Child Marriage and Guardianship in Tanzania : Robbing Girls of Their Childhood and Infantilizing Women

This article discusses the debilitating effects that child marriage and guardianship have on the overall functioning of Tanzanian society and examines the legal remedies that can be employed by the government to address these issues. On one hand, the Law of Marriage Act forces girls into early adulthood by allowing them to marry as young as fourteen. On the other hand, guardianship laws permit the treatment of adult women as minors, granting men the power to inherit women and take control over their children and property. Together, child marriage and guardianship laws rob girls of their childhood and infantilize grown women. The authors propose that the only legal solution is for the Tanzanian government to implement new laws such that girls cannot get married until the age of eighteen and that once that age is reached, they should not be subject to the control of a guardian, unless incompetent.