Summary

In this Study Session four, you have learned that:

• The common harmful traditional practices affecting young people in Ethiopia are female genital cutting/mutilation, abduction, early marriage and polygamy.
• Harmful traditional practices have multiple health consequences for adolescents. Some of these consequences include STIs, unwanted pregnancy that leads to unsafe abortion, severe pain, bleeding and infections, mental disorders like depression and stigmatisation and limited educational opportunities.
• Gender-based violence (GBV) is any form of deliberate physical, psychological or sexual harm, or threat of harm, directed against persons on the basis of their gender.
• Ethiopian family law forbids the marriage of boys and girls under the age of 18 years.
• The community should be mobilised and educated, and males and females should be equally engaged in the fight against GBV.