ abortion.
  • High maternal mortality.
  • Physical effect of early child bearing (obstructed labor, uterine rapture, still birth etc ).
  • Fistula: an injury that results in the loss of control of urine and stool which results in incontinence and body smell.
  • Injury by being forced to become sexually active before reaching physical maturity.

Legal aspects of early marriage

In Ethiopia, many marriage arrangements are traditionally made when either of the couple is under age, and/or without their consent or approval. This is illegal act and punishable by law. The law forbids the marriage of boys and girls under the age of 18 years.

If you become aware that a young girl is going to marry before she turns 18, you need to advise the families that early marriage has many harmful health consequences and is against Ethiopian family law. If you can't contact the families or if they ignore your advice and seem likely to continue with such a marriage, you need to notify the appropriate government agencies, including the Office of Women's Affairs or nearby police, so that early marriage can be prevented.

Abduction or forced marriage: is unlawful kidnapping or carrying away of girls for marriage. It is usually practised due to culture and tradition, lack of awareness, lack of access to legal information and inadequate legal protection for the victims. Abduction is common in certain parts of Ethiopia, especially in the SNNP and Oromiya regions.

Some of the Health-Related Consequences of Abduction

    i) Physical:
    • Since force is used, there is physical injury.
    • Damage to the genital organ such as tearing and injury.
    • Bleeding and possibly death.
    • Infection.
    • Acquisition of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.
    • An unwanted pregnancy that leads to unsafe abortion.
    • Child birth related complications including fistula/death.
    • Low birth weight baby whose chance of surviving is poor.
    • High fertility accelerated by early pregnancy and early child bearing.

    ii) Psychological:
    • Devastate her moral and psychology.
    • Stigmatisation and isolation.
    • Hopelessness.
    • Fearful.
    • Hatred.
    • Anger.
    • Guilty blaming herself.
    • Loss of confidence, depression and tendency to commit suicide.
    iii) Socio - economic:
    • No love and care for the family.
    • She runs away to an urban area (becomes commercial sex worker).
    • Family break.

Polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife. It is widely practised in many parts of the regions in Ethiopia. Eleven percent of married women in Ethiopia are in polygamy unions, with 9 percent having only one co-wife and 2 percent having two or more co-wives (EDHS 2011).

Polygamy exposes women to increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. In many of the regions, including Oromia, SNNP, Somali, Benshangul and Gambela polygamy is widely practised. Five percent of women in teens and eight percent of women age 22-24 are married to men who have more than one wife.

Last modified: Sunday, 26 February 2017, 5:27 PM