According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) study, Brazil ranks fourth in the world in the number of child marriages.
Behind India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, the country counted around 1.09 million marriages in 2016, of which 137,973 were between the ages of 19 and under.
Unlike in some African and Asian countries, child marriage here is generally consensual rather than cultural and ritualistic, meaning it is an option for young people, even if motivated by factors such as poverty.
According to the Unicef, child marriage is a formal or informal union where at least one of the two parties is under 18.
Last month, the mayor of the city of Araucária, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, Hissam Hussein Dehaini (65), married 16-year-old Kauane Rode Camargo, who competed in the Miss Araucária 2022 pageant in the teen category (girls between 15 and 17 years old) and came in second.
She attends high school at a civil-military school in the municipality.
Hissam is in his second term as mayor.
He divorced his second wife last year.
As declared by the electoral authority, his net worth is nearly US$3 million.
According to the Official Gazette of Brazilian Civil Registry Offices, the mayor and Kauane Rode Camargo presented the legally required documents for marriage on April 12.
According to local press reports, they were married that day.
In Brazil, a minor can marry with the consent of the parents.
The day after the wedding, Kauane’s mother, Marilene Rode, was appointed municipal secretary of culture and tourism for Araucária.
According to the organization Girls Not Brides, more than 2.2 million underage girls in Brazil are married or in a committed relationship, representing about 36% of the Brazilian female population under 18.
According to Flávia Gomes Cordeiro, prosecutor of Piauí, child marriage has aggravating consequences for girls, such as domestic work, lack of professionalization, exclusion from the labor market, dropping out of school, and the restriction of mobility and freedom.
“The closure of schools, the breakdown of attachments, and many services, such as the unified social assistance system, no longer present since the pandemic, eventually expose these girls to a greater risk for child marriage and abuse. Even financial pressure,” Cordeiro said.
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