Women's Rights in Benin (Part III)

The final installment on women's rights:

Marriage

By law:

Forced marriage is illegal. A woman has the right to choose her own husband. If she is married before she turns 18, the marriage is considered to be a forced marriage, whether or not she gave her consent.

Furthermore, polygamous marriages are not allowed under Beninese law.

In practice:

I do not have a clear idea of how many women are forced into marriage in Sonsoro, but it is common in Benin. Many women, however, are married before age 18. For example, last summer, my 40-something-year-old colleague took a 17-year-old wife (who is in sixth grade), supposedly with her consent after the parents proposed the marriage. While such illegal marriages are common in my area, complaints about such marriages are rare.

As for polygamy, it is the norm rather than the exception in my area. However, it is exceptionally rare for a couple, especially in Sonsoro, to have a state-recognized marriage. Most marriages are religious or simply traditional.

Children

By law:

Women have a right to birth control, and the government encourages health centers to discuss family planning. Previously, abortion was only allowed in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the mother or child and only when the need had been certified by the courts. Now, abortion is illegal in all cases.

In practice:

In Sonsoro, our health center only does about 5% of the family planning consultations the government expects us to do. The health center will not sell or administer birth control to a woman without her husband's consent. Husbands rarely allow their wives to be on birth control because they believe that only the fear of pregnancy keeps their wives faithful to them. Also, children are considered a man's wealth, so he has an incentive to produce a large family.

One case that struck me was when a woman came to our health center with her husband to have a pregnancy test. She had a young baby on her back and the pregnancy test was positive. I asked the nursing assistant if she was going to talk to the couple about birth control since they were having children so close together (we generally recommend birth spacing of 2-3 years between children). The nursing assistant explained that the husband refused to put his wife on birth control and wanted her to get an abortion. He would rather abort unwanted pregnancies than allow his wife to take birth control.

On the subject of abortion, some middle school teachers estimated yesterday that at least a third of their female students had had an abortion at some point. Since abortion is illegal, these clandestine abortions are extremely dangerous.

As for child custody in the case of divorce, the traditional practice is that the man gets custody and the children will be raised by one of his other wives. Therefore, when a woman wants to escape an abusive relationship, she may have to choose to sacrifice her children.

Female Genital Mutilation

By law:

Female genital mutilation is illegal in Benin.

In practice:

Female genital mutilation still exists in certain parts of Benin, particularly the northwest. I have never heard of it being practiced in Sonsoro, but one of my work partners pointed out the tree under which it used to be done. He said it was very common 20 years ago but that he no longer hears of it being practiced in Sonsoro. In all of Benin, 30-50% of women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, according to one estimate.