Nepal information
Social Status of Women
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Women in Nepal
Grafik Women in Nepal
Patriarchy and Marriage
Significant differences in the age of marriage
between rural and urban women
Widowhood and divorce
An index of the degree of freedom
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Patriarchy and Marriage
Across the cultural diversity, the majority of communities in Nepal are patriarchal-a woman's life is strongly influenced by her father and husband-as reflected in the practice of patrilocal residence, patriarchal descent, and by inheritance systems and family choice relations. Such patriarchal practices are further reinforced by the legal system. Marriage has an overwhelming importance woman's life. The event of marriage determines almost all her life options and subsequent livelihood.

According to Hindu tradition, marriage is essential for all, whether man or woman. While a man's life is not considered complete without a wife, a woman has no option but to marry.

In the Indo-Aryan culture, in particular, girls are encouraged to marry in their early teens or even earlier by their parents. Early marriages are rooted in both the concept of purity of the female body and the need for helping hands in farm households in general. Marriage is a social contract between two clans rather than the personal affair of the bride and groom. Women and also men rarely have any role in the choice of their own life partners. In addition, polygyny, though outlawed, can be still observed especially in the rural areas of the Terai. In the Tibeto-Burman group, there is far more flexibility in the choice of marriage partners. Nevertheless, the majority of the population is dominated by patriarchal value systems that accord overwhelming importance to early marriage and male children.

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An index of the degree of freedom
Hence, the overwhelming majority of both men and women are married before they are 25 years old. In 1991, more than 86 percent of women and 61 percent of men were married before that age. In the Indo-Aryan community, women are tied for life by their marriage bonds. Hence, a woman's power to accept or reject marriage partnership is evidently an index of the degree of freedom she exercises in the management of her own life, and thus also of her status. In the case of early marriage, the children concerned are too young to comprehend the issues involved. By the time they understand the reality, they are tied for life. An increase in the mean age of marriage, therefore, may be taken as an indicator of increased power for individual women and men in the cheice of their own life partners, and hence their empowerment. In the non-Aryan communities, they may enjoy greater freedom of divorce and remarriage, but they face the risk of being lett with young children without assets or helping hands to provide for them.

The mean age of marriage for women in Nepal has increased significently from 15.4 years in 1961 to 18 years in 1991, indicating a slow but steady change in secial peroeptions about the institution of child marriage . The change is most pronounced for young girls. In 1991, 7.4 percent of fernales in the 1-14 age group were reported to be married, compared with 24.9 pereent in 1961.

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Significant differences in the mean age of marriage between rural and urban women

There are significant differences in the mean age of marriage between rural and urban women, among women of various ecological zones, and between educated and noneducated women. Urban women marry later than rural women do. From an ecological zone perspective, a higher proportion of females is married at an earlier age in the Terai than in the hills and mountains. In 1991, more than 90 percent of the females in the Terai were married by the time they had reachod the age of 24. The corresponding figures were notably lower for the hills and mountains, standing at 82.4 percent and 83.6 percent, respectively . The mean age of marriage varies also with level of education. It is reported nearly four years' difference in the mean age of marriage between girls with no education and those with secondary education.

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Widowhood and divorce
Early widowhood with little possibility of remarriage, particularly in the Indo-Aryan culture, is another curse upon women. More than 1.6 percent of the female population-i.e. 7,000 women-were already widowed by 29 years of age in 1991. The risk of widowhood tends to increase with age. Only a small proportion of women are divorced or separated in Nepal. However, this rate has shown an increasing trend . Divorce rates also increase with age.

While a higher proportion of divorced women rnay indicate the increased determination of women to escape from oppressive marriages and situations of polygyny, it may also indicate increasing abandonment by men.

Even taday, women who are divorcees are stigmatized in the Hindu tradition. Thus, a divorced woman has litde chance of remarriage within her own sacicoconomic greup if she comes from a high caste/class Hindu family. The need, from the religious paint of view, to keep the clan blood pure is a paramount factor in thus condemning women to single status for life or to a loss of social status, if her first marriage fails.

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