Poverty and religion behind early marriages in Zimbabwe
In many cases young women are married to much older men while her parents and village elders support it. The young women are then forced to leave school and any hope for an education to become housewives and bearers of children. While technically illegal for minors to marry in Zimbabwe under the Domestic Violence Act, the problem continues to grow since members of the sect are complicit and secretive. Most marriages are arrange to be between older men and young underage girls and in some cases men even take on multiple wives that are all underage. The ongoing ordeal has forced Zimbabwean authorities to step up efforts to stop the practice that has forced thousands of girls in the Marange, Odzi and Buhera districts of Manicaland to drop out of school.