A few month ago, a heard, Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaking about his passionate campaign against the marriage of girls in childhood or just after puberty, still widespread in Africa and Asia (Every day, 25,000 girls are married too young, without any freedom of choice).
In general, a married teenager quits school if, by chance, she attended a school. Girls under fifteen are five times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in her twenties.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter and other members of the group of The Elders launched the movement ‟Girls not brides” and demonstrate that this scourge alone can prevent the achievement of six of the eight Millennium Development Golas pursued by the United Nations to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality rates, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Only two goals — ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development —are not directly related to the problem of girls’ marriage.
the Dalai Lama, who often says that he is a convinced ‟feminist” and Desmond Tutu enjoying each other’s company