By Umaru Fofana, BBC Information, Freetown
![Khadijatu Barrie Khadijatu Barrie](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/533b/live/d0282570-38b6-11ef-bbe0-29f79e992ddd.jpg.webp)
Sierra Leone has introduced in a brand new legislation banning baby marriage with a lot fanfare at a ceremony organised by First Woman Fatima Bio within the capital, Freetown.
Invited friends, together with first girls from Cape Verde and Namibia, watched as her husband President Julius Maada Bio signed the Prohibition of Little one Marriage Act into legislation.
Anyone now concerned within the marriage of a woman aged underneath the age of 18 might be jailed for not less than 15 years or fined round $ 4,000 (£3,200), or each.
College pupil Khadijatu Barrie, whose sister was married off at 14, informed the BBC she welcomed the ban however wished it had are available to avoid wasting her youthful sibling.
“I actually want it had occurred earlier. I might have not less than saved my sister and my buddies and different neighbours,” the 26-year-old gender research undergraduate mentioned.
Sierra Leone is a patriarchal society and it’s common for a father to provide his daughter’s hand in marriage forcibly.
Ms Barrie confronted this prospect aged 10. She resisted it and fled the household house after her father disowned her.
She was fortunate sufficient to search out academics who paid for her faculty charges and a sympathetic employee from the UN kids’s company who helped her out with lodging.
However she says it’s troublesome for individuals who stay in rural areas to buck custom and each neighborhood will must be knowledgeable concerning the new legislation for it to be efficient.
“If everybody understands what’s there ready for you in case you do it I am positive this nation might be a greater one,” Ms Barrie mentioned.
The ministry of well being estimates {that a} third of women are married off earlier than they flip 18, accounting for the nation’s excessive variety of maternal deaths – among the many highest on this planet.
Those that face punishment underneath the brand new guidelines embody the groom, the mother and father or guardians of the kid bride, and even those that attend the marriage.
Mrs Bio, who has been on the forefront in campaigning in opposition to sexual abuse since her husband turned president six years in the past, needed the signing of the invoice to be a giant event.
Since MPs handed the laws a couple of weeks in the past, it has not obtained a lot protection regionally.
![Sierra Leone presidency President Julius Maada Bio signs the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act into law](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/ed43/live/eec92e20-38b6-11ef-bbe0-29f79e992ddd.jpg.webp)
On the ceremony, President Bio mentioned that his “motivation and dedication to empowering ladies and ladies is firmly rooted in my private life journey”.
His eight-year-old daughter was amongst those that watched him signal the invoice.
The 60-year-old president defined how he had misplaced his father at an early age and had been introduced up by his mom and later his elder sister who “supported and inspired me to pursue my desires to one of the best of my capability”.
He acknowledged his spouse’s dedication to championing ladies’s rights: “Collectively, we wish to construct an empowered Sierra Leone the place ladies are given an excellent platform to achieve their full potential. I’ve at all times believed that the way forward for Sierra Leone is feminine.”
Rights activists reacted favourably to the lawm, calling it a watershed second.
On their X web page, the US Bureau of African Affairs welcomed the passage of the invoice saying the “vital milestone not solely protects ladies however promotes strong human rights protections”.
![Sierra Leone presidency First Lady Fatima Bio (R) watches her husband hold up the he Prohibition of Child Marriage Act](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6918/live/83501950-38b7-11ef-a044-9d4367d5b599.jpg.webp)
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