Ending Child Marriage in Zimbabwe

MUNCIE, United States — She was the fourth wife. That is how a young Zimbabwean woman remembers her cousin, a girl from a rural community in Zimbabwe who one day found herself walking into a marriage already occupied by three other women, each married to the man she was arranged to marry. The cousin had had a conversation with her mother, who had asked her if she would like to get married, to which she said yes. Despite giving her consent, the alternative she faced meant staying home with no school, no income and no visible future.

“She was suffering a lot because of the other two ladies who were there,” said the Zimbabwean, who spoke with The Borgen Project in an interview and asked to remain anonymous to protect her family’s privacy and hers. The situation at home made it hard for her cousin to return, she said, so she stayed until she found a way to run away.

Her cousin eventually escaped. Many girls in Zimbabwe face marriages against their will that lead to mistreatment. In Zimbabwe, child marriage robs girls of their future. Zimbabwe has laws banning child marriage, yet one in three girls in the country still marries before turning 18, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Poverty, tradition and weak enforcement all help keep the practice alive.

A National Emergency Behind a Cultural Practice

Throughout the interview, the young woman described something different from arranged marriage between consenting adults. It was child marriage, a union involving girls who have not yet turned 18 and who, by definition, cannot give full legal consent. According to the Multiple Indicators Survey, Zimbabwe’s child marriage rate stands at 33%, slightly higher than the global average of 29%. The young woman said roughly one in three girls in Zimbabwe marries before adulthood, a pattern she described as common in rural areas.

The practice is deeply tied to lobola, a bride price that a groom’s family traditionally pays in cows, money or groceries to the bride’s family. The interviewee explained that a girl’s price rises with what she has “achieved,” meaning her education and her perceived virtue as measured by her virginity, turning marriage into a transaction rather than a partnership.

For families living in poverty, that calculation can feel less like exploitation and more like survival. UNICEF has identified poverty, gender inequality, social norms and insecurity as the core drivers keeping the practice alive even after legal reform.

Where the Line Disappears

One of the clearest insights from the interview was how nonexistent the line is between an arrangement a girl agrees to and one she is forced into. “They do not know yet that they have a choice,” the source said of girls raised in communities where marriage at 14 or 15 is unremarkable. She noted a sharp divide between rural and urban Zimbabwe: A teenage marriage in a village raises no alarm, while the same case in a city would be considered shocking.

That conditioning often passes down generations. The source’s family placed her own grandmother in an arranged marriage she did not want to be part of; she and her husband went on to have 11 children, one of them the source’s mother. Girls raised by guardians who view child marriage as normal are statistically more likely to marry young themselves, particularly if they are out of school.

The Legal Fight to End Child Marriage in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has made significant legislative progress against child marriage in recent years. In 2022, the country’s Marriages Act set 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage with no exceptions, criminalizing anyone who solemnizes, permits, coerces or otherwise enables a marriage involving a minor. Under the law, no person under 18 may contract any marriage, customary law union or civil partnership. Violators, including parents, can face up to five years in prison, with harsher sentences for guardians who arrange the marriage themselves.

In January 2024, the government went further, raising the legal age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 and introducing penalties of up to 10 years in prison for those who permit, aid or coerce a minor into marriage. The reform closed a gap that previously let some child marriage cases slip through as lesser offenses.

But laws on paper have not eliminated the practice in daily life. Women and Law in Southern Africa and Equality Now conducted a 2025 study in Epworth, a densely populated settlement near Harare. It found that survivors of child marriage continue to face gender-based violence, poverty and barriers to education and reproductive health care, even after legislative reform. The groups called for a dedicated child marriage law that includes health care, legal aid and survivor support, arguing that child marriage perpetuates a cycle of poverty by limiting girls’ access to education and leadership.

Programs Working From the Ground Up

Beyond legislation, organizations are testing approaches that work directly within the communities where child marriage is most entrenched, rather than against them.

UNICEF Zimbabwe has piloted a strategy it calls “Accompanying Cultural Evolution,” which engages traditional leaders rather than confronting cultural practices head-on. In one district, a local chief recognized that a traditional initiation rite was functioning as a pathway into child marriage and declared that only people 18 and older could participate going forward, a decision community members credit with reducing child marriages in that community and inspiring nearby leaders to consider similar steps.

Evidence also points to education-based interventions as some of the most effective tools available. Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial in rural eastern Zimbabwe, enrolling 329 orphaned girls, then in sixth grade, across 25 primary schools. Girls who received school fees, uniforms and a dedicated school-based helper saw school dropout fall by 82% and early marriage fall by 63% over the following two years, compared to girls who received no additional support. The findings reinforce what the young woman identified as a root cause in her own community: when girls have no access to school, marriage becomes one of the few paths a family believes is available to them.

Preparing for Independence

Organizations such as Nhanga, meaning “girls’ bedroom,” also offer a space for young girls to gather and discuss sexuality, child marriage, teen pregnancy, gender bias, education, economic empowerment and the law. This work prepares girls for marriage, but also for independence. Girls are also taught practical skills such as poultry rearing, farming and soap making. With such programs and an emphasis on community, young Zimbabwean women are able to establish their own future.

Freedom United, an organization focused on educating and empowering people on the realities of modern slavery, has created a campaign to help end forced marriage worldwide. It has already garnered around 108,932 people to support the campaign and hopes to reach 150,000. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.3 has put ending forced marriage on the global agenda, and by supporting it, the campaign aims to push lawmakers and politicians, case by case and country by country, to protect children from the practice.

Looking Ahead

Zimbabwe has already shown that legal change is possible. What remains is the harder work of reaching every village, every guardian and every girl the law aims to protect. Programs like Nhanga are shifting norms from within: What once prepared girls for marriage now helps prepare them for independence.

– Joy Kohol

Joy is based in Muncie, IN, USA and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash