KABUL - The negative impact of child marriage will be highlighted in a new United Nations-produced animated film, with the aim of raising awareness of the issue amongst Afghan communities.

'Teacher Malalai’s Adventures: Zarmina’s Early Marriage’ will help demonstrate the health and psychological consequences of children being married and “portray how it denies the rights of a girl,” according to a gender expert serving with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Afghanistan, Dr. Nigina Abaszada.

With 46 per cent of Afghan women married before their 18th birthday and over 15 per cent before they turn 15, Afghanistan continues to have one of the world’s highest rates of child marriage, according to the Afghanistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (AMICS) 2010/2011. In line with the international human rights treaty known as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN recommends that the age of marriage is set at 18 years, with child marriage defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18.

Afghanistan’s television outlets will soon start broadcasting the narrated seven-minute animated film, which is based on an educational booklet published last year on the same issue. UNFPA produced the film, in cooperation with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

In addition to the television broadcasts, a version of the film will be produced for broadcast on Afghan radio stations, given that radio is the mass medium best able to reach the biggest number of Afghans.

The film starts with the story of withdrawal of a 14-year-old girl, Zarmina, from school following her father's decision to marry her to a man. The storyline goes on to show Zarmina’s older sister, Soniya – who was also married to a man while in her childhood – giving birth to a dead baby in hospital. A doctor tells Soniya's and Zarmina’s father that Soniya was too young and physically not ready to give birth. The girls’ father realizes the negative consequences of child marriage and decides to send Zarmina back to school and drops the idea of having her marry.

“Many issues related to early marriage are connected to each other which we wanted to explain in a concise but comprehensive manner based on the example of one family,” Dr. Abaszada said about the film.

According to the AMICS 2011/2012, carried out by the country’s Central Statistics Organisation with the support of UNICEF, early marriage in Afghanistan is strongly correlated to education, with young women without education being more than three times as likely to be married before the age of 18 than their counterparts who have secondary education or higher. The results of the same study indicate that just over 22 per cent of Afghan women can read and write.

“It is important to remind that early marriage denies a girl of childhood, disrupts her education and significantly increases the risk for delivery complications and exposure to domestic violence and abuse,” Dr. Abaszada said.