COMMENTATOR (COMM): Previously on Life...

DR NAILA KHAN: 50 per cent of mothers in Bangladesh are married off by 17.5 years of age so they're having children when their pelvises are small

FATHER JOE DIZON The wages of our workers are just enough for them to go home eat something and then go back to the factory

JAMES WOLFENSOHN (President of the World Bank): Women are central to the whole issue of development but for cultural and historic reasons they've never been given a fair shake

COMM: Choosing whether to marry or not, and if and when to have children, is a fundamental human right, enshrined in international law since 1948. But it's a right widely violated in countries round the world. In many African communities, girls are still viewed as commodities - to be married off as early as possible. Once married, a girl forfeits the right to make decisions that affect her own and her children's future.

These people are celebrating a wedding, near Bahir Dar in northern Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Civil Code sets fifteen as the minimum age of marriage for girls. But in rural areas like this, ignorance of the law is widespread and tradition deep-rooted. Today's bride is just four years old.

COMM: Just a few miles away preparations are being made for another marriage. Nibret is eleven. Tomorrow she'll be handed over to her husband's family. Neither Nibret nor her grandparents, who have raised her since her parents' death, have ever seen the groom. All the arrangements for the marriage have been made by a mediator.

GRANDFATHER (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): We don't trust our cattle to last and one of us could die so we like to betroth our children now so they can begin their independent lives.

GRANDMOTHER (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): And the other family will also give the children some cattle and some farmland. They too want to see the children established before they die. And we all gain new relatives.

COMM: Later that night the groom's party arrives. The groom might or might not be among the dancers, as he does not disclose his identity at this stage.

Nibret is kept hidden from view in a nearby hut, chaperoned by her married sister. Though this is normal practice in the countryside, now in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, a group of women lawyers has banded together determined to enforce the law and change attitudes.

Original Georgis is a founding member of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association. The Association started to campaign against child marriage because of overwhelming evidence that the minimum age laws were being abused.

ORIGINAL GEORGIS: People saying girls don't get sexual intercourse until the age of fifteen is a myth because this girl is only twelve. She's already married, she's divorced and she's selling liquor for her living. Down here, this is a ten-year-old girl. When she first came to us we were so shocked that we took her pictures to remind us that there is a lot to do. Early marriage is very, very rampant in the northern part of Ethiopia.

Girls of eight, nine, ten, eleven are married and the parents do that for economic reasons, for alliances with good families and because they have no alternative to give to their girl children. If they don't get married early they think that there-there is nowhere to put them or to give them. So they want to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

COMM: Meanwhile Nibret's grandfather and the other men are finalising the marriage contract. The process is supervised by a mediator who represents the family of the groom. Exchanges of property are carefully negotiated and noted.

In another part of the village the groom recovers from the night before and waits with his party. He still has not seen his bride. Just across the compound Nibret's sisters do their best not to disappoint him when the moment comes.

INTERVIEWER: If you could choose the perfect bride, what would she be like?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I don't really care what she's like.

MALE VOICE (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): What if she was lazy?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I would just kick her out.

INTERVIEWER: Are you nervous?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Yes, kind of.

INTERVIEWER (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): But are you looking forward to getting married?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): What's there to look forward to?

ORIGINAL GEORGIS: From Bahir Dar we have the case of the bride who was nine and the bridegroom who was twelve. On the night of the marriage, the bridegroom, because he was a child, cannot - couldn't break the hymen. So his attendants, who were adults, told him to poke the bride with an iron. He poked her and she went to hospital for four, for four months. I think the physical injury has healed but what will come in the future, we don't know.

COMM: Many similar cases end up in Bahir Dar's only hospital. Sewarag developed a fistula after her husband made her pregnant. A fistula is when the vaginal wall ruptures. This can lead to life-threatening infections, especially when the reproductive organs are not fully developed. Because girls become incontinent and can no longer have sex, their husbands often abandon them.

SEWARAG (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): My parents are dead and I've no relatives left. I was in this hospital for a year and no-one visited me except the doctors. I hate my life but when I see the others I'm grateful I'm not as ill as them.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think it's possible you're going to go back to your husband?

SEWARAG (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): No, I don't want to. I don't want to.

COMM: The contract has now been agreed and signed by the men. But Nibret remains hidden from the groom while she is handed over to the mediator who will take her by mule to her husband's family.

ORIGINAL GEORGIS: You see women are some sort of possession to be guarded, to be valued. This is very, very, very deep in our culture and everything is shrouded in tradition and all the time women are being hurt, hurt to the point of being I don't know, voiceless or something. There are laws, there are policies, there are some things - but on the ground, in actual fact, nothing has moved much.

COMM: Nibret finally arrives at her husband's village. Her father-in-law waits eagerly - he has not yet seen her. Officially, the church only sanctions marriage over the legal age of fifteen.

ORIGINAL GEORGIS: We are stopping our girl children from going to school; we're killing their potential. And these girls when they're getting married they run away because they're not physically, mentally prepared for marriage. So they run away, come to the big cities and become prostitutes, street children and maids in somebody's places. It's a very, very harrowing experience for girls marrying at an early age.

COMM: Nibret now meets her husband for the first time. Custom dictates she is neither seen nor heard. Throughout the making of this film, she could not bring herself to talk to us.

ORIGINAL GEORGIS: Sometimes it, it wakes me up in the middle of the night. In Ethiopia half the populations - half the population are women, and among women the majority are children. Development cannot happen unless you include the women. And how could we think of the future of Ethiopia as a country in terms of development if you don't do something to the children of today?

If you want a parent not to give his girl child in marriage as early as that you have to give him an incentive - the incentive should be a school nearby. If there is a school nearby and you tell him, 'instead of giving your girl in marriage you can send her to school' you have to have a school near it.

COMM: But Nibret wasn't given the opportunity for education. And as she begins her married life her new husband takes control.

INTERVIEWER: Where are you going to sleep tonight?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Right here.

INTERVIEWER: With her?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Have you ever slept with a girl before?

GROOM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): No. It's my first time.

ORIGINAL GEORGIS When you see these-those small children, you sometimes don't know - you see they're so helpless, they look at you, some of them are so poor and some are really hurt. You can see that from their eyes some would like to trust you by thinking you can produce miracles to push their problems away. When you see that you just boil inside.

PART 2

COMM: In Kano in northern Nigeria, most girls are married by sixteen. Many marry even younger - sometimes, as in Ethiopia, as young as six. Polygamy is widely practised here and a man is allowed to divorce without difficulty. Safia is only in her mid-thirties, but has been divorced for fifteen years.

SAFIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): If you are not married, it is really a big problem. If you are looking for something from somewhere, when you are married, you are respected and get what you want, you go straight ahead with confidence. But if you don't have a husband you are hesitant wherever you go. So we have to have courage and patience.

COMM: Safia was married at twelve. Her husband divorced her ten years later. She had no education or means of income. So she and her two children returned to her mother.

SAFIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Of course it hurts. Whenever I think about it, it's the one thing that really hurts.

COMM: But divorcees like Safia are unlikely to derive comfort from the view of community religious leaders like Mohummed El Hassin.

EL HASSIN: Polygamy has come to solve many of the problems of the society. And that is why Islam enshrines it as part of its principle. Sometimes, because of biological factors, a woman for one reason or another, she has what you call a menstrual period and goes for menstruation. But during such period sometimes a man has a natural urge for another woman. What does he do? How does he satisfy himself? So Islam says, alright. So a man, if he has more than one wife then he has the possibility to safeguard that interest.

COMM: Alhaji Aminu is certainly safeguarding his interests. Fifty-five years old, he is a used car dealer, and so far has taken five wives. One died and he divorced another. But he still lives with three of them.

Alhaji has his own room with air conditioning. Each wife has one room in which she lives with her children.

His oldest wife, Hawa has been married to Alhaji for thirty years. She has borne him eleven children, nine of which have survived. Though she's continued to bear him children - her youngest is just four - Alhaji continued to take wives. Hawa has had to learn how to suppress her feelings and live with all this.

HAWA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): When Zadia was brought here, to begin with, to be honest, it wasn't very pleasant. We used to quarrel. But later we realised living together was the will of God because everything comes from God. Then we forgot our differences. The second wife, who passed away - God rest her soul - was even more bitter than me to see yet another new bride and I always had to calm her down. I said to her, 'Be tolerant. This one is like a daughter to us. But now we're going to share our husband with her.' So I said, 'Be calm, be patient.'

COMM: Zadia has given Alhaji a child and is clearly young and fertile. But Alhaji has taken yet another wife.

EL HASSIN: Islam concerns itself about population. Sometimes because of one reason or another, by the time somebody marries a woman, he finds her barren. In other words she cannot bear children. But instead of discarding her, like we discard clothes, Islam then gives permission: you retain her and give her all other social amenities and security. But then if there is another one that can reproduce, then she comes under your canopy.

ZADIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I was brought to this house at thirteen when I didn't really know anything. I was brought into a household where the women were all much older than me. I can't look on these women as my co-wives - they are all the same age as my mother.

COMM: Alhaji refused to take part in any more filming once he learned his wives had spoken to us.

ZADIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I sit in my room and cry and cry. And if I tell my husband, he doesn't believe me. As far as he's concerned, everyone here is living in peace and harmony. The other women know what to do but I don't know what to do because I'm not as wise as them. Even their children are older than me.

COMM: This centre was set up for girls like Zadia. It was started by Mairo Bello in response to the lack of education for young married and divorced girls.

MAIRO BELLO, Adolescent Health and Information Project: A man of fifty taking up a child of nine, ten or thirteen years old as a wife; when will he train those children he is bringing into the world? Who is he leaving the responsibilities to? That's what we should ask ourselves. After he has impregnated the woman and the woman has given birth, who takes care of the child? The girl is only thirteen: no education, no skills to get any income, nothing, nothing.

COMM: But Mairo's views are not endorsed by the establishment and community religious leaders: Mohummed El Hassin chairs regular seminars for Islamic scholars.

1st SCHOLAR: Polygamy is something from Almighty God.

COMM: The discussion continued. It wasn't confined to polygamy. The scholars went on to talk about the age at which girls should marry.

2nd SCHOLAR: Islam insists on early marriage so that er, they grow up to be responsible members of society. You can marry as old - as early as seven years old. It is left to you. COMM: Experts say there is no authority for this doctrine in the Koran so we wanted to make sure they really endorse this view of child marriage.

INTERVIEWER: Are you saying little girls as young as six are ready for sexual relations with their husband if the husband so chooses?

EL HASSIN: Exactly; I can give you many anecdotes which have stipulated, stipulated that there is nothing, there is nothing wrong. It's, it is very straightforward. These small girls they are ready for sex, just as I've mentioned, I've mentioned to you. It's explicit.

MAIRO BELLO: What we advise is at least let this child have some education, even if it's only secondary school. If she has that basic education, if she wants to go back and make something of her life she can always go back and make something of her life. But if she has no education, she's blank; no skills - when does she start?

ZADIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION V/O): I realise the kids here don't go to school. They're married off very young. My husband's daughter who died was the only one that even went to primary school. I was in the same class as her. Even she was married off as soon as she finished primary school.

MAIRO: Even if some of those husbands promise that after they marry they will continue schooling, most of them do not keep those promises. We do not encourage early marriage but if it has happened, it has happened. What do we do now to salvage the situation? To make them feel like human beings, not like some kind of dogs that after the day's meal just give the leftovers to them. Give the girls some empowerment and make them useful to the society.

COMM: The girls at this centre are runaways from early marriages, divorcees or married girls like Zadia who are desperate for an education but forbidden it. They are taught practical skills to give them some income and given lessons in decision-making, leadership and assertiveness.

MAIRO BELLO: Don't forget these girls have been brainwashed from Day One. From the day they were put in their cradle, They've been telling them that all you are useful for is marriage; you have no other function in life than to marry and start bearing children.

EL HASSIN: As Islam is concerned, a woman has a very fundamental role. One - number one - as far as her duty in the matrimonial home is concerned, is giving comfort to the husband. Like an example, I have suffered here, everyone has come in and then there are a lot of tensions and so forth. If I go back to my house I need some comfort.

COMM: Back at her Centre Mairo is teaching girls how to be assertive rather than a comfort to men.

MAIRO'S STUDENT 1 (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): When a man doesn't have anything to offer and comes home empty-handed, that's the time you have to tread gently when you welcome him. He comes home already upset because he hasn't been able to buy anything for the family. If you start making demands on him then, then there'll be trouble.

MAIRO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): It's no good just being silent all the time. If you lock it all up inside, you'll develop high blood pressure.

MAIRO'S STUDENT 2 (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Really, this woman is just like a mother to us. She's really helped us a lot. It wasn't a man who opened this school, it was her.

MAIRO BELLO: I'm optimistic in the sense that a lot of the young ones now are fighting back. If you go to the universities you will see a lot of young girls with their babies strapped on their backs in the university lecture halls and that's encouraging for me. So they will come with their baby sitters and the baby sitters will be sitting outside with their babies there in the lecture halls. And if I see that, it's so much beautiful picture in my eyes I want to go on looking at them.

COMM: But back at Alhaji's home, the future looks less promising. Hajeera, his latest wife, has a new baby. His wives are adapting yet again to expansion in the family. Zadia is pregnant again.

HAWA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Marrying young children is really very bad. What makes it so awful, apart from all the other problems, is that when a girl child is about to have a baby, there's a lot of suffering unless we're very lucky. If a child is married at an early age and becomes pregnant and delivers the baby safely, then she is extremely lucky.

ZADIA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): When I had my baby, people said it's God's will, and that is why I accepted it. I used to cry every day. But now, I'm resigned to my fate.

END