7.5%
of women and girls are married before age 18 in North Macedonia
UNFPA engages extensively with government and civil society partners
to address gender-based violence and harmful practices in North Macedonia
DATA
SOURCES
Data insights are based on population-based household surveys representative at the national and/or sub-national levels.
1. WHO, Global, Regional and National Estimates for Intimate Partner Violence against Women and Global and Regional Estimates for Non-partner Sexual Violence against Women, 2021.
2. Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE-led Survey on Violence against Women, 2019-2020.
3. UNFPA, Preventing son preference and undervaluing of girls in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 2020.
4. Human Rights Watch, “I Sleep in my Own Deathbed”: Violence against Women and Girls in Bangladesh: Barriers to Legal Recourse and Support, 2020.
Nesime Salioska
Breaking cycles of discrimination and child marriage
“With information and choices so scarce, many families, and even some girls themselves, see child marriage as a protective mechanism for social safety,” says Nesime Salioska, executive director of ROMA S.O.S., which works to enhance access to health care, legal aid and justice among North Macedonia’s Roma community.
Many families among this community live in poverty, and employment opportunities are scarce. Compared to the national average, Roma girls are more likely to be married before age 18: 45.1% of Roma women aged 20-24 were married before age 18, compared to 7.5% among the same age group nationwide.
While poverty and crisis increase pressures that can push families towards child marriage, it is also perpetuated by social norms, specifically gender norms. “Women and girls from marginalized and rural areas face violations of their rights through the prism of tradition,” Nesime explains, citing perceptions that they have no value without a husband, and that their virginity is a matter of family ‘honour’.
Child marriage violates girls’ rights and limits their future prospects. It is linked to school dropout, poverty and early pregnancy, which can have serious consequences for girls’ physical and mental health.
Ending the harmful practice, Nesime explains, requires changing more than one set of harmful social norms. The Roma community is among the region’s most marginalized, having faced a long history of exclusion. Intersectional discrimination, based on both gender and ethnicity, heightens Roma girls’ vulnerability to child marriage, as institutions systematically fail to protect them.
“Child marriages, although they fall into the category of gender-based violence, are not clearly recognized as such,” says Nesime. “There is often a lack of action and commitment by relevant institutions due to ethnic stigmatization. They see child marriage as part of Roma ‘tradition’ and thus something in which they should not interfere.”
While Roma girls are disproportionately affected, “This is not only a Roma issue,” she emphasizes. “It’s a harmful practice, a lifetime inequality and a form of disempowerment of both girls and boys.”
Changing laws, expanding opportunities and transforming
social norms
Tackling a complex issue like child marriage takes a multi-pronged approach. Nesime promotes social norms change among her country’s Roma community, and across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region.
“Traditional cultural norms around virginity have harmful consequences for girls, and we must work with communities to dismantle these norms and the stigma that comes with them, and to promote a culture that attaches more value to girls’ happiness and well-being than to outdated notions of family ‘honour,’” she says.
At the same time, she advocates for legislative and institutional change, mobilizing a range of partners, including the Women Parliamentarians’ Club; civil society organizations including the National Democratic Institute; and UN agencies including UNFPA and UNICEF.
Years of effort have borne fruit: in December 2018, a new law made marriage under age 18 a crime in North Macedonia. In August 2019, the Law on Primary Education was amended to require data to be collected on the reasons why pupils drop out of school – and if an extramarital union is determined to be the reason, the school is obliged to inform the national and local authorities.
Meanwhile, North Macedonia’s government, which at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 pledged to end child marriage by 2030, has committed to creating a child marriage database, tracking individual cases, and providing services that ensure girls’ rights and well-being.
“We still have many things to do,” says Nesime. She and her allies are now pushing to similarly amend the Law on Secondary Education.
I get fired up to act when I see social workers or teachers treating girls as less important individuals, with no potential for achieving anything other than being housewives and mothers.
— NESIME SALIOSKA
© UNFPA North Macedonia/Tomislav Georgiev
“We stopped a life from being stolen”
Meanwhile, attitudes in Roma communities are beginning to change. More cases against adult men who marry girls are being filed with the police, and more parents are going to court to prevent their minor daughters from being married.
Nesime recalls one case whose outcome heartens her. Fourteen-year-old Isabela, pregnant by an adult man, was on the brink of being married to him. But her grandmother, Nanny Litka, who had raised her, refused to let her go.
“She never gave up on protecting Isabela,” says Nesime. With her support, Nanny Litka waged a three-year legal battle to have the man arrested and convicted of having sexual intercourse with a minor. He was sentenced to a four-year prison term.
“Isabela’s story shows the importance of an intergenerational commitment to fight against child marriages,” says Nesime.
“There is an intergenerational cycle of discrimination against girls that is perpetuated in part by women themselves,” she explains. “If a mother has had a hard life and married early, her daughter should not have to do the same because ‘that’s the way things go.’ If a mother-in-law was treated poorly as a bride, she should not repeat this behaviour with her son’s wife because ‘that’s how it has to be.’
“Instead, women should use their own experiences as an example to fight harmful practices and support girls’ education and independence.”
Women in my community are ‘homeless’ all their lives: their family house does not belong to them… and anyway, she is expected to join another house, where she will be a stranger.