Woman with Gloria Steinem (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Zambia: Child Brides - full transcript

I've traveled the world
as a writer

and an activist
for my entire life.

What we are talking about
is a revolution.

We are the women

that our parents
warned us about.

And I can tell you that,
by confronting the problems

once marginalized
as women's issues,

we can tackle
the greatest dangers

of the 21st century.

Behind every major crisis,

there's an unseen
factor in play,



a story you've never been told.

The greatest indicator
of the world's stability,

wealth, and safety
is the status of women.

Worldwide,
more than 200 million women

have been married off
before the age of 15.

They are cut off
from their education

and often become what amounts
to domestic servants.

It's an ingrained practice

that is keeping
sub-Saharan Africa

mired in generational poverty.

We travel to Zambia
to learn how the life

of one young girl
in a remote village

can shackle the future
of an entire nation.

**



We're in the Eastern Province,

where child marriage
is the highest,

and we're meeting a girl

who's marrying a 48-year-old.

So we're meeting her
in the last days of preparation.

We're gonna see
how she's feeling

and what's going
through her head.

The practice of child marriage
has been going on for centuries.

It's often a source
of income for poor families

who receive a dowry payment
in exchange for their daughters.

But a recent economic downturn
has thrust much of Zambia

into poverty.

That means thousands
more young girls

are at risk of being married off
under the age of 18.

The practice
is technically illegal,

but enforcement
of the law is rare.

We've been going down this road
for a very long time right now,

and it's very narrow,
very rough.

And it's in the middle
of nowhere.

After eight hours of driving
from the capital city of Lusaka,

we finally arrive in
the Petauke District,

where the Nsenga people

have been marrying
off young girls for generations.

Before any wedding
can take place,

every bride has to complete
a highly secretive ritual.

It's known as Chinamwali.

We're about to meet
a young girl.

She has been spending
the past 30 days

in this hut right behind me.

She's not allowed to speak,

and she's not allowed
to get outside of this hut.

And, inside,
she's learning everything

about how to be a wife.

And with my friend, Samanga,

who's a journalist,
we are gonna go in.

And she's gonna help us to get
to know about the girl

and what happens inside the hut.

This is Dialess.

Her mother has accepted
one cow from the groom

in exchange for her daughter.

Dialess is 14 years old.

The very first thing
they teach a girl

who's going to get married
is how to respect your husband

because men are so particular
about respect.

It's very, very important
in this tradition.

That's why
they would never, ever

allow a girl to enter marriage
or to be taken to a husband

before she passes
through this process.

The women who conduct the ritual
are known as the alangizi.

So, now, you can go.

She'll show you where to hold it
and how to hold.

That's how you hold a man.

Like it or not,
I got a lesson of my own.

And then, stop doing
your waist like that.

Just there.
You lock your...

This feels so weird.

This feels so weird.

She's -- yeah.

And how do you -- they think
how she's doing?

She's ready?

She's ready.

What were you doing here
in the hut for the past 30 days?

So what --
what are you expecting your life

gonna be like?

What did they teach you?

What do you think
about having a child

or being pregnant?

What did you do
before the 30 days?

Did you like school?

When you get married,
will you continue with school?

How does that make you feel,

knowing that you're not
going back to school?

This kind of got me
very emotional.

She's not very much taught
about how to make herself happy.

She's just only taught about how
to make her husband happy

and how to please
her husband sexually,

and that's the most
important thing.

But, in fact, as a result
of this marriage,

Dialess will face a whole array
of much greater hazards.

**

I have just watched
Dialess undergo an elaborate ritual

before she can marry
her new husband.

But it was hearing
from Dialess directly

that affected me the most.

When I talked to Dialess

and she was telling me
how she loves school so much

and she liked reading,
it's heartbreaking to know

that the school
is 30-second walk

from where she is.

What happens in Zambia
in seventh grade

is that a lot of girls,
due to early marriage,

drop out to go get married.

And now, in this instant,
in this class,

there are 4 girls to 12 boys.

Would they rather stay in school

or get married?

They all would rather
remain in school than get married.

Losing out on her education
is one thing,

but Dialess faces
a more immediate threat.

Statistically, she will most
likely become pregnant soon.

And teenage girls
who are not physically mature

are at much greater risk
of complications

during childbirth.

We're going down this road,
and it's taking us a long time.

And it's just pretty cut off
from the main town

and very, very bumpy.

We made the 2 1/2-hour drive
to Saint Francis Mission,

the closest medical facility
to Dialess' village,

to find out what she can expect
if and when she goes into labor.

We're gonna meet with a doctor
who's gonna tell us

about patients and what do they
have to go through to get here.

Is she going to behave?

Continue drinking,
continue bathing,

continue exercises, okay?

So how worried would you be
for Dialess?

She lives in a village

off of Petauke
where there are no roads.

It's very bumpy.

And how worried
would you be for her?

What do you think is
the most important thing

the country needs right now?

Dr. Jansen took us to meet
one of his patients,

a young woman
from a small remote village,

just like Dialess.

And where is her baby?

What do you hope to happen
after leaving here?

I wish you the best
in healing after here.

Seeing the patients here,

it seems like
only the lucky ones

come to get to this hospital,

since it -- it takes so long
and so much money.

Getting to the hospital in time

is not the only challenge
Dialess will face.

Zambia is in the midst

of a devastating
HIV/AIDS epidemic,

and women
are especially at risk.

It's not uncommon
for married men here

to have extramarital affairs,
contract HIV,

and then pass it on
to their wives.

In fact, Dialess' family

has already been affected
by the epidemic.

Her father died from
complications caused by AIDS,

and, now her mother
has been diagnosed, as well.

When did you get sick?

Is it because you're sick,

that's why you married
Dialess off so early?

Are your kids sick?

Are you worried
that, like, some --

God forbid,
something would happen

and what would happen
to Dialess?

Do you worry about that?

Many parents
in this part of Zambia

hope that marriage
will protect their daughters

from HIV/AIDS

by ensuring they have
only one sexual partner.

But as Dialess' mother
has learned, it's no guarantee.

And what she can't know
is whether Dialess' new husband

will become more
of a threat than a savior.

Dialess' Chinamwali
ritual is coming to an end.

It's now the night
before her wedding,

and the entire village
is celebrating.

The bride is still
inside the hut.

She's not allowed
to come outside.

And everybody from the village,

women and men, are gathering.

They are singing. They just --
All these festivities.

And over on the other side,

they're cooking food --
chicken and bread.

And we're gonna have
this amazing feast,

where everybody's gonna enjoy
except the bride.

The bride will just have
her food

brought inside the hut for her.

I sat down with Dialess'
48-year-old husband-to-be,

Isaac, to find out

why he's decided
to marry a 14-year-old girl.

The first thing I learned was

that he's already
married to someone else.

In many of these small villages,

male polygamy
is an accepted practice.

How long have you been married?

So why are you
getting married again?

So tell me about Dialess.

How did you meet her,
or how did you see her?

You know that it's illegal
in Zambia

to marry someone
younger than 16 years old.

So why couldn't you
just marry someone

who is at least two years
older than Dialess?

Dialess is now out of school.

Do you think that you'd be able
to let her go to school?

Because of the high poverty
levels in certain families,

you find that the girls may be
looked up to somebody else

to fill in the space,

being able to buy them clothes

and even simple things
like cellphones.

And these children then
fall out of school

and find themselves, you know,
marrying older men.

According to
Gender Minister Nkandu Luo,

it's this cycle of poverty
and the lack of education

that allows child marriage
to persist.

She believes that the best way
to eradicate child marriage

is by attacking it
at the local level.

This problem is highest
in the rural part of Zambia.

And the rural part of Zambia

is governed
by the traditional leaders.

Traditional leaders
are campaigning,

speaking to the people
in their chiefdoms,

using different methods,
popular theater and so on,

to tell parents
not to marry off their children.

To Minister Luo
and others in this fight,

it's very clear

why child marriage
should be wiped out.

We are the people
who make missions,

so the healthier
we are, as women,

who have healthy children

and, will reduce child mortality

and also reduce
maternal mortality.

So it's -- it's in our interest.

And whatever way you look at it,

that child marriage
must come to an end.

**

There is one group of women

who have taken matters
into their own hands,

working at the village level
to educate men and women alike.

We just got to Misolo.
And we're getting an amazing --

amazing welcoming
from these beautiful women.

They're saying,
"We are moving forward.

We're never going back.

And this is for Women
for Change going forward."

Women for Change.

Women for Change.

Women for change.
Women for change.

Women for change.

The Misolo Mamas
are a collective of women

who bike around the country,

spreading a message
of female empowerment

in an effort
to end child marriage.

Women for Change!

Women for Change!

We're going
around the village now.

And the women,
the Misolo womens,

are talking about gender-based
violence and early marriage.

Why -- why do you think
it started here, this program?

And has it gone really down?

Like, do you feel different?

Are you married?
You are.

Are they in school?
Yes, yes.

Would you consider
marrying them?

You get these ladies
on the bikes, right?

Fortunately, these efforts
are also gaining traction

in the upper reaches
of government.

Inonge Wina is Zambia's
first female vice president

and a strong voice
against child marriage.

You have done, in the past,

a lot of the effort
to end child marriage.

Why is that
so important for you?

We consider child marriage

as one of
the developmental issues

because we are losing out
on the girl child.

16,000 girls have dropped out
of schools in Zambia

in one year
due to child marriage.

We want girls
to be future leaders

in their country, to prosper.

But if they drop out of school,
it means the end of the future.

If you manage to end
child marriage in Zambia,

what would that mean
for the country?

It would mean prosperity
for the country,

because you can imagine
16,000 young people

contributing
to the economic growth

of their country,

to be involved, in their careers

and to prosper in those careers.

Definitely, they make
a huge contribution

to the country's growth.

The mandate
to end child marriage

is an idea that,
came from we, the Zambians.

We have realized what this means

to our country's, development.

Back in the Eastern Province,

it's time for
14-year-old Dialess

to consummate her marriage
to her 48-year-old husband.

It's very dark,
and it's late at night.

And there's almost no ceremony.

She was just brought in
by an alangizi woman.

And she was told
that this is her home.

And that's it.

Since we met Dialess,
she's given birth

to a baby girl named Accleaner,

who is just as likely
to be married off as her mother.

Now that Dialess
is a married woman

with a child,

she is confined
to a life strictly at home

or in her village.

Though she would like to be,
she's not in a classroom.

She won't be contributing

to the development
of her country

or reaping any of its benefits.

She dreams that, some day,
she'll return to school,

but she knows that will be
her husband's decision.

To support survivors
of child marriage,