19 Feb 2009

Fiji NGO says extreme poverty leading to forced marriages

4:25 pm on 19 February 2009

The Fiji Women's Crisis Centre says extreme poverty is forcing some people in rural areas to sell or marry-off their underage daughters.

The centre's director, Shamima Ali says there is little documented evidence about the problem, but people have told the centre it is happening in rural areas.

She says in one case parents in a very poor community allegedly sold their daughter to an older man, who was a known drug dealer.

"This young woman, who was only 15, suffered a lot at the hands of this man. Eventually she was found dismembered and her body was found in a sack somewhere. So that was one very very tragic case. There was another one last year and that case is yet to come to court."

Shamima Ali says the political and economic situation in Fiji needs to be stablised, and parents need to be educated to respect their girls if such cases are to be prevented.