Egypt: 47,000 of children forced in to marriage are illiterate

Some 47,000 of children who are forced in to marriage in Egypt are illiterate, the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) revealed yesterday.

In a report, CAPMAS said that 117,220 Egyptians were married under the age of 18.

In 2017 there were approximately 39 million minors in the country.

Egypt: Child marriages lead to birth of 250,000 babies each year 

“Forty per cent or 47,000 of Egypt’s under 18-year-old couples are illiterate,” the report noted.

Egypt has not criminalised or banned child marriage, but it prohibits its documentation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers child marriage as “human trafficking and abuse activity.”