Conditions of Female Pupils Married to a Priest/Märigeta/Deacon

Among 152 early-married female pupils in Rim and Bachema primary schools, 12 (7.8%) female pupils were married to a priest/märigeta/deacon. In principle, this form of marriage is indissoluble.

However, one female pupil, 8^th grader at Rim Primary School, married to a priest got divorced (see Appendix 8B, No.106). This was made possible due to her father’s strong desire to get her educated, which was and still is supported by the government, even at the local level. When the marriage was dissolved, her husband has lost his priesthood status, which is locally known as yaferse-qés. Of course, among 12 female pupils married to a /priest/märigeta/deacon, this is the only dissolved marriage. In most cases, female pupils who got married to a /priest/märigeta/ are high-risk groups in terms of dropout from school mainly because of their husbands’ unwillingness neither to dissolve the marriage nor to allow them to continue their formal schooling. Hence, husbands’ religious status, especially in Rim peasant community, is the major obstacle on married girls’ success in formal education. Of course, female pupils married to a local priest/märigeta expressed their wish to continue their formal schooling after divorce (e.g. see Appendix 8B, No. 96, 99, 102, 103, 107, 108).

Unfortunately, it was not possible because of their fathers’ desire to maintain the marriage alliance as well as their husband’s desire to maintain their religious status. At last, they are forced to dropout from school, even from 8^th grade, the highest-grade level of primary education. The following is a case in point.

Case Study (9.3): A life story of Ennat Alemu,¹³³ 16 years old mother who dropped-out from 8^th grade due to early-arranged marriage and pregnancy from Rim Peasant Community of Mecha Woreda

Ennat’s life story is briefly stated in her own words as follows:

“I was married to a priest when I was in grade 3 at the age of 10 because of a strong pressure from my father who wanted to form an alliance with my parents-in-law. I got pregnant when I was promoted to 8^th grade and dropped-out from the same grade due to early pregnancy. I gave birth to a daughter at

the age of 16. My husband, a priest, did not want me to continue my study. So, I was disappointed for I was not able to continue my study” (Rim Peasant Association, 26^th Januray 2004).

Here it is important to note that among 12 female pupils married to a priest/märigeta/deacon, three female pupil’s husbands, a deacon, transferred from the local church school to the “modern”

(formal) one (see Appendix 8B, No. 33, 77, 109). In these cases, both husbands and wives attend formal school. For these husbands, the marriage does not pose any problem, but it has a negative effect on their wives’ academic performance. The following case study illustrates this problem.

Case Study (9.4): A life story of Fanaye Getu,¹³⁴ 16 years old mother, 8^th grader, whose academic performance is declining due to early marriage and early childbearing from Rim Primary School of Mecha Woreda

Fanaye’s life story is briefly stated in her own words as follows:

“I was married to a deacon, who attended a modern school, at the age of 9, when I was a grade 1 student. My marriage took place together with my three younger siblings (2 sisters and 1 brother). I am my parents’ eldest child. My brother was only 7 years old, and my two sisters were 5 and 2 years old when we got married. My younger brother’s wife was 2 years old. My parents arranged an early marriage for all of their four children at the same time in order to avoid the problem of preparing wedding feasts for each of us. Fortunately, all of us got the chance to continue our schooling. My parents, my husband and his parents encouraged me to study hard. When I was living with my parents, until grade 4, I was one of the best students in the rank list. But when I started to live with my husband, my academic performance began to decline because of the heavy domestic responsibilities that I had to shoulder. At the age of 14, when I was in grade 6, I got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. I did not discontinue my schooling but still, my academic performance continued to decline.

This was mainly because I was burdened with household management and child-rearing. My husband, 9^th grader, was a rank student. He assisted me in doing school related activities during Saturdays and Sundays” (Rim Primary School, 27^th May 2003).

Fanaye’s case reveals the fact that early marriage poses more problems for female pupils than male pupils since female pupils are the one who manage the household, get pregnant and give birth at an early age. Despite all these burdens, Fanaye was promoted to 9^th grade in September 2003. She was attending 9^th grade in Merawi Secondary School while living with her husband, 10^th grader in the same school. Her in-laws, who live in a peasant community in Mecha Woreda, were taking care of her 3 years old daughter. In September 2004, she and her husband were attending 10^th and 11^th grades, respectively, in Merawi Secondary School, the only secondary school in Mecha Woreda. Of course, she is the only female pupil who managed to continue her formal education after giving birth due to her literate parents’, in-laws’, and her husband’s supports and encouragements.

For many girls in Bachema and Rim peasant communities, formal education is over almost before it begins because most of them got married before the age of 8 and those enrolled in school are forced to drop out. Currently, early-married female pupils in Bachema and Rim primary schools are encountering three major difficulties related to early-arranged marriages: 1) irregular attendance/frequent absenteeism and lack of concentration on education since they are expected to move between the two families (their parents’ and in-laws’ families); 2) low academic performance and high grade repetition rates; and 3) high dropout rates, especially between the ages of 12 to 13 to establish their goğğo and then to become accomplished housewives and mothers, though their desire is to continue their formal education. In general, the custom of early marriage is the main challenge to girls’ access to and success in formal education among the studied peasant communities, especially

134 Fictive name

in Rim where the majority of female pupils dropped-out from the local school either to get married or due to early-arranged marriages (see Appendix 8B and Case Study 9.1, 9.2, 9.3). When girls drop out of school to get married or due to early-arranged marriages, there is a knock-on effect for the community as a whole and for future generations. Hence, there is a need for finding ways of reducing the negative effects of early-arranged marriages on girls’ formal education, and enabling those that are married at an early age to benefit from a continued formal education - to the benefit of their families as well as their communities as a whole.

CHAPTER TEN