| 哲学 | Child marriage is an epidemic which has been allowed to sweep through countries like Nigeria, where at least 22 million child brides live today. To raise awareness, SAGE Foundation is launching a new campaign centring on a short film created by Yassa Khan of Camp Productions and edited by Sam Hopkins, Lead Editor at Engine. Filmed in Lagos, the poignant film features young girls affected by this traumatic and widespread problem. These child brides, each of whom became mothers before they turned 18, all long to continue their education, but instead they find themselves responsible for a child they don’t know how to raise and answering to a husband they know very little about. The film also features the women working to abolish the laws that allow this to happen and those who are educating these young women so that they can reclaim their futures. Directed by Yassa Khan, the film launches on Wednesday, April 6th on The SAGE Foundations Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on YouTube and Vimeo. It will be accompanied by a targeted digital OOH campaign across several prime sites in London, Manchester and Birmingham, the areas of the UK with the highest Nigerian populations. This is Yassa and Sam’s second collaboration together following the success of their recent music video for Soft Cell & The Pet Shop Boy’s ‘Purple Zone.’ As part of the campaign, SAGE is launching a landmark petition to change legislation and ban child marriage in Nigeria. The petition, hosted via Change.org and launched in partnership with young activists It’s Never Your Fault, aims to reach 500,000 signatures. The numbers of children forced into marriage show no sign of slowing - with 44% of girls in Nigeria married before their 18th birthday. In Lagos State - considered to be one of Nigeria’s most developed - 44% of girls are married before their 16th birthday, according to the International Centre’s Investigative Report. A current loophole in legislation currently means that child marriage is allowed to continue lawfully, with no consequence. Millions of Nigerians take advantage of two conflicting legal clauses every year: Section 23 of the 2003 Nigerian Child Rights Act says, “a person under the age of 18 is incapable of contracting a valid marriage. If such a marriage does take place, it should be declared null and void and of no effect." Contradicting that, Section 29(4b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says, “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” Just a few words allow girls as young as eleven to be forcibly married to men much older than they are, bearing children while they are still children themselves, their lives cut short before they are allowed to begin. |