Peer-reviewed article
Drivers and consequences of child marriage in a context of protracted displacement: a qualitative study among Syrian refugees in Egypt
Shatha Elnakib, Salma Abou Hussein, Sali Hafez, May Elsallab, Kara Hunersen et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This qualitative study examined child marriage among Syrian refugee girls living in Egypt, exploring why families practice it and how it affects girls' wellbeing. Researchers conducted focus group discussions with girls and parents, interviewed mothers and humanitarian workers across three Egyptian regions. The study found that while child marriage was already common in Syria before the conflict, displacement has had mixed effects: some families resort to it due to education disruption and economic hardship, while others in Egyptian urban areas have reduced the practice. Girls who marry early face serious consequences including lack of family planning, lost schooling, and restricted freedom.
Key points
- Child marriage was a pre-existing cultural practice in Syria that has persisted among refugee families in Egypt
- Displacement-specific challenges including educational disruption, protection concerns, and livelihood insecurity increased vulnerability to child marriage for some families
- Displacement to urban areas in Egypt appears to have eroded some social norms favoring child marriage, leading to marriage postponement in some cases
- Early marriage consequences for girls include lack of family planning use, disrupted schooling, restricted mobility, and barriers to birth registration
- Interventions should address both prevention of child marriage and mitigation of its impacts while acknowledging displacement-specific contexts
Limitations
The study is qualitative and based on self-reported data from focus groups and interviews, so it cannot establish the prevalence of child marriage or measure causal effects of displacement with certainty. The findings are specific to Syrian refugees in Egypt and may not generalise to other refugee populations or contexts.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Child marriage is a human rights violation disproportionately impacting girls in low- and middle-income countries. In the Middle East region, conflict and displacement have prompted concerns that families are increasingly resorting to child marriage to cope with economic insecurity and fears from sexual violence. This study set out to examine child marriage among Syrian refugees residing in Egypt with the aim of understanding drivers of child marriage in this context of displacement as well as how child marriage affects refugee girls' wellbeing. METHODS: This analysis draws from 15 focus group discussions (FGD) conducted with married and unmarried girls, as well as parents of adolescent girls in three governorates in Egypt. FGDs included a participatory ranking exercise and photo-elicitation. Additionally, we conducted 29 in-depth interviews with girls and mothers, as well as 28 key informant interviews with health providers, community leaders, and humanitarian actors. The data was thematically analyzed using a combination of inductive and deductive coding. RESULTS: A prevalent phenomenon in pre-war Syria, child marriage has been sustained after the influx of Syrian refugees into Egypt by pre-existing cultural traditions and gender norms that prioritize the role of girls as wives and mothers. However, displacement into Egypt engendered different responses. For some families, displacement-specific challenges such as disruptions to girls' education, protection concerns, and livelihood insecurity were found to exacerbate girls' vulnerability to child marriage. For others, however, displacement into urban areas in Egypt may have contributed to the erosion of social norms that favored child marriage, leading to marriage postponement. Among girls who were married early, we identified a range of negative health and social consequences, including lack of family planning use, disruption to schooling and curtailment of girls' mobility as well as challenges with marriage and birth registration which accentuated their vulnerability. CONCLUSION: Efforts to address child marriage among Syrian refugees must acknowledge the different ways in which displacement can influence child marriage attitudes and practices and should capitalize on positive changes that have the potential to catalyze social norm change. Moreover, targeted, focused and contextualized interventions should not only focus on preventing child marriage but also on mitigating its impacts.