“One day I wanted to help shear the sheep and when I came back everyone was standing in a circle in front of my house. My father said to me: “Marina, come here. Here is your husband.’” Marina was 12 years old that day. She lives in the heart of an indigenous community in a small Mexican village in Chiapas: Zinacantán.
Her reaction is that of a teenager. Carefree, logical. Only the heart speaks. “I don’t know this gentleman, I will not marry.” She saw her three older sisters of the same age tearfully walking with men she had never heard of. A short introduction at home, a quick packing of things and on the same day we went to the new home. So his answer stands firm despite the pressure from the community. it’s no
The sanction is also firm. “I rejected this man my father introduced me to. I broke the law,” she said. That unspoken law of the community that all young girls between the ages of 12 and 18 must be married. “All the traditional authorities in the community came and decided to evict me and my whole family.”
Protect culture first
That was in the early 1990s, today we are seeing some progress, especially in general child and youth law: since 2014, the minimum age for marriage has been 18 years. Officially, there were 54,138 marriages in Mexico in 2012 in which at least one of the two protagonists was a minor, compared to 43 in 2021 (out of an average of 500,000). In reality, it is impossible to count forced marriages.
Most importantly, not only are these numbers indicative ahead of 2014 (Year of the Law), but the Children’s Rights Network in Mexico (Redim) also insists that communities, to circumvent this restriction, accept free marriages before marriage at age 18. According to Redim, which uses data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), Chiapas is one of the four Mexican states with the most forced labor unions. The others are Guerrero, Tabasco and Michoacán.
This practice extends well beyond the municipality of Marina. Mexico is made up of 62 ethnic groups, and more than 20% of the population, according to the Inegi, define themselves as “indigenous” – that is, descended from pre-Hispanic cultures, with a different language and customs than Mexicans. Not all forced unions take place in these communities, and not all communities are affected by forced marriage. But their desire to protect their culture leads to rules such as the union of minors with men of the same ethnic group.
Little girls raised as dowries
After her eviction, Marina’s family moved to the neighboring town of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. In his words, his parents then said to him: “It was you who broke the law, so we leave you here and we don’t want to have anything more to do with you.” “They dumped me there on the street. I didn’t speak a word of Spanish, I only knew Tzotzil [la langue de sa communauté, ndlr]and I couldn’t read or write,” she says.
“Indigenous women don’t know their rights because nobody
don’t teach them.”
Marina, activist for indigenous women’s rights
Marina humiliated her family. She thought they were free now, she had no idea that parents and children had no place to live and no money. “Later I understood that I was brought up for this, for the dowry that I will bring back to my family. By refusing this marriage, I didn’t bring them anything, so they left me,” she analyzes. In fact, here the man comes to the young girl with gifts such as sugar, bread or even smallpox (a typical Chiapas alcohol). If an agreement is reached, he pays the dowry, the value of which is negotiated between the future husband and the father of the family.
Jennifer González, a journalist at AFP, devoted a report to this topic in June 2021, highlighting the sale of young girls to their future in-laws in around sixty villages in the state of Guerrero for a price ranging from 2,000 to 18,000 dollars (1,800 to 16,800 euros).
An unconditional submission
Years (the trouble) later, Marina wanted to change things. First, by addressing women’s issues during tourist visits – she is a tour guide in San Cristóbal. Then by being part of an association defending the rights of indigenous women.
There are several, she chose Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya. For Marina, “Indigenous women don’t know their rights because nobody teaches them. A local woman is used to obeying. Married women are very dependent on their husbands. They cannot earn money without their husband’s consent.
There are many initiatives. In Zinacantán, women make beautiful fabrics by hand, which they sell to tourists and the local population, sharing equally the profits from the sale. However, this includes the consent of the spouse. The same goes for everyone who goes to the markets to sell clothes, jewellery, potatoes and other foods.
Fifty machete blows
Another problem is that indigenous women are not so used to receiving help and therefore accepting it, according to the guide. This is how Marina remembers a woman who was beaten with a machete by her husband. The reason: he came home early from work and found her doing nothing.
“She didn’t make the tortillas for the evening,” Marina explains. He asks for an explanation, she apologizes and gets to work, but it’s too late. “We counted more than fifty hits on his body,” explains the guide. She was taken to a hospital and there a lawyer came up to her and said, “I will help you.” She replied: “No, I can’t, I would have to ask my husband’s permission if you help me.
“These children become extremely vulnerable. Once sold, they fall into a form of slavery and serve their new families.
Jennifer González, AFP journalist
Stunned, the lawyer tries to explain to him that she doesn’t have to obey this man. The victim doesn’t move. “So many tribal women are still dying from domestic violence. A small part of them asks for help”, observes Marina.
With the fight against forced marriages, politicians and associations fight against the violence that these unions mean for young girls: subordination, uprooting from their families, the impression of being worth as much as an animal.
“These children become extremely vulnerable. Once sold, they fall into a form of slavery, in the service of their new families for domestic or agricultural chores, not to mention the “stepfathers who sometimes sexually abuse them,” Abel Barrera explained to me, an anthropologist who heads the NGO Tlachinollan,” explains the AFP journalist.
But these unions have even more consequences. The Redim lists, among other things: Pregnancy and premature birth, death during pregnancy or complications during childbirth, dropping out of school and increasing poverty in the offspring. According to Inegi, one in 10 teenagers aged 15 to 19 in a couple is the head of the family, and nearly half of people who had their first child before age 19 are not in school (or have never been to it) . ).
women absent
public room
Organizations and associations have various tasks, such as B. the reception and care of victims, but also raising awareness of the lives of indigenous women and the violence they suffer.
“Indigenous women cannot even socialize, make friends outside of the community without being seen as such
easy girls, crazy ones.”
Marina, activist for indigenous women’s rights
But for that it would still be necessary to be able to get in touch with them. “We don’t have access to indigenous women because they are overwhelmed by the rules that have to be observed,” Marina regrets. They can’t even socialize, make friends outside of the community without being seen as easy girls, crazy. However, if this is the case, “they can no longer marry because they are cataloged as such and nobody wants them in the community anymore”.
Here lies the complexity of the situation. Indigenous women’s freedom is hampered by a range of rules, including forced marriages. But it is not possible for them (the vast majority) not to marry. Marina herself says she would have said yes if she had had all the consequences in mind. “And again I was fine. I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t have to prostitute myself, she lists. What is the case when other women are rejected for saying no?
Least Bad Score?
In addition, forced marriages of minors often remain the best option in the eyes of those affected. A 2017 study by the Ford Foundation and Investigación en Salud y Demographía highlights several factors that explain why these unions have such a presence in the country.
At the top is community recognition for these young girls, a means to achieving financial stability or even escaping domestic violence (which they often find in their new families). But also the hypersexualization of young women, which means that men prefer to choose a woman who is not even an adult. A fight that affects all of Mexico and must be fought, and not just the indigenous communities.