Traditional and harmful practices

In a region that is diverse in cultural practices and religious beliefs, there are some practices that intersect with the rights of women and girls, with a subset of these resulting in life-long physical and emotional harm. The most common discriminatory traditional practices in this region includes early/ forced marriages, female circumcision, and honour killings.

Child marriage is a persistent issue in Asia, particularly in South Asia. While the legal age for marriage for women in most countries studied here is at least 18, with the exception of Indonesia and Pakistan, in some countries the many girls still marry at a young age. This reality is better reflected in the median age of marriage for women in that country. Bangladesh has the lowest median among these countries, at 15 years old. This is likely the main contributor of the high adolescent birth rate in Bangladesh.

Table 3: Evidence of early marriage in certain countries of Asia16,19
LEGAL AGE OF MARRIAGE
Regions/Countries Men Women Median age of marriage for women
South Asia
 Bangladesh 21 18 15
 India 21 18 17.4
 Maldives No minimum   19
 Nepal 20 20 17
 Pakistan 18 16 19.1
 Sri Lanka 18 18 22.4
South East Asia
 Cambodia 20 18 20.1
 Indonesia 19 16 19.8
 Lao PDR 18 18 19.2
 Philippines 18 18 22
 Vietnam 20 18 21.1

 

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is common in some cultures in this region, and is still practiced in Indonesia, Pakistan, and India.8,9 The reasons behind it vary; some consider it a part of their religious responsibility, others as a rite of passage into womanhood or ritualistic “cleansing” of women.10 However, FGM is an internationally agreed upon violation of human rights of women and girls. According to a recent report by the WHO, this intentional mutilation of the female genitalia has been showed to have no benefit to the woman. Instead, it predisposes her to various acute and chronic medical complications ranging from frequent urinary tract infections to infertility and pregnancy complications.13 Apart from the biological implications, the practice of FGM violates a girl's rights to her bodily integrity and autonomy, leaving her with little to no control over her sexuality. There is much to do, especially at the nationallevel, if we are to see the eradication of FGM in the near future.

Another common harmful practice in this region is honour killings. As the name suggests, young girls may find themselves subject to this practice if they do something that could potentially bring “shame” to the family. This is still a prominent problem in certain areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is typically gender-biased towards girls. Between 2010 and 2011, 14 cases of honour killings were recorded in Afghanistan11, and this is likely a grave underestimation of the true number of cases in the country.