In Zimbabwe, girls as young as 10 are forced to marry due to poverty or traditional and religious practices.

A teenage taekwondo enthusiast is using the sport to give girls in an impoverished community a fighting chance at life.

17-year old Natsiraishe Maritsa a martial arts fan since the age of five, who is now using taekwondo to rally young girls and mothers to join hands and fight child marriage says

“Not many people do taekwondo here, so it’s fascinating for the girls, both married and single. I use it to get their attention,”

Children as young as four, and some of Natsiraishe’s former schoolmates who are now married, line up on the tiny, dusty yard outside her parents’ home in the poor Epworth settlement, about 15km southeast of the capital, Harare.

They enthusiastically follow her instructions to stretch, kick, strike, punch and spar. After class, they talk about the dangers of child marriage.

Holding their babies, the recently married girls took the lead. One after the other, they narrated how they face verbal and physical abuse, marital rape, pregnancy-related health complications and hunger.

Maritsa says we are not ready for this thing called marriage. We are just too young for it.

Maritsa says the role of teen mothers is usually ignored when people campaign against child marriages. Here, I use their voices and their challenges, to discourage those young girls not yet married to stay off early sexual activity and marriage.

Neither boys nor girls may legally marry until the age of 18, according to Zimbabwean law enacted after the Constitutional Court in 2016 struck down earlier legislation that allowed girls to marry at 16.

Child marriage is prevalent across Africa, and rising poverty amid the COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressures on families to marry off their young daughters.

According to Girls Not Brides, an organisation that campaigns to end child marriages, some poor families in Zimbabwe, marrying off a young daughter means one less burden, and the bride price paid by the husband is often used by families as a means of survival.

Some religious sects encourage girls as young as 10 to marry much older men for spiritual guidance, while some families, to avoid shame, force girls who engage in premarital sex to marry their boyfriends, according to the organisation.

Maritsa, through her association called Vulnerable Under aged People’s Auditorium, is hoping to increase the confidence of both the married and single girls through the martial arts lessons and the discussions that follow.

Zimbabwe’s ban on public gatherings imposed as part of strict lockdown measures to try to slow an unprecedented surge in new COVID-19 infections has forced Maritsa to suspend the sessions, but she hopes to resume as soon as the lockdown is lifted.

Inside the neatly decorated small house adorned with Maritsa’s medals and pictures, her parents prepare fruit juice and some cookies for the girls their sacrifice to help their daughter’s efforts.

Maritsa says I can only take 15 people per session because the only support I get is from my parents.

“My father is a small-scale farmer, my mother is a full-time housewife but they sacrifice the little they have toward what I want to achieve.”

Despite her limited resources, Maritsa is committed to her mission.

Early marriages could be increasing as COVID-19 keeps children away from school and deepens poverty, warn women’s groups. Even some of those attending Maritsa’s home sessions seem to have different priorities.

By Yazdaan Khan